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GENERATIONAL

WORKFORCE

As with every generation, millennials present new
challenges and are often perceived as difficult. This isn’t
really anything new. Baby boomers were just as irritated
by Generation X entering the workforce, while they were
in turn a disappointment to The Greatest Generation.
Terrifyingly, soon people born in the year 2000, or Gen
Z, will be annoying the old guard in workplaces around
the world.

As people work later and later into their old age, there
is a good chance that many companies will find them-
selves with four generations of employees. Each group
offers valuable experience and valid perspectives that
can help businesses create innovative solutions.
However, harnessing these disparate generations can
be a challenge in itself, with each group having different
expectations of a job and company, different ways of ap-
proaching tasks, and a different perception of the world.
Having people of all ages coming together can be
fraught, but it doesn’t have to be. Firstly, forget about Low stress activities, such as bowling or bowls, where
the idea that they will fit neatly into the general descrip- people can spend time together without the barriers
tion of their age group. You’ll find older people with an of job titles and department divisions, are good ways
affinity for computer technology, and young people who of getting people to interact in a social, obligation-free
can’t even turn one on. Young people who love garden- way. Too many businesses get the social aspects of
ing and crochet, 60-year-old’s who play Call of Duty to their workplace culture wrong, forcing people to inter-
unwind. act in a company approved manner. The mandatory fun
approach might unite your workforce, but more likely
Avoiding generational labels and adopting an individu- against your management than in any positive way.
al-based management style will help get the most
out of each person in your team. Every personality is Whether an employee is fresh out of study or entering
different and where some people might respond to a their fourth decade of employment, one thing they all
more confrontational management style, others will need, is to feel engaged in their role and have a sense
react more positively to a gentler one. Tailoring your of ownership about their work. Unrest in a workplace
approach to each employee will help you get to know environment often has little to do with the age of
them, which will in turn build a bond. No one wants to co-workers and is based on not feeling valued or
feel like other people are treated differently but likewise, respected. Ensuring that everyone has a chance to see
no one likes getting the impression that their manager their ideas and thoughts shape the culture and direction
is attempting one of the six styles of management they of a business is a powerful motivator.
were reading about the night before.

KEEPING GENERATIONAL TENSION TO A MINIMUM IS BASED
ON FINDING COMMONALITIES BETWEEN DIFFERENT PEOPLE.
PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR INTERACTION AND FRIENDSHIP
CAN BE AS SIMPLE AS HAVING A COMMUNAL LUNCH SPACE AND
PROVIDING REGULAR CHANCES FOR INFORMAL INTERACTION
IS IMPORTANT.