Abstract
A shift in values seems to be occurring in the workplace, and there is an emerging new work ethic based on work–life balance. Today, project managers and leaders need to manage a workforce that is more diverse than ever, consisting of four distinct generations: Veterans, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. The future workforce — Gen Y with the ‘Can-Do' attitude, exhibits a strong interest in volunteerism. Technology is at the heart of this generation and digital communication is a birthright. By 2025, 75% of the global workforce will consist of Gen Y(Mills, 2012, ¶1). This paper describes the challenges of managing a multi-generational workforce and how organizations need to focus on recruiting, engaging, motivating, and leading the future workforce, Gen Y.
This presentation will outline the Generation Theory and examine the challenges of leading the multiple generations at individual and organizational levels. A special focus will be placed on Gen Y — their values, work ethic, and their need to make an impact and be successful.
Introduction
Every employee brings valuable skills and talents to this global economy. Successfully harnessing the talents and energies of every generation is a challenge but can be achieved if we build a bridge between the generations to help them collaborate and communicate (Gravett & Throckmorton, 2007, p. 13). Each generation believes in a different value system, work ethic, and management style. To avoid the generational conflict, the leadership team needs to make a conscious effort to understand the age diversity of the workforce.
This presentation will address the challenges of multiple generations in the workplace, how age matters, and what are the dynamics of engaging, managing, and leading the generations. As team management is a core skill for a high performance workforce, an overview of the well-known team management theories will be presented to outline how teamwork and collaboration play important roles.
Intergenerational Workplace Dynamics
Today, in the age-diverse workplace, we have different values, dissimilar work ethics and styles. There are four generations — Veterans, Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y— and each generation is a product of historic moments and events that have captured attention. They all share the same experiences irrespective of the demographics of where they grew up. Due to the differences of generational values and mindsets, there are distinct conflicts. This presentation will discuss the similarities and differences of each generation.
The project managers and leaders are engaged in global initiatives and projects. There is an increasing need to integrate the efforts of the members from different generations and cultures. Organizations need to evolve and define a new workplace planning strategy. The leaders and managers should not focus on the differences but need to build bridges across multiple generations of workers. At an organizational level, companies need to focus on the looming employment gap due to the outflow of retiring baby boomers and engage and/or recruit Gen X and Gen Y. This new talent will bring new creativity required for a productive workforce. The rise in Gen X and Gen Y presents a new opportunity for organizations to integrate social shift and technology skills to create a more productive workforce. Management teams have to quickly learn and adapt. They have to find the right balance between freedom and limitations so that they can continue to engage the new generations. The new generations are innovative and a resource to tap. Their knowledge of technology is important to fostering growth. The generational differences can be resolved via channeled interactions.
Gen Y — The Future Workforce
Gen Y — this group is the most high-performing, over-achieving generation and companies are investing in them. Born between the years 1980 and 2000, this generation is sometimes referred to as “moofers” — mobile out of office workers. The differing motivations driven by the varied roles work plays creates a new diversity – Gen Y, with individual needs and preferences. Each organization needs to focus on workplace strategy for the future workforce — how to engage them, motivate them and keep them interested and loyal (Exhibit 1).
Exhibit 1 – Who are Gen Y? (Mills, 2012, ¶1)
Engaging Gen Y – Connection versus Conversation
To engage this new generation in this age of technology, emphasis must be placed on messaging, awareness, and concern. In this technological universe, we are always communicating and are ‘plugged-in' (Turkle, 2012, ¶1) . The technology has created a new way of ‘being alone together,’ where you communicate via email, text messages, FaceBook, and so forth, rather than face-to-face meeting. Because this generation demands non-stop communication, the opportunity and challenges must be highlighted at each stage. Gen Y can be addressed as the ‘global citizens’ because they have shared tastes and are constantly connected (Exhibit 2).
Exhibit 2 – Global Technology Usage by Gen Y (Accenture, 2012, ¶3)
Because those of Gen Y are the children of the baby-boomers, they are more dependent on their parents. This generation is willing to discuss all issues with parents and there are references of “parent-tested and approved.” Gen Y, eager to learn, often reach out to Boomer coworkers with questions and Boomers are willing to help. This Boomer–Gen Y bond is being tapped by several organizations in mentoring and cross-mentoring. A study was done at Accenture in 2009 on Boomer–Gen Y and the details are presented in the Exhibit 3:
Exhibit 3 – Boomer and Gen Y Bond
Employee Evolution – How Gen Y Wants to Change the Workforce
The workplace dynamics are changing with Gen Y. Engaging, hiring, and talent management are being modified by organizations with the entrance of this generation into the workforce. For Gen Y, efficiency is the name of the game (Healy, 2008, ¶3) and therefore they would like fewer short meetings that are productive in nature. As work–life balance is very important for this generation, work days will be shortened and more results oriented. As this generation recognizes the value of time, they will re-engage part-time or virtual assistants to help in routine office chores like filing papers, mailing checks, and so forth. As carrier development is important for Gen Y, the focus will be on mentoring in different forms — group mentoring, online mentoring, and so forth. Consistent improvement really matters to Gen Y, so semi-annual and annual performance reviews will not be effective, and constant feedback will be necessary (Healy, 2008, ¶12).
Bridging the Generation Gap
With different generations converging in the workplace, teams need to be equipped with practical ways to resolving the differences. As a first step, we need to understand the conditions that cause the generational differences. Understanding the varying viewpoints and styles, we need to take advantage and create a diverse workforce that is tolerant of the differences and productive. “With effective tools to recruit, retain, motivate, and manage each generation, organizations can create teamwork, in today's high performance workplace.” (Lynne C. Lancaster, 2003, p. 248)
In this presentation, the various challenges of managing multi-generational teams will be discussed. As an outcome of the presentation, attendees will discover how different ways of communication and motivation will help influence and/or manage the teams and build social capital.