Early in his management career, Rick Hefner, executive director at Caltech’s Center for Technology and Management Education, learned a valuable lesson — not every generation wants to be managed as he would.
As an engineer, Hefner highly valued autonomy, and when he became a manager, he assumed others would, too. So, he would give his employees their assignments and then leave them alone to do their work.
“One day, I had this young employee come into my office and start crying, saying it was ok to fire her, but she would like two weeks’ notice before I did. I was taken aback. I told her I wasn’t going to fire her and thought she was doing a wonderful job,” Hefner recalled. “She said, well, you never talk to me or tell me how I’m doing, so I thought I must be doing such a horrible job that you can’t even talk to me about it.”
That experience resulted in Hefner changing his management style, where he now gives more frequent feedback to Gen Z and millennial workers, who expect more frequent interaction with managers than baby boomers or Gen X employees, he says.
Managing a multi-generational workforce takes finesse, and that skill is more critical than ever as companies face rapidly changing demographics within their employee base. For example, Gen Z is projected to grow from 6.1% of the U.S. workforce in 2020 to nearly 30% in 2030, while baby boomers are expected to decline from 18.6% to 5% during the same period, according to a report from Johns Hopkins University.
And with Gen Z, millennials, Gen X, and baby boomers having different communication preferences, job tenure expectations, work-related fulfillment needs, and training interests, leaders need to adjust their management skills accordingly to bridge these generational differences, and get the most out of their workforce and retain them, experts say.
Leaders, meanwhile, are becoming increasingly concerned about managing these generational differences, which are more pronounced in the tech industry, says Hefner.
Why Effectively Managing a Multi-generational Workforce is Important
“The younger generation can bring excitement and knowledge of new technologies, and the older generation can bring knowledge of long-established customer relationships,” Hefner says. “This can help revitalize a company and make it strong, but without both generations, a company can stagnate or chase many possible ideas that never come to fruition.”
Additionally, multi-generational teams perform stronger than homogeneous groups because of each generation’s varied skills and capabilities, says Shri Santhanam, executive vice president and general manager of software, platforms and AI for Experian North America.
For example, when Experian holds a hackathon competition, multi-generational technical teams tend to have higher velocity and output than other teams, he notes. That’s an important consideration when building teams, he notes.
Here are four areas where generational differences exist in the workplace, and the management skills you’ll need to narrow that gap. And, more importantly, why it’s critical to get it right.
Four Areas to Adjust Your Multi-generational Workforce Management Skills — and How to Do It
Communication preferences, job tenure expectations, work-related fulfillment needs, and training interests are areas where generational differences exist with the workforce, experts say, offering tech leaders advice on how to sharpen their skills in addressing these issues to obtain effective results.
Improving Communication:
“The key is communication. You have to recognize that the generations have different preferences about how they like to communicate,” Hefner says.
Baby boomers and Gen Xers typically like face-to-face interactions, and are used to many meetings. In contrast, millennials and digital native Gen Z employees tend to want quick emails, text messages or Slack messages, Hefner says.
“Tech managers will want a variety of communication mechanisms. They’ll also want to encourage everyone to communicate in multiple ways,” Hefner adds. “The younger generation will need to understand they can’t just sit in their office and text people, and the older generation will need to see that texting can be a quick way to resolve things.”
Identifying Gig Work
Regarding job tenure expectations, tech managers need to know that Gen Z and millennials tend to change jobs more frequently than Gen X or baby boomers, and adjust their mindset on assigning work to these employees, Santhanam says.
“The younger generations tend to think more in terms of gigs, so there’s a natural tendency or an assumption that if you’ve been at a job for 18 to 24 months, or even shorter, it’s time to do something different. So it requires a slightly different mindset for managers to ensure these employees remain engaged,” says Santhanam.
For baby boomers and Gen X, there is more of an inclination to remain with the same company for decades, Santhanam notes, pointing to one Experian employee who recently celebrated their 40th work anniversary.
Recognizing the Importance of Meaningful Work
In addition to job tenure, the importance of meaningful work is another area where differences may exist among the four generations in the workplace, experts say.
“What does it mean to have a sense of purpose? Meaningful work is important for Gen Z workers, and it may look very different for baby boomers, where it isn’t as important,” Hefner says. “Part of leadership is recognizing the different expectations people have about the meaningfulness of their work, and what would cause them to join the company and engage with it.”
Delivering Appropriate Training
Tech managers should also ask their multi-generational workforce about the type of training they prefer. Experts say on-the-job training and certifications are especially of interest to Gen Z and millennial workers.
“Younger generations especially favor professional training and certifications because they tend to be more mobile in their jobs and can put those things on their resumes,” Hefner says. “Learning on the job is also important to Gen Z and expected, whereas it’s less of an expectation for baby boomers.”
Gen Z and millennials also often prefer hackathons and other forms of unstructured training sessions, compared to older generations who prefer structured or traditional approaches, Santhanam notes.
As a manager, you’ll need to be adaptable and flexible with different training methods and tools to engage with various generations of workers, Santhanam says.
Experts say reverse mentoring is another effective training method for a multi-generational workforce. For example, Gen Z and millennial employees lead as mentors in assisting baby boomers and Gen X employees with learning new digital technologies.
“It’s a powerful training technique for a multi-generational workforce,” Hefner says. “Make it clear to older employees that reverse mentoring is part of their job, and when you get people working directly together, it can help older employees see the value of younger employees and is a great way to upskill older employees.”
