Managing Generational Differences in The Workplace

SPBA Breakfast Meeting

July 20, 2016

Managing Generational Differences

• “You have it your way”

• “I have it my way”

• “As for the right way, the correct way and the only way”

• “IT DOES NOT EXIST!”

• Friedrich Nietzsche

A Historic Time

• For the first time in history our workplace has 4 different generations working side by side

A Historic Time

• At work, generational differences can affect everything, including recruiting, building teams, dealing with change, motivating, managing, and maintaining and increasing productivity.

A Historic Time

• Generational differences specifically related to how people communicate, can create

– Misunderstandings

– High employee turnover

– Difficulty in attracting employees

– Lack of employee commitment

A Historic Time

• Today's workforce is growing older

• Workers aged 55 years and older, are anticipated to leap from 18% in 2008 to 24% by 2018

• 78.5 million Baby Boomers are being followed by a far smaller cohort of just 45 million Gen Xers

• Shrinking pool of prime-aged workers to fill the retirement gaps

A Historic Time

• The demand will increase for talented Gen X leaders, but the supply will decrease creating a deficit in leadership

• The competition for older, more experienced leaders will intensify, leading to recruiting and retention wars for elite knowledge workers and management leaders

• Source: BLS; Overview of the 2008-18 Projections

A Historic Time

• Research has shown that many managers expend a lot of energy trying to model their communication and leadership styles to fit each generation so that everyone will feel valued, appreciated and capable of doing great work.

• They also worry that, in adopting different styles for different generations, they are losing their own identity and authenticity. It's hard, they say, to speak several different languages at once. And it can get confusing…….. So what’s the answer?

The Answers

• Understanding Their Desires

• Issues That Shaped Their Beliefs and Values

• Behaviors

• Motivations

• Communication Techniques

Two Desires of Every Generation

• (1) To distinguish themselves from previous generations through

– Hair styles

– Vocabulary

– Music

– Clothing

– Rejection of previous leaders

and creation of their own

Two Desires of Every Generation

• 2) Want to be admired and emulated by the generations that follow

The “Generations”

• The Boomers

• Generation X • Generation Y (Why ?) (aka The Millennials) • Generation Z (aka The Globals)

A Quick Look At The Matures (aka Traditionalists)

• Born between 1922 and 1945 • Common experiences

– Great Depression, WWII, Move from radio to the “silver screen”

• Common attitudes and values – Dedication, honor , country, respect for authority

• Characteristics and Skills – Compliant, stable, hard-working ; – age=seniority Goal is to leave a legacy

The Baby Boomers

• Born between 1946 and 1964 • Common Experiences

– Civil Rights Movement, JFK, Woodstock, Vietnam

• Common Attitudes and Values – Defined by their job, personal growth and gratification,

team oriented

• Characteristics and Skills – Optimistic, driven to succeed, relationship focused,

competitive

Goal is to put their stamp on things

The Boomers Then and Now

1975 2016

Killer Weed Weed Killer

Acid Rock Acid Reflux

Rolling Stones Kidney Stones

Trying to look like

Liz Taylor

Trying NOT to look

like Mick Jagger

Long Hair Longing for Hair

The Baby Boomers

• Demographics

• 52-70 years old

• Most are married; Many more than once

• 1/3 are grandparents

• 77% are employed; 2/3 work full time

• Education: 39% earned a post grad degree

The Baby Boomers

• Work Style

• Personal growth is a key goal

• The “Me” or “Ageless” generation

• Independent and work long hours

• Struggles with work/life balance

• Over achieving; Multi-taskers

• Experienced at filtering “hype”. Cynical

The Baby Boomers

• 80% of Baby Boomers will continue to work – for a variety of reasons

• They plan to fit work into life vs. life into work

(work part-time or part-year)

• 78% indicate that they “really care about the future of their company” compared to just over 50% of Gen Y workers

Generation X

• Born between 1965 and 1980 • Common Experiences

– PC’s AIDS, Challenger Disaster, Watergate, Corporate Downsizing. Latchkey children, no common heroes

• Common Attitudes and Values – Self reliance, independence, skepticism, work life balance,

“this company never promised you anything” • Characteristics and Skills

– Flexible, adaptive, creative, techno-literate, multi-taskers

Goal is to maintain independence

Generation X

• Demographics

• 35-50 years old (Small in numbers compared to Baby Boomers and Gen Y)

• Divorce rate is nearly 50%

• Nearly 2/3 are parents; 1/3 are working parents

• Best educated generation: Over 40% have earned

a University degree or higher

Generation X

• Work Style

• – Embrace risk / change

• – Prefer free agency vs. corporate loyalty

• – Require more coaching/feedback than

• predecessors

• – Willing to jump from job to job to pursue growth

• and opportunity

Generation X

• Witnessed their parents downsized, right-sized, outsourced, etc.…

• Strong desire to break from the Baby Boomer culture

• Worked longer hours on average than Gen Y

Generation Y (The Millennials)

• Born between 1981 and 1995 • Common Experiences

– 9/11, Y2K, Reality TV, Columbine, Digital Technology • Common Attitudes and Values

– Confidence, diversity, optimism, acknowledge and admire select authorities, ambitious yet appear aimless

• Characteristics and Skills – Techno-savvy, pack mentality, self-reliant, difficulty with

non-stimulating stuff

Goal is to find work and create a life that has meaning

Generation Y (The Millennials)

• Demographics

• 20-35 years old

• Largest consumer group in history

• 30% are or have attended a college or university

• Parents, family, religion and generosity are central to this generation

Generation Y (The Millennials)

• Work Style • Work on their own terms; Self inventive and

individualistic

• Ambitious yet aimless

• Join organizations not because they “have to” but

because they “want to” and because something

significant is happening there

• Volunteer in their communities more than prior

• generations

• Display a high degree of tolerance towards other cultures, lifestyles and behaviors

Generation Y (The Millennials)

• “They’re ambitious, they’re demanding, and they question everything and if there isn’t a good reason for that long commute or late night, don’t expect them to do it”

• Fundamentally conservative

• Parental involvement (career decisions, living arrangements, etc…)

• Desire constant feedback -they get it in every aspect of their life, and want it at work too

• Entrepreneurial – 70% want to work for themselves

• Not loyal to the company, but very loyal to the people, and to their profession

Generation Z

• Generation Z (1995-2009) • Most tech-enabled generation yet:

• Had Gameboys in their hands at a very early age

• Computers in the kitchen as a kid

• Every classroom they’ve been in had a PC

• Probably carried a cell phone when babysitting at 12

• Watch their Xer parents juggling cell phones and blackberrys

• Unprecedented workplace demands

Generation Z

• They are highly skeptical, inclined to fact-check anything and everything.

• They aren’t impressed by someone with a fancy title.

• Collaboration is a huge part of their work style.

• Only 1 in 5 Globals live in a home with both of their parents, and they live in a world where women make up 51 percent of the workforce. As they have grown up, they have been encouraged to embrace a “fend for yourself” mentality

Generation Z

• Common Experiences

– Lehman Brothers financial crash, the collapse of companies once thought too big to fail, and the implosion of the housing market that left many homeowners in foreclosure. They are still experiencing that economic uncertainty.

– Saw the fall from grace of sports heroes like Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and the shootings at Columbine High School

– Will enter the workplace with more years of schooling on their resumes than any previous generation—an average of 16 years of education, vs. an average of about 15 years for Millennials and 12 years for Baby Boomers.

Generational = Workplace Identities Behaviors

• Generational identities translate into distinct workplace behaviors as they relate to:

– The relationship with the organization

– The relationship with authority

– The relationship with colleagues

– Work styles

– Management styles

– Learning styles

Relationship with the Organization

Boomers Generations X Generation Y Generation Z

Identity Loyal to the

team

Loyal to the

manager

Loyal to

colleagues

Loyal to

themselves

Behaviors

Expectations

Add value by

going the

extra mile

Career =

Self worth

Exceed

expectations and

deliver results

Career= one part

of me

Ensure equitable

treatment

Career =

opportunity to

contribute

Skeptical and

entrepreneurial

Work must fit life

Relationship with Authority Boomer Gen X Gen Y Gen Z

Identity Challenge

authority

Unimpressed

by authority

Respect for

authority who

demonstrate

competence

Respect for

authority who

demonstrate

competence

Behaviors

Expectation

Desire flat

organization

that are

democratic

Let me show

you what I

can do

Competence

and skills are

respected

Tell me what

you can do for

me

This

generation

holds the

competency

Show me what

you can do for

me right now

Takes nothing for

granted. Inclined

to fact- check

everything

Short attention

span. Give me info

NOW!

Management Challenges

• Fact: People’s decisions are 85% emotional and 15% logical

• Fact: Employee loyalty and motivation are largely measurements of the emotional connection between employees and something about their work

• Fact: Employee retention dramatically increases after the third year. (the trick is keeping them for 3 years)

The Management Challenge

• Fact: Gen X and Gen Y are loyal to people not to companies or organizations

• Fact: They rarely quit their job or their company, they quit their boss

• Fact: To them the boss= the company

The Management Challenge Tip#1- For Gen X and Gen Y, their value system

lists control of time and their relationship with their boss as the top two components of job satisfaction. Money is a distant 3rd.

Tip#2- In their minds (accurate or not) it is the person to whom these generations report that allows them to learn, manage their time, stimulate them and develop a relationship….not the organization.

Things to Ponder

• The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases”

• “The real death of America will come when everyone is alike”

• “No two people are exactly the same. So, if being different was to equal being wrong, EVERYONE would be wrong including YOU!” And finally, always remember…….

Managing Generational Differences

WE ALL HAVE THE SAME

DREAMS! Thanks for being

here! • The