Engaging
the Five Generations in Your Workplace
Today’s
workforce is the first in history to include workers from five different
generations. While this adds welcome diversity, it also poses some significant
challenges for keeping workers engaged and on board.
A
recent Ernst & Young survey shows that 75 per cent of managers find it
challenging to manage intergenerational teams and 77 per cent reported that the different work
expectations of each generation is a key challenge.
Consider
the general mindset of each group toward office meetings as an illustration of
this challenge:
-
Traditionalists (born
prior to 1946) will typically arrive early and expect a paper agenda.
- Baby
Boomers
(born between 1946 and 1964) will expect a PowerPoint presentation and are willing
to put in any extra hours required if the meeting runs long.
- Gen X (born
between 1965 and 1976) employees will prefer to watch a video and expect the
meeting to end by 5 p.m. to honor work-life balance boundaries.
- Millennials (born
between 1977 and 1997) will want the meeting to have a strong purpose, and will
use collaborative digital tools to share meeting information and expect others
to do the same.
- Generation
Z (born
after 1997) employees will want to call in from a remote location, no matter
what the time, because they view the workplace as an anytime-anywhere proposition.
It’s About
Motivation
How
can employers keep all segments of this diverse workforce engaged? A Harvard
Business Review article explains that it is not a matter of trying to get
everyone to work in the same way, but about leveraging each group’s strengths
and understanding what motivates team members the most.
The
author suggests that managers shouldn’t assume they already know how to
motivate employees who are older or younger. Instead, it’s important to have
individual conversations with workers to determine what they want out of their own
professional lives.
Millennial
workers, in particular, typically need to feel their input has value and some
have very ambitious goals. A Wall Street Journal guide to managing across
generations suggests giving these individuals special assignments that are outside
of their job descriptions, such as placing them on a task force that’s working
to solve a business or workplace problem.
Different
Generations, Similar Expectations
While
each workforce generation has come from a different era, a report by the University
of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School Executive Development Program suggests
that in the workplace, the different generations may have more in common than
employers realize, from wanting the business as a whole to succeed to wanting
success in their individual careers.
Interestingly,
workers from all five generations agree on the characteristics of an ideal business
leader:
- Leads by example
- Is accessible
- Challenges and holds others accountable
- Acts as a coach and mentor
- Helps others see how their roles contribute
to the organization
Despite
technology, communication and work style preferences, there are universal
attributes that cross generations and can lead to team bonding. Whether it’s
the way your employees care about their families or their vision for the team’s
success, those common threads can be the beginning of a more cohesive and
engaged multi-generational team. This bonding breeds an atmosphere of trust and
a valuable level of respect for what each individual brings to the table, no
matter what generational group they are in.