The following information may be helpful as IAAP Chapters recruit members and utilize volunteers from different generations. This was a part of the IAAP District Conference activity in the year 2000.
Different Generations View Work Differently
St. Paul Pioneer Press (U.S.A.)
From Manpower Argus, July 2000 No. 382
If a firm wants to attract, motivate, and retain good people, it must heed multi-generational differences, according to Louellen Essex and Mitchell Kusy, University of St. Thomas professors, business consultants, and authors of Fast Forward Leadership.
Generation X employees (nearly 33 million in the U.S. workforce, born between 1961 and 1980) resist close supervision, guard autonomy, and gravitate to work that is self-paced and independent. Baby Boomers (66 million on the job, born between 1943 and 1960) are loyal and hard working; they favor face-to-face encounters and group process. Traditionalists or Veterans (people born before 1943, 17 million working) respect authority, value stability, and plan to work beyond traditional retirement age, either out of desire, necessity, or both. All three age groups are vital to the organization, Essex and Kusy maintain.
The authors tell employers to “stop thinking that everyone wants what you want.” Leaders in major organizations, including American Express, Andersen Consulting, AT&T, BMW, Oracle, and Medtronic told Essex and Kusy that anyone who believes “my way is best” is arrogant and out of touch.
So, what does one need to know about the three generations? Excessive group work, team building, activities, and superfluous meetings will drive Generation Xers to job-shopping, say Essex and Kusy. Their advice is to eliminate systems steeped in needless paperwork and processes. They annoy everyone, but especially the Xers. As Xers move through their careers, they will not move in lockstep up the ladder.
Boomers see their careers as symbols of prosperity, rewards, and status. And nothing kills motivation more than a deadlocked career. “To Boomers, careers become stale when they are not offered adequate opportunities to participate in key organization decisions,” maintain the authors. “Denying them opportunities for self or team discoveries will further alienate them,” they say. “Boomers do not want to wait for final decisions. They want to be part of building consensus around a decision.”
Recruiting Tips
Here are some generalizations on motivational and attitudinal differences among different generations (not always true, of course, for individuals among these groups)
Veterans
-
Think beyond full-time to part-time, contractual, or job sharing
-
Use them for project work
-
Appeal to family, home, patriotism, and traditional values
-
Let them know their age and experience is an asset, not a liability
-
Use please and thank you, good enunciation and avoid profanity
Boomers
-
They will put in their time, but want to get credit and respect for accomplishments
-
Let them know they can make a difference
-
Stress that it’s a warm, dynamic, humane environment
-
Show them where they can excel, their “track”
-
Show them how they can be a star
-
Promote the leading-edge nature of your company/industry
Gen Xers
-
Tell them you want them “to have a life”
-
Convince them that ideas are evaluated on merit, not years of experience
-
Tell them your organization is going through change and change means opportunity to them
-
Stress it’s a fun, relaxed place to work
-
Talk of “hands-off supervision”
-
Have customer service departments for the workers to help them with special needs like finding day care and securing loans
Nexters
-
Stress your goals, understand their goals and interweave the two
-
Forget any gender roles
-
Teams can be larger, but need a strong leader
-
Watch for conflict between Xers and Nexters if they work closely
-
Promote training and skill building
-
Establish mentor programs
Generation Gaps In The Classroom
By Ron Zemke, Claire Raines, Bob Filipczak
In Training Magazine, November 1999
Tips for Training Veterans
They prefer a learning environment that is stable, orderly and risk-free. They tend to be conformers, so they like consistency, logic, and discipline. They prefer content to be anchored in precedent or related to tried-and-true practice. They like classroom style set-ups with conservative trainers who establish ground rules early and stick to them. They dislike too much familiarity and overly casual dress and speech.
They are respectful of authority and are the least likely group to have face-to-face disagreements. But it will show up on the evaluation forms. Tie learning to the overall good of the organization, missions, and long-term objectives. Make presentations straightforward and not too personal. Know that anecdotes are a turnoff; they want left-brained, logical material. Don’t put Vets on the spot in front of their peers or colleagues. Remember:
-
Don’t rush things. Train in an atmosphere as free of stress as possible.
-
Some Vets are uncomfortable learning things from a “wired 20-year-old.” Younger trainers in particular must be careful to build rapport.
-
Establish rapport by acknowledging the employee’s background and experience.
-
Ask permission to coach. Coach tactfully. Be respectful.
-
If you’re teaching computer skills, don’t assume all Vets are technophobes. Many older employees do just fine with technology – it’s just not their preferred milieu.
Tips for Training Boomers
-
Watch for the Boomer with an “I know it all” chip on the shoulder. Many, do in fact, know a lot – in a textbookish way. But they’re often not applying it.
-
Focus on personal challenges. Boomers want to solve problems and turn things around. Ask Linda Boomer how she might handle situation X if it arose in her area of responsibility.
-
Provide Boomers with developmental experiences – assignments that allow them to earn kudos, while you help them develop skills.
-
Approaches like Harrison Owens’ open-space meetings – which assume that the necessary expertise lies within the group itself and that participants should plan and implement every aspect of a conference agenda themselves – are in keeping with the Boomer’s preference for nonauthoritarian learning.
Tips for Training Xers
-
Gen Xers tend to ask a lot of questions, so allot plenty of time for questions and answers. Also, consider giving them a list of who to call for more information on the subject being covered.
-
Give them plenty of elbowroom. Yes, be there when they need help – but err on the side of freedom - back off and let them figure things out for themselves.
-
Add games and fun activities to training programs pitched at Xers.
-
Don’t expect them to respect you just because you’re the trainer. You’ll have to earn their respect through your knowledge on the subject.
Tips for Training Nexters
-
Whereas Gen Xers prefer self-directed learning options, most Nexters enjoy training that incorporates interaction with their colleagues.
-
Be sensitive to conflict when Xers and Nexters work side-by-side. The gap between these two generations may end up making the one between the Boomers and Xers look tame.
-
Establish mentor programs. Hewlett-Packard has developed a tremendously successful mentoring program with schoolchildren in which H-P employees connect with their proteges through e-mail.
-
Consider matching young employees with your most seasoned people – with whom they say they resonate. They particularly admire members of the Veteran generation.
What Xers Want From Employers
Not all Xers want the same thing, of course, but according to Jim Rapp in an August OfficeSystems 99 article, you can’t go wrong if you offer them:
-
Total honesty. It’s absolutely necessary to build a trusting relationship.
-
Unlimited access to information. They thrive on it.
-
Training for another job. Not the promise of another job, but acquiring the knowledge and skills needed for other jobs.
-
Total responsibility for projects. Let them achieve some goals entirely on their own.
-
Constant feedback. Make it informal. Use many channels to communicate, not just the verbal.
-
Few rules. Give them as much freedom as you possibly can.
-
Telecommuting. Offer them some work at home and provide the necessary resources.
-
The latest tools. Don’t skimp on hardware or software. Keep everything state-of-the-art.
Salespeople have found that Gen Xers respond positively to:
-
factual presentations
-
technical presentations
-
peer endorsements
-
written information
-
proofs of claims made
-
short presentations
Turn Ons That Mean Job Satisfaction
According to Morris Massey, one of the first to examine the changes in generations and attempt to give them some kind of meaning, people are turned on by different things. The following is a list of a wide variety of satisfiers that people can obtain from their jobs.
-
Help society – do something to contribute to the betterment of the world.
-
Help others – involvement in helping other people in a direct way individually or in small groups.
-
Public contact – have a lot of day-to-day contact with people.
-
Work with others – have a close working relationship with a group or work as a team toward certain goals.
-
Affiliation – be recognized as a member of a particular group/organization.
-
Friendships – develop close personal relationships with people as a result of work activities.
-
Competition – engage in activities that pit abilities against others where there are clear win/lose outcomes.
-
Make decisions – have the power to decide courses of action, policies, etc.
-
Work under pressure – work in situations where time pressure is prevalent and/or quality of work is judged critically by supervisors, customers, or others.
-
Influence people – be in a position to change attitudes or opinions of other people.
-
Work alone – do projects by oneself without any significant contact with others.
-
Knowledge – engage in the pursuit of knowledge, truth, and understanding.
-
Intellectual status – be regarded as a person of high intellectual prowess or as an “expert” in a given field.
-
Artistic creativity – engage in creative work in any of several art forms.
-
Creativity (general) – create new ideas, programs, organizational structures, or anything else not following a format previously developed by others.
-
Aesthetics – Be involved in studying or appreciating the beauty of things, ideas, etc.
-
Supervision – be directly responsible for the work done by others.
-
Change and variety – have work responsibilities that change frequently in content and setting.
-
Precision work – work in situations where there is little tolerance for error.
-
Stability – have a work routine and duties that are largely predictable and not likely to change over a long period of time.
-
Security – be assured of keeping a job and having reasonable financial reward.
-
Fast pace – work in circumstances where there is a high pace of activity; work must be done rapidly.
-
Recognition – be recognized in a visible or public way for the quality of work done.
-
Excitement – experience a high degree of or frequent stimulation in the course of a job.
-
Adventure – have work duties that frequently involve risk-taking.
-
Profit gained – have a strong likelihood of accumulating large amounts of money or other material gain.
-
Independence – being able to determine the nature of one’s work without seeking direction from others; not to have to do what others tell you to do.
-
Moral fulfillment – feel that work is contributing significantly to a set of moral standards that one feels is important.
-
Location – finding a job in a town/community that is conducive to a preferred lifestyle that affords the opportunity to do what one enjoys.
-
Community – living in a city or town where one can get involved in community affairs.
-
Physical talent – having a job which makes physical demands that one finds rewarding.
-
Time and freedom – having work responsibilities where one can work on one’s own schedule, no specific hours or location required.
-
Prestige of being the first – getting to participate in new endeavors or using new technology or equipment.
A good exercise would be to consider chapter or division roles (office responsibilities or committees) that would provide each of the listed satisfiers.