Five generations, working together. Five very different attitudes, lifestyles, motivations and perspectives thrown together in the workplace melting pot. This multi-generational workforce has a huge amount to offer, but it also brings unique challenges for HR professionals.
What do these differences mean for motivation and performance? Can the CEO hope to communicate in a meaningful way with graduate hires? Can your company brand, values and messages be distilled so that everyone buys into them?
In part 1 of this two-part series, we gave an overview of each of the generations in broad brush-stroke terms, and how using a small business applicant tracking system can help. Now it’s time to apply those distinctions.
Think of this as you would a CEO studying human psychology or the BD Director taking a course on negotiation. There’s no one-size-fits-all. Individuals are individuals, but a broad understanding of generational difference is profitable.
#1 – Work/Life Balance
The Trend
As we said in part 1, one of the major generational differences in the workforce today is an emphasis on work/life balance. Moving away from Traditionalist and Boomer values, Gen X has led the flexibility charge and Gen Y and Z have continued it.
The days of 9-5 days are, if not over, certainly waning and employees increasingly expect to work in the way that is most convenient – and productive – for them.
In fact, NGenera Insight has found that half of Millennials and nearly 40% of Gen X consider flexible working a critical factor when accepting a role.
What Does It Mean For You?
Flexible working policies are absolutely critical attraction and retention tools. In the workplaces of the future, work-life balance will become a major differentiator of success.
However, one of the major challenges HR professionals face is a potential lack of senior buy-in to these ideas. Senior leadership positions with policy decision-making power are often held by Traditionalist and Boomer workers who might not prioritize flexible working.
It’s necessary to start with the definition of ‘work’. Technological advance has changed the meaning of work, both what it is and where we do it. As a result, it’s critical that we define success in terms of result, not in terms of method. For many roles, flexible working would in no way hinder employees’ success therein.
HR professionals can engage senior decision-makers on these terms, by rethinking role definitions from the ground-up. If HR can prove that employee productivity and performance will not dip if flexible working is introduced, that’s dissolving a major barrier to implementation. New measures and accountability are needed, to ensure flexible-workers are evaluated fairly for their true contribution, not their face-time in office.
Remember too that flexible working can take many forms. There is scope to find flexible working policies that work for each individual organisation, from flextime to compressed working to job-shares.
#2 – Communication Methods
The Trend
Traditionalists and Gen Z are lifetimes apart, literally. One of the most obvious ways this manifests itself is in differing communication methods. Younger workers are generally very tech savvy, and place a large emphasis on social media. In contrast, older workers might shy away from casual, immediate interaction and prefer more formal communication methods.
For example, Traditionalists might prefer memos and scheduled meetings, where Gen Y might prefer to grab a coffee with their manager if there’s important feedback to be had.
Differences in communication style and preference can mean employees struggle to communicate impactfully across generations. If workers from different generations are not able to speak in terms that are understood at all levels, performance and motivation will suffer. Did you know that communicating with potential new hires is easy with Recruiteze? Our free small business applicant tracking system incorporates unlimited email templates to make this task simple and efficient.
What Does It Mean For You?
Organisations must strive to understand and embrace different communication methods at all levels. HR leaders must work at senior level to ensure younger workers are not being underrepresented and misunderstood.
A positive step is to form cross-generational focus groups, to discuss how to frame important company wide communications. Different communication methods should be embraced and, where possible, employees given a choice of how to digest their information.
For instance, you could make an announcement via company intranet, send a company wide bulletin by email and offer an optional meeting to discuss the announcement in person.
It could also be productive to offer cross-generational training sessions that focus on communication. Teaching employees how to frame benefits in contextually meaningful terms across generation is likely to pay dividends in terms of greater organisational fluidity.
#3 – Rewards & Recognition
The Trend
We said in part 1 that the stereotype of Millennials as entitled is likely unfair, but there is an important point here. Younger generations, particularly Millennials, are generally thought of as being much more expectant of reward and recognition for work. Traditionalists might slog away dutifully and Boomers might tend to be more intrinsically motivated to work hard, but Millennials tend to expect more extrinsic recognition.
In fact, over 60% of Millennials say they feel undervalued because their hard work isn’t recognized in the workplace.
What Does It Mean For You?
If your workforce doesn’t feel adequately rewarded and recognized they’ll be less motivated and perform less effectively. Most businesses have something to learn from sales, where high-performance is rewarded transparently with a range of incentives.
One of the biggest problems here is that senior leaders will often think they offer sufficient rewards and recognition. If this is not in a format which appeals to workers, though, the program