Tammy Erickson has recently posted a couple of interesting blogs about the challenges we’re currently seeing in the multi-generational workforce.

As we know, Gen X’ers are not thrilled with corporate life. They tend not to trust institutions in general and resent the Boomers’ confident assumptions about life. Here are Erickson’s 10 Reasons by Gen X’ers are Unhappy at Work:

1. X’ers’ corporate careers got off to a slow start.

2. X’ers witnessed adults in their lives being laid off from large corporations.

3. Most corporate career paths “narrow” at the top.

4. The economy started to slow just when they entered the workforce.

5. The pesky Gen Y’s are impossible to manage.

6. X’ers are surrounded by a love fest between the Boomers and Gen Y’s.

7. X’ers are the most conservative cohort in today’s workforce.

8. Many X’ers’ are not as comfortable with technology as everyone seems to thinks they are.

9. Boomer colleagues are annoying.

10. Parenting pressures are at a peak.

In, The Baby Boomer – Generation Y Love Fest, Erickson talks about the challenges and successes with multi-generational mentoring. From her research, she is finding that Boomers and New Mils (Gen Y) actually enjoy and mutually benefit from working together. Obviously through their 30+ years of work experience, Boomers have accumulated a lot of experience and want to share their knowledge and pass on their learnings to the future generations. The New Mils are eager to learn and and don’t feel the need to figure everything out on their own, to prove something to the world. They are thirsting for knowledge, and the Boomers are thriving on giving it!

As a result, Gen X is being squeezed out — caught in between these two. Of course, the reality is that most Gen X’ers prefer it this way. They are very independent and not particularly interested in getting involved with mentoring others. They believe they have had to learn things the hard way and so should others. Still, it’s obvious that some may Gen X’ers may find themselves in situations where their direct reports are being mentored by their superiors!

As the saying goes, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” HR should think about various ways to set up and organize mentoring programs, such as pairing Boomers and New Mils together. Trying to force Gen X’ers to participate in such programs may only force them out the door. Provide options and let people self-select the when, how, and who. The best mentoring occurs with both individuals have opted to work together on their own, rather than when they have been “assigned a mentor” by HR.

In designing effective HR service delivery strategies for the Multi-Generational Talentforce it’s important to keep in mind that there is no single solution. The overall theme needs to be one of flexibility and choice. Certainly, programs such as cafeteria-style benefits and buy/sell vacation days appeal to all generations in the workforce at different stages in their work/life and career. Generic reward and recognition programs, such as employee of the month, have little appeal with such a diverse workforce. It’s clearly best to have a combination of generic programs and services for the entire population, as well as targeted strategies that appeal more to one generation than another.

While the Veteran population tended to work for one employer throughout their entire work career, Boomers have tended to move through three to five different employers by the time they are of retirement age. By some predictions, the Gen X’ers will have between five to 15 different employers, while the typical New Mil employee will work with 15 to 20 different companies throughout their career. This increasing job movement is a key characteristic of the modern workforce, and so HR’s role in retaining high potential and high performing employees should be one of extending the employees’ stay with the company for as long as possible.

Following are some suggested service delivery strategies that can be targeted to each workforce segment to bring greater employee engagement and higher retention.

Veterans:

• Meaningful part-time work leveraging their skills across the broader population
• Mentoring programs where they can transfer their knowledge to the younger generations
• Health, wellness, and fitness programs to keep them active and involved
• Shared office space, computers and Internet access, as available

Boomers:

• Steady, part-time work as they transition slowly out of the full-time workforce into retirement
• Mentoring programs where they can transfer their knowledge to the new generation of leaders
• Retirement planning, financial consulting, travel and vacation planning services
• Heath, wellness, and fitness programs

Gen X’ers:

• Cross-functional teams and projects that address a specific problem in the business
• Full health and welfare benefits coverage across multiple employers
• Extended onsite services, such as day care, dry cleaning, dentists to help with work/life balance
• Flexible work schedules, remote work, and time off earned through hard work

New Mils:

• Rotational job assignments and special projects that are interesting and appealing
• Support for social networking and virtual communities to foster engagement and collaboration
• Support for community services, both time off for the employee and involvement by the employer
• Broader onsite services, such as gym, massage therapists, hair cuts to support work/life balance
• Flexible work schedules, time off, reward/recognition preferences such as cash awards or time off

What service delivery strategies have you employed that have been particularly useful in managing the multi-generational talentforce? Please share them with the rest of us!

Yesterday I talked about the Multi-Generational Talentforce — Veterans, Boomers, X’ers, and New Mils — that has become a core characteristic of today’s modern workforce. Today I’d like to suggest some developmental and mentoring strategies specifically targeted to each generation that can enhance employee engagement thereby bringing greater retention and productivity to the workforce.
There is no question that one-size-fits-all management strategies are obsolete. With the plurality of the workforce we simply do not have the option to treat everyone the same. Of course we should treat everyone fairly and consistently, but people believe they are different and hence want to feel they are receiving personalized treatment. The mass personalization era we are in (what made Starbucks such a sensation — “everyone can have their coffee exactly as they like it”) means that HR needs to develop strategies and programs that employees can use as they want or need them.

Veterans have a strong view of authority and expect a fairly structured work environment. They have a deep sense of company loyalty and are used to hard work and sacrifice for their job. Many are looking for part-time work so that they can stay involved with their careers and earn some extra cash in retirement. Some important developmental and mentoring strategies for Veterans include:

• targeted learning programs, such as computer/technology training and communication skills
• cross-functional teams where they can mentor other employees, thereby leveraging their expertise
• organized work environment where position and seniority are valued and respected

Boomers function well in environments where they can make the rules and call the shots. They are rebellious, driven and fiercely career-oriented, thus activities and assignments that further their career development are most important to them. While strongly individualistic, they believe in a consensus management approach. Some important developmental and mentoring strategies for Boomers include:

• targeted learning programs, such as communication skills and teamwork
• cross-functional teams where they can lead and mentor other employees
• harmonious work environment where opinions are heard are they feel they are part of the process

Gen X’ers are looking for a casual, friendly work environment where they can learn and further develop their skills. They are skeptical of authority and not easily impressed; they mistrust institutions and reject senseless rules. X’ers are self-reliant, individualistic, and pragmatic wanting to be involved in the business and to feel like they are making a difference. They also expect flexibility and freedom to make their own decisions within their realm of responsibility. Some important developmental and mentoring strategies for X’ers include:

• targeted learning programs, such as technical and functional training to increase competencies
• cross-functional teams and rotational assignments where they can demonstrate their expertise
• collaborative work environment where people contribute based on the competencies they bring

New Mils (of Gen Y) are effective in an unstructured, but supportive and highly social work environment. They will rewrite the rules, if given the chance, and are looking for personalized work and multiple, interactive, simultaneous relationships (“multi-tasking on steroids”). They get bored easily, have high expectations of themselves, and place high demands on others. Some important developmental and mentoring strategies for New Mils include:

• targeted learning programs, such as technical and functional training to increase competencies
• cross-functional teams and rotational assignments to provide variety and simulate engagement
• interactive work environment where they can work on multiple activities simultaneously

Categorizing generations and building strategies targeted to each worker segment is not intended to stereotype people, but rather to point out general tendencies to help HR better target their development and mentoring programs for the greatest effectiveness.

What strategies and approaches have you found helpful and effective in managing the generational differences now a core characteristic of the modern talentforce? Please share your thoughts!

References and Additional Readings

Effron, Marc, Robert Gandossy, and Marshall Goldsmith (Editors). 2003. Human Resources in the 21st Century. John Wiley and Sons.

There is no question that the demographics of our workforce are changing. Since its peak after World War II, world population growth has been steadily declining, such that we now see near zero growth rate in the global labour force (Henson 2002). While over the last 40 years countries such as China, India, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa were doubling their working age populations, predictions over the coming 40 years are that we will see negative growth in the labor pool in most countries outside of India. What labor growth we do see in North America will be primarily through immigration.

The global workforce is not only getting smaller, it’s also getting older. People are living longer and working longer. The young people entering the workforce today expect to work well into their retirement and stay actively employed into their 70’s and 80’s. While many will “want to work’ in retirement, with the reduction in government and privately funded pension programs, many will “have to work” in spite of retirement.

With the global workforce shrinking and with people living and working longer, we are now experiencing four generations working side-by-side in the workplace — Veterans, Baby Boomers, Gen X’ers, and the New Millennials (also sometimes called Gen Y) — a phenomenon never seen before. And, as we all know too well, each generation brings its own world view, economic outlook, work ethic, views on authority, relationships, job expectations, compensation, etc. which can often create conflict across the generations. The following chart highlights many of the salient differences across these four generations.

Multi-Generational Differences

By some estimates, Baby Boomers make up close to 50% of workforce today and most of middle and upper management. In the coming five to ten years, 75% of the Boomers will be retiring, leaving behind the much smaller Generation X, half the size of the Boomers, to lead our organizations (Henson 2006). This mass exodus of mid and top management will create both opportunities and challenges for the succeeding generations. HR has a significant role to play in helping to manage this transition through effective workforce, talent development, and succession planning.

Another key challenge for HR is in the development of methods and processes to attract, retain, engage, motivate, compensate, develop, and sustain workers across generations who have disparate interests, motivations, and aspirations for what they expect from the employer-employee relationship. Tomorrow we’ll talk about some of the development and mentoring opportunities HR can initiate to more effectively manage the needs of these disparate populations.

Suggestions for Additional Reading:

Strack, Rainer, Jens Baier, and Anders Fahlander. 2008. “Managing Demographic Risk.” Harvard Business Review. Feburary 2008.

Jones, Katherine. 2007. “New Demographics in the Global Workforce.” IHRIM Journal. Volume XI. Number 1. pp. 28-32.

Henson, Row. 2002. “HR in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities.” IHRIM Journal. Volume VI. Number 6. pp. 28-32.

There is no question that the modern workforce is changing. And it’s changing fast and in many ways. Understanding these changes and learning to manage them effectively is a key role that HR has in optimizing the productivity of workforce. I see four major aspects to the evolving modern workforce, which I am calling the Multi-Dimensional Talentforce:

• Multi-Generational – we are are now seeing up to four generations of workers working simultaneously in the workplace — Veterans, Boomers, X’ers, and New Mils — each with differing world views, work/life needs, and job expectations of their employers.

• Multi-Cultural – we are experiencing increasing cultural differences as organizations continue to go global; pervasive globalization, continued immigration, and increased mobility is bringing greater global diversity to the workplace and creating considerable opportunities for cultural conflict.

• Multi-Contractual – we are living in challenging economic times which is spawning the rise of the contingent workforce and a plurality in worker contract types from full-time employees to part-timers, contractors, consultants, freelancers, outsourcers, partners, and other third-parties.

• Multi-Environmental – the ubiquity of the Internet and the evolution of Web 2.0 are enabling the digital, virtual, mobile, remote world in which workers can work anywhere, anytime, anyhow, reducing our perceptions about space and time and blurring the distinction between work and play.

Interwoven throughout these four dimensions are, of course, personality characteristics — both learned and socialized — that make up the human workforce. Clearly the challenge for HR and organization leaders is to develop strategies that effectively utilize the strengths of the multi-dimensional talentforce and mitigate the challenges by leveraging global diversity through Awareness, Understanding, Acceptance, and Integration. Transitioning through these stages from initial Denial and Rejection to Awareness and Integration involves managing the process of change. Some individuals understand and embrace diverse ways of working more readily than others. A major role for HR professionals is to support individuals and the organization throughout the continual change process.
In subsequent blog posts I will talk in more detail about each of these areas and explore the lead that HR can take in helping to leverage the workforce and manage the change process in the increasingly complex world we live in.