Meeting In The Middle: How A Multigenerational Workforce Can Win Big

The common mission is to recover and thrive, moving forward

A Millennial's comment gets an eye roll from a Boomer. A Gen X manager fears impending obsolescence as a Gen Z intern explains a new business app. 

With today's workforce spanning five generations, the differences within any business's employee base are plentiful and complex. They also hold tremendous potential for organizations willing to eliminate demographic siloes and combine the inherent strengths of an age-diverse team. This will be especially important as Gen Z enters the fold; estimated at more than 92 million strong, they make up the largest generation since the Baby Boomers.
 

In a spring 2020 report, a majority of organizations surveyed said that leading multigenerational workforces would be important or very important for their success over the next 12 to18 months. Yet only 10% said they felt ready to address the trend. 

Beyond merely preparing for a multigenerational workforce, business leaders have an opportunity to maximize untapped potential by strategizing for one, investing energy into a few key areas. 

Internal Networking

There has been plenty of research around the human tendency to gravitate toward those who look like us in some way. It's a type of self-segregation; we walk into a room, spot someone similar to ourselves, and naturally go to them. Or, perhaps even more frequently in today's digitally distracted world, we go to our technology. How many conference rooms are full of people looking at their phones while waiting for a meeting to start? 

Employers need to push against these trends and force interaction between coworkers by bringing back networking scenarios in which employees can get to know each other. By engaging in conversation and reducing the imaginary walls between demographic groups, learning can begin - and it goes both ways. The stereotype of the Millennial helping the Boomer adapt to new technology isn't baseless; it's a normal byproduct of growing up in two distinctly different eras. But what's equally valuable is the reciprocity of an older employee taking on a mentor role for their younger colleague. Institutional knowledge, a broader view of the business landscape and adeptness at navigating work demands are skills that can be coached in a correlative relationship.

Learning the Language

Every generation looks down on the generation after; it's part of the normal societal loop. From fashion to music preference, there have always been plenty of examples showing the culture of the young being met with the disdain of the old. However, in a multigenerational workplace, the "us vs. them" mentality is detrimental to success and represents a loss of opportunity. Thankfully, businesses are catching on. In a global AARP survey of 6,000 employers, 68% said they were in favor of purposefully designing mixed-age teams to leverage the advantages both younger and older employees bring to the table. 

In order to collaborate effectively, both sides need to be willing to understand each others' background and adapt their approach to fit the differences. Chastising a Gen Z'er because they don't know how to read a map, for example, is misdirected when they've grown up relying on their phone for directions. Likewise, when instructing younger coworkers, managers need to fill in plenty of detail where technology can't provide it. It's not a matter of intelligence but rather of a learned approach; left to their methodologies, a Gen Z’er may simply Google or YouTube the information and take the search results as fact.

Gen Z can also get a bad rap for not having what their Boomer coworkers consider to be "common sense." But is it prevalent? This youngest faction of the workforce population grew up at a time when juggling multiple extracurricular activities was the norm from toddlerhood to teens. As a result, one study reported that only 18% of Gen Z teens were employed in 2018, compared with 27% of Millennial teens in 2002. On the other end of the spectrum, 48% of Boomers had work experience during high school and were more likely to graduate college with a decade of experience, having started work at an early age. At that time, it was common to start with a paper route or babysitting and move up through retail and restaurant work. Given this significant experience deficit, the idea of shared "common sense" only leads to frustration and is better off dropped from the conversation altogether. 

Shared Mission

Ages, stages, and demographics aside, every employee has in common the shared mission of their organization. More than a blurb on a website, a company's mission needs to be its North Star, representing the values, goals and objectives behind the work being done. Employers need to make an intentional effort to keep their mission in the forefront as a reminder that everyone is there for the same reason, working toward the same outcome. While building a shared sense of purpose, the mission can also be used as a guidepost to redirect individuals or teams who may be veering off course. 

Mission-focused management also allows for structuring teams and projects based on individuals' talents and contributions to the overarching goal rather than pure technical capabilities. By utilizing interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence, supervisors can better communicate with employees to truly learn their strengths. This is what moves an organization beyond traditional top-down direction and onward toward encouraging growth and inspiring performance.

Coming off a challenging year, the common mission for all five generations in the workforce today is to recover and thrive moving forward. By nurturing a multigenerational workforce in which individual strengths and experiences are valued, and where learning and collaboration are encouraged on all sides, that goal is well within reach.

Robin Paggi is a Training & Development Specialist at Vensure HR. Visit www.vensure.com     Connect Robin Paggi