Around this time every year, Matariki invites us to pause.

To reflect on where we’ve come from. To recognize the people who helped us get here. And to think carefully about what we’re carrying forward.

It feels particularly relevant this year.

Because while so much of the conversation about work focuses on what’s next, AI, new technology, changing expectations, younger generations, I’m wondering if we’re quietly overlooking something we’ve spent decades building.

Experience.

Not experience measured in years. Experience measured in judgement.

Over the past twelve months, we’ve spoken with hundreds of employers and candidates across New Zealand. One conversation has kept surfacing.

It’s rarely said directly. But it’s there.

Questions about whether experienced candidates are adaptable enough.

Whether they’ll embrace new technology. Whether they’re ready for another chapter, or quietly winding down. And every time I hear those questions, I find myself thinking the same thing.

Who do we think has already lived through the biggest workplace transformation of the past thirty years?

The professionals now in their late forties, fifties and early sixties have already reinvented themselves more times than most people realize. They’ve moved from paper files to cloud platforms. From fax machines to Teams calls. From offices that expected everyone at their desks by 8.30 to hybrid teams spread across cities and countries.

They’ve navigated recessions, restructures, mergers, COVID, remote work, digital transformation and now AI. If adaptability is the question, they’ve already answered it.  Several times.

Which is why I think we sometimes misunderstand what experience really brings.

It isn’t simply knowledge. Knowledge can be learned. Experience is something different.

It’s recognizing a pattern before it becomes a problem. It’s knowing when something needs urgency, and when it simply needs perspective. It’s asking the question everyone else has missed. It’s staying calm when the room becomes uncertain because you’ve been there before.

That kind of judgement is difficult to teach.

It just takes time.

That doesn’t mean younger generations are less valuable. Far from it.

Some of the most exciting conversations we’re having involve organizations deliberately bringing different generations together. Curiosity alongside context. Fresh thinking alongside lived experience. Confidence to challenge ideas, alongside the judgement to know which ones are worth keeping.

The strongest teams aren’t built by choosing one generation over another. They’re built by creating room for every generation to contribute what the others can’t.

That’s where innovation actually happens. Not by replacing experience. By combining it with new perspectives.

Matariki reminds us that knowledge isn’t something we hold onto. It’s something we share. Something we pass forward.

The best workplaces understand that too. They don’t see experience as yesterday’s thinking. They see it as one of the foundations that allows tomorrow’s thinking to succeed.

Technology will keep changing. The labour market will keep evolving. Every generation will continue to reshape the way we work.

I don’t think that’s the challenge.

The challenge is making sure we don’t mistake experience for age. Because they’re not the same thing.

Experience isn’t a number. It’s pattern recognition. And I think that’s becoming one of the most valuable capabilities any organization can have.

Bridgette Johnstone, Recruitment Agency, Talent Sourcing, Workplace, Workplace culture