Management Strategies: Talkin' 'Bout My Generation
By Dale A. Ruther, CPA, CIT, partner and Vanessa M. Anton, CPA, manager
Add one more item to the list of tasks today’s business owner needs to master: managing a multi-generational workforce.
With retirement portfolios diminished, many Baby Boomers are delaying retirement to stay in their jobs. Meanwhile, young high school and college graduates continue to flood the workplace. As a result, today’s workforce includes an incredibly diverse range of employees.
Managing this generationally diverse workforce can be challenging. Here are a few pointers to keep in mind:
Don’t make assumptions. You might assume that employees in other generations think like you do. Here’s a newsflash: they don’t.
For example, employees in different generations often have different ideas of loyalty. Younger employees tend to be more loyal to principles and people than to organizations, and may not hesitate to follow a coworker or manager who leaves for another company. Meanwhile, middle-aged and older employees are often more company-loyal, having spent their entire careers with just one or two employers.
Consider value differences. Many workplace conflicts between generations arise from value differences rather than actual age differences. For example, Gen Y and younger Gen X employees tend to place a greater value on maintaining a comfortable work-life balance. However, many older Gen Xers, Baby Boomers and Mature employees bring a “whatever it takes” attitude to their jobs and may be more willing to work long hours.
Expectations of feedback and rewards also vary widely among the generations. Boomers and Mature employees often require less of each — they take more personal satisfaction from a job well done — while Gen X and Gen Y employees tend to be more motivated by public praise and tokens of appreciation.
Maximize each generation’s strengths. Many young Gen Y employees bring strong teamwork, technical and computer skills to the workplace, while older Boomers and Matures bring invaluable experience, wisdom and insights. Manage your workforce in a way that maximizes these strengths for your business and your employees.
For example, create teams with a good mix of employees from different generations and encourage open and honest communication among team members to maximize results and enable cross-generational learning. Keep in mind, however, that employees from different generations often view teams differently. Baby Boomers may become competitive and political in team environments, while younger Gen X and Gen Y employees tend to be more constructive and cooperative.
Adapt your management style. Simply put, you cannot manage a Baby Boomer in the same way you manage a Gen Y employee. For example, assume you have a Gen Y employee who finishes his work every day at 5:00 p.m. and is out the door five minutes later and a Baby Boomer who rarely leaves the office before 6:00 p.m.
If the younger employee is finishing his work satisfactorily, don’t chastise him for leaving work on time or compare him unfavorably with the Boomer who works longer hours. Instead, perhaps you should see if the Boomer is overworked and needs help, or maybe he is just staying late every night to try to impress you.
Be open to new technology and trends. Social media is a good example of this. The younger generation is driving the trend toward using social media in business — a trend that Boomer and Mature owners aren’t always eager to embrace.
While it may be easy to discount younger employees’ infatuation with Facebook, Twitter and the like as distractions to your company’s bottom line, try to keep an open mind. The fields of social media and business are becoming more intertwined every day.
Sidebar
Who’s Who?
The four workplace generations are roughly defined as follows:
Back to Spring 2010 InfoLetter
Add one more item to the list of tasks today’s business owner needs to master: managing a multi-generational workforce.
With retirement portfolios diminished, many Baby Boomers are delaying retirement to stay in their jobs. Meanwhile, young high school and college graduates continue to flood the workplace. As a result, today’s workforce includes an incredibly diverse range of employees.
Managing this generationally diverse workforce can be challenging. Here are a few pointers to keep in mind:
Don’t make assumptions. You might assume that employees in other generations think like you do. Here’s a newsflash: they don’t.
For example, employees in different generations often have different ideas of loyalty. Younger employees tend to be more loyal to principles and people than to organizations, and may not hesitate to follow a coworker or manager who leaves for another company. Meanwhile, middle-aged and older employees are often more company-loyal, having spent their entire careers with just one or two employers.
Consider value differences. Many workplace conflicts between generations arise from value differences rather than actual age differences. For example, Gen Y and younger Gen X employees tend to place a greater value on maintaining a comfortable work-life balance. However, many older Gen Xers, Baby Boomers and Mature employees bring a “whatever it takes” attitude to their jobs and may be more willing to work long hours.
Expectations of feedback and rewards also vary widely among the generations. Boomers and Mature employees often require less of each — they take more personal satisfaction from a job well done — while Gen X and Gen Y employees tend to be more motivated by public praise and tokens of appreciation.
Maximize each generation’s strengths. Many young Gen Y employees bring strong teamwork, technical and computer skills to the workplace, while older Boomers and Matures bring invaluable experience, wisdom and insights. Manage your workforce in a way that maximizes these strengths for your business and your employees.
For example, create teams with a good mix of employees from different generations and encourage open and honest communication among team members to maximize results and enable cross-generational learning. Keep in mind, however, that employees from different generations often view teams differently. Baby Boomers may become competitive and political in team environments, while younger Gen X and Gen Y employees tend to be more constructive and cooperative.
Adapt your management style. Simply put, you cannot manage a Baby Boomer in the same way you manage a Gen Y employee. For example, assume you have a Gen Y employee who finishes his work every day at 5:00 p.m. and is out the door five minutes later and a Baby Boomer who rarely leaves the office before 6:00 p.m.
If the younger employee is finishing his work satisfactorily, don’t chastise him for leaving work on time or compare him unfavorably with the Boomer who works longer hours. Instead, perhaps you should see if the Boomer is overworked and needs help, or maybe he is just staying late every night to try to impress you.
Be open to new technology and trends. Social media is a good example of this. The younger generation is driving the trend toward using social media in business — a trend that Boomer and Mature owners aren’t always eager to embrace.
While it may be easy to discount younger employees’ infatuation with Facebook, Twitter and the like as distractions to your company’s bottom line, try to keep an open mind. The fields of social media and business are becoming more intertwined every day.
Sidebar
Who’s Who?
The four workplace generations are roughly defined as follows:
- Generation Y (Millennials): Those born between 1979 and 1988.
- Generation X: Those born between 1965 and 1978.
- Baby Boomers: Those born between 1946 and 1964. Sometimes broken into Early Boomers (’46-‘55) and Late Boomers (’56-‘64).
- Matures: Those born before 1946.
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Back to Spring 2010 InfoLetter