Recently when proctoring assessments for a local employer I had an interesting encounter with one of the applicants. She shared her frustration about being assessed for Microsoft Word 2007 when she was only familiar with the 2010 version. She said she was totally lost!

This reminded me that a little over a month ago I received a desperate “Help” email from another employer. They had been upgraded to Excel 2007 in January and were still struggling with finding their way around.

During a visit to the “dark side”, I was talking with my son, who owns an auto repair shop. After 15 successful years in business with his uncle The Great Recession hit. They decided to invest capital in a new software program which would improve customer contacts. He said this increased their business, they added an employee and the software paid for itself within 6 months.

These are the lessons I learned from all of these scenarios:

1. If you are looking for a job, keep your skills up to date and include older software applications in your portfolio. There are employers  that use DOS-based programs and there are employers that use the latest applications available.

2. As a business, If you are going to update your software applications, you may want to consider training for your staff. Employers could access free online training, or look into local resources for training options.

3. Will the new software application improve your business? If the answer is yes, then by all means make it happen. Technology is continually changing and it is important to make the decision based on the needs of your business and your customers.

Making changes really do matter to your staff and your customers.