KNITTING TOGETHER A MULTI-GENERATIONAL WORKFORCE
Baby Boomer (Senior Manager): Help! Millennials are taking over my office! They’re Snapchatting everywhere! What do I do?
Millennial (Junior staff): Yes, we Millennials are heavy users of social media but did you know a lot of us use it to develop business for the company? Do you know how many of our clients and prospects are on Twitter, Facebook, and yes, even Snapchat?
Baby Boomer: OK, OK, but my problem with your generation extends beyond just social media – I mean, look at what you’re wearing! You’re wearing jeans, sneakers, no socks; your sleeves are rolled up. I have dressed PROFESSIONALLY, in the same way with my shirt and tie, every day at this job for the past 28 years!
Millennial: Whao, I salute your endurance Sir. I just got back from an appointment with one of our many manufacturing clients. It would be ridiculous to wear a suit and knot a tie to take a tour of the factory and meet with their floor workers. However, tomorrow, I’ll be meeting with a law firm at their office and will definitely be wearing a suit. See, the thing about us Millennials is we’re flexible and have no trouble adapting to any given situation and … wait Sir… did you say you’ve been working here for the past 28 years?
Baby Boomer: Of course yes! This organisation promises career growth; do you not see yourself working here for the next 20 to 30 years?
Millennial: Honestly, I don’t know where I’ll be in 2 years, let alone 20. I can’t give 20 years of my life to one Company. I’m a high flyer Sir, when will I get to top management? After 20 years?
Baby Boomer: See, that’s another thing with you Millennials. You want the leadership role, but you’re not willing to put in the hard work needed to get there. Are you all really that entitled and lazy? Infact look at how you’re talking to me! Such insolence.
Millennial: Not at all Sir. If we have lazy and entitled employees here, that’s a workplace culture problem–not a Millennial one. I don’t think there’s anything wrong in wanting to know how one can grow into a leadership position, some would call that being proactive. You say I’m entitled but to me I’m hungry. I’m not demanding a promotion right now, but this is my career we’re talking about here. What I want to know is how I can earn the role I see myself in one day.
Baby Boomer: Your sense of reasoning is unbelievable. You have not done one year and you’re already thinking of how to become top management, I wonder how the workforce of the next decade will survive……
One of the biggest challenges for businesses today is integrating the Millennials (also known as Generation Y & Z) into a Baby Boomer culture. They are the newest generation to enter the labour market, arriving with their distinct ideas about what they expect from their jobs. So who are the Millennials and how do we manage their expectations while maintaining high performing organisations? Millennials are the generational demographic group following Generation X. There are no precise dates for when this group starts or ends; demographers and researchers typically use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years. Although Millennial characteristics vary by region, depending on social and economic conditions, the generation is generally marked by an increased use and familiarity with communication, media, and digital technologies.
While Millennials are the most culturally diverse of any generation before them, they’re also notorious for being flighty and ardent job-hoppers who dislike bureaucracy and traditional hierarchies— leaving many business leaders scratching their heads as to how to motivate, engage, earn their trust and get the most out them. Baby-boomers (mostly the parents of the Millennials) on the other hand currently make up a substantial portion of the world’s population and workforce; and as the senior generations move into their retirement years, younger generations will continue to step into their shoes in the workplace. For organisations, these generational shifts mean making adjustments to their cultures and the businesses interested in employee retention have found themselves faced with a younger workforce in search of different types of benefits than those sought after by their parents and grandparents.
In as much as Organisations need the spontaneity and impulsiveness of the Millennials in order not to stay stuck in the rut, it is also pertinent to groom them to adopt certain traditions and resonate emotionally with some age-old and time-tested customs that even though peculiar to senior generations, have kept organisations successful over the years.
Given Marcforte‘s years of experience in recruiting, training and managing Millennials, we have first-hand knowledge of their strong suits. These future leaders and next level revenue- generators are often misunderstood as lazy or indifferent especially by the older generation; the Millennials however have distinct ideas about what to expect from their jobs and these are usually at tangent with that of the seniors.
Quick tips on how to achieve multi-generational success in the workplace:
- Employers/Senior Managers/Bosses be flexible where possible
It’s time to consider what before now was considered impossible. Flexible work hours, dress codes, codes of conduct etc. As long as deadlines are met and work is high quality, dressing and set hours may not be that important.
- Communicate in different ways
Send a memo to employees in their emails and probably also on Whatsapp. Post important notices in the company intranet and on the notice board. While employees should be checking their messages every day, some information should be delivered in more than one way to ensure that everyone receives it.
- Build multi-generational teams
Each employee can bring different things to the table. Place people from different generations and backgrounds into project teams. This will help them to work together to achieve common goals and contribute their strengths to their assignments.
- Provide Impactful benefits
What benefits would mean the most to your employees? Human Resources has to ensure that benefits address the “pain points” of the workforce. This means offering a portfolio of benefits that impact each generation. Study leave/loan repayment benefits are a win for Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z while retirement benefits will interest Baby Boomers and Generation X.
- The Bottomline
Engaging a multi-generational workforce is all about open communication and adaptability. Show that employees in each generation make a difference and contribute their strengths and talents to the organisation. Maximising talents will help the organisation to achieve its long-term goals and result in higher employee engagement and retention.