adminMilton Nyamadzawo Correspondent
With about five generations in the workforce, leaders must find a way to leverage generational diversity and create an environment that cultivates unity and productivity.
There are five generations in the workforce, which are:
l Traditionalist (76 to 99 years)
l Baby boomer (57 to 75 years)
l Generation X (41 to 56 years)
l Millennial (26 to 40 years)
l Generation Z (25 years and younger).
The unprecedented five generations in the workforce (Eldridge & Stevens, 2017) pose a unique challenge, because differences in generational values, desires, ambitions, and preferred workstyles can lead to job dissatisfaction, low morale, and reduced productivity.
Each generation offers unique strengths that it can contribute to the workforce. To tap into this potential, employees and managers alike must overcome generational stereotypes and collaborate with an open mind.
Considering this, effectively managing a multigenerational workforce is important as it sets the tone and style of employee interactions.
If leaders gain a greater understanding of the skill sets of each generational cohort and adapt their leadership style, it might create a more productive multigenerational workforce.
Managers who adapt their attitudes about rewards, work styles, communication preferences, and motivators to match generational expectations are the much sought-after leaders of today as they possess skills for a multigenerational leadership (Ballone, 2009).
Within our employment mix, we have baby boomers who were born between 1946 and 1964. Baby boomers have a strong work ethic, concentrate on getting the job done, and expect others to work as hard as they do in the workplace (Ferri-Reed; 2012; Schoch, 2012).
While many traditionalists (born between 1925 and 1945) have retired from the workplace, the cohort remains represented in the workforce. Leaders are challenged with fostering respect and cohesion among an enlarged multigenerational workforce.
Thus, maintaining generational diversity in the workplace may be a challenging path for both employers and employees. However, the strong competitive advantage is hidden in this challenge for entities that are planning to establish an intergenerational approach. That is why progressive companies already understand the importance of developing and implementing talent management practices in order to attract, develop, motivate and retain multigenerational workforce within the company.
Managers need to be sensitive to the needs of different generations, while creating a single, unified, company culture. This should consist of a multifaceted approach, whereby managers recruit employees from all generations, while communicating inclusive brand values that unite their teams.
Conveying brand values effectively means having consistent and cohesive messaging across all your communication channels.
The employer value proposition and brand positioning can attract or repel a multigenerational workforce. Even the wording in your job advert can discourage certain age groups from applying.
By incorporating words such as “fast-paced,” “tech-savvy,” “youthful,” and “robust” you may be repelling many qualified candidates.
Individuals from some generations simply do not resonate with the language or the semantic used may resonate with a certain gender cohort.
As workforce composition becomes more complex, the question arises of whether traditional segmentation, anchored on a generational approach, should remain the focus of future human resources strategies.
Merits of a multigenerational workforce
All generations hold different perceptions of each other, which results in misunderstandings and disagreements (Meriac et al., 2010). These are time-consuming and costly. Therefore, it is best to learn how to deal with these disputes to create innovation and cohesiveness in the workplace.
Diverse and inclusive workforce remains a valuable resource for many organisations in recent decades. There is an increasing demand in the workforce today to add multigenerational diversity to this mix as it may have a positive effect on company performance due to the combination of talents and strengths of each generation (Bursch & Kelly, 2014).
The unique characteristics of each generation might inhibit the willingness of some generational units to engage in cross-mentoring and the cross-sharing of knowledge. Leadership must be the catalyst by creating formal and informal opportunities that engender knowledge sharing. Cross-mentoring can close skills gaps, increase innovation and morale, produce intergenerational synergy, and create a competitive advantage for the organisation
Tension can occur when millennials, who are collaborative, manage traditionalists and baby boomers, who prefer a hierarchical style of management. Millennials are multitaskers and might desire to delegate multiple projects simultaneously. Traditionalists and baby boomers might feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of simultaneous projects.
Leaders must overcome the challenge of ensuring each group understands their workplace preferences, and will not always correlate to those of others. A difference in workplace preferences does not translate to lack of ability or lack of task completion. A difference in workplace accommodations should not be construed as favouritism. Each person, irrespective of generational group, must adhere to organisational policies and procedures (Benson & Brown, 2011).
λ Milton Nyamadzawo writes in his own personal capacity, and can be reached on [email protected]
Online Reporter