Managing Generational Change - Part 4 of 4

Section 3: Playbook / Toolkit for Managing Generational Change

This final section is a playbook for how to manage generations in your organization. It is presented as a list of best practices and strategies that an organization can implement to effectively manage generational differences and a changing generational makeup in a dynamic and ongoing fashion.

#1: Actively Monitor Generational Levels

As demonstrated in the previous two sections, the four generations in the workplace all have vastly different values, preferences and life experiences. The bottom-line takeaway is that organizations need to deeply understand these differences and ensure that their policies and actions can be customized and adaptable to each group’s individual preferences. Conversely, an organization could decide to customize all their policies to best match one or two generations if their workforce is more clustered around one generation. For instance, a teen-focused clothing store that employs mostly Gen Z employees should have a Gen Z focused culture.

Either way, companies need to have the ability to dynamically monitor and track their generational levels on a day-to-day basis. Companies that are serious about managing generation change will task their HR departments with actively measuring the exact %’s of each generation that the company employs at any given time. An executive should be able to reach out to HR on any day and get an up-to-date report that shows the generational breakdown. Fortunately, most companies have invested in robust HR information systems that track employee information. Leaders should task HR teams with creating a dynamic dashboard that tracks each generational cohort over time, so that the company can develop an ongoing and updated understanding of the composition of their staff.

#2: Adjust Managerial Styles

Once the company has developed an understanding of their generational breakdown, they can make customizations to their business to ensure that each generation’s preferences are met. In terms of managerial style, all managers should have a strong understanding of the managerial preferences of each generation as laid out above. From there, each manager can adjust their style and approach based on the breakdown of their team.

For instance, a manager with 20% Generation X, 60% Millennial and 20% Gen Z would look to focus on providing autonomy and independence for their Generation X staff, constructive feedback for their Millennial staff, and flexibility and career growth opportunities for Gen Z.

#3: Adjust HR policies

Similar to best practice #2, organizations should look to customize HR policies and strategies based on their own generational makeup. This would include learning and development opportunities, recruiting and retention strategies, diversity and inclusion, and career development considerations.

For instance, in a company with predominantly Millennials, HR teams would look to highlight their corporate culture in job postings, offer hybrid/flexible work arrangements, utilize a variety of digital platforms for job posting, develop strong diversity and inclusion initiatives, and ensure that training and development occurs on a variety of digital platforms and collaborative group-based learning sessions. This contrasts with a company that has a predominantly Boomer composition. These companies would use more traditional print-based job advertisements, highlight the prestige and pay of the position in job postings, and invest in reward/recognition programs that acknowledge their career accomplishments.

For companies that have a less defined mix with roughly even levels between the generations, they will have to focus on providing a system that empowers all of these differences. In that sense, these companies will need to be the most adaptable and flexible. For instance, they will need to have the latest digital communication platforms to empower their younger generations, while also keeping the legacy systems that Boomers are comfortable with. They’ll need to have a robust LinkedIn presence to attract younger employees, but also a strong referral network to recruit more senior employees. Again, the value of dynamically monitoring your workforce composition as laid out in step #1 will help these companies target their efforts more distinctly so they don’t waste time and energy trying to be “everything for everyone.”

#4: Establish an Intergenerational Mentorship Program

All of the generations in the workforce can benefit from learning from each other. They all have unique skills, experiences, specialties and perspectives that add up to a more complete organization. Companies should look to leverage all of these unique skills by establishing an intergenerational mentorship program. This program will aim to match two to four employees from different parts of the business, all representing different generations. These mentorship teams would meet regularly, with a loosely defined agenda for each meeting revolving around the idea of work-related discussions. Examples of discussions could be the issues that people are facing in their roles, identifying learning opportunities, best practices for navigating interdepartmental collaboration, how to best utilize new technology, and more. The focus would be for learning to be multi-looped, so that each generation is learning from each other.

For instance, a Gen Z mentor could help their Boomer mentor get more comfortable on Zoom or what different emojis and memes mean, while the Boomer mentor could help that Gen Z mentor with identifying the best career path and lateral moves to make in order to build their skillset. In another example, a Gen X mentor could help their Millennial mentor with managerial tips since they are just starting in those roles, while the Millennial could return the favor by explaining how to effectively utilize asynchronous communication platforms like Slack and Yammer.

This mentorship group would have two clear benefits: employees would be actively learning from each other and gaining new skills. Secondly, it would also help develop new relationships between cohorts that might otherwise not interact as closely.

#5: Develop an Intergenerational Interests Group

While the Intergenerational Mentorship Program focuses on creating small teams of intergenerational employees to discuss work-related issues, the Intergenerational Interests Group has a more casual focus. This group could exist as a Yammer page or some other internal communication platform. The intent would be for people to discuss their interests, hobbies and other non-work related topics. The only filter would be that it would try to avoid any topics that are controversial or polarizing. But otherwise, it would be a free space to talk about different things that you are interested in and see if people from other generations share that same interest.

This would help develop relationships that otherwise might not occur, and it would develop empathy between the different generations, as some might find common interests that they might not have known existed. For instance, a Millennial might really love Led Zeppelin and would post about it. From there, a few Baby Boomers might comment that they saw them play live in the 1980s. Friendships blossom and new networks are formed just from a casual shared interest like this.