Generational shifts influence all areas of society, and it is in the workplace where people of different ages and backgrounds are most likely to encounter one another.
This creates both challenges to overcome and opportunities to grasp. The first step is to understand how work culture differs from age group to age group, so here is a look at the main areas where opinions and approaches diverge.
Communication
The way employees of different generations communicate is one of the most impactful talking points from a business perspective.
For example, while Baby Boomers and Gen-X employees are still entirely comfortable making phone calls, Millennials and Gen-Z team members will usually prefer email or other forms of digital, non-verbal communication.
Businesses need to be aware of employee expectations when it comes to communication and accommodate them as much as possible. This also applies to the software and services that are made available to workers.
In the case that you implement a new solution for managing HR matters, such as leave request software to handle time-off requests, this must be user-friendly and intuitive regardless of who is using it. It is not enough to assume that every member of your staff will be up to speed with such services, as this can alienate individuals who were not born as digital natives.
Deference & loyalty
Another significant distinction between older and younger generations of workers is that the former tend to be both more deferential to those in authoritative positions within an organization and also more loyal to a given business.
This comes down to how the job market has shifted in recent years. While Baby Boomers might have reasonably expected a job for life from an employer, this kind of stability has been eroded over time, leaving Millennials to cope with the so-called ‘gig economy’ where it is more common to be freelance rather than having a permanent role.
Of course, individual businesses can alter the way that employees perceive their relationship with the company they work for, ensuring that everyone is invested in the long-term success of the organization and also feels like their contributions are being recognized.
Work-life balance
Back in the middle of the 20th century, there was a general consensus that the rise of technology would allow people to work fewer hours and have more leisure time for themselves.
This was certainly the case in comparison with earlier periods, such as the Industrial Revolution. But today people are working longer hours and spending more time dealing with professional matters, specifically because technology has left them unable to detach themselves from the office.
The idea of having a healthy work-life balance is evolving and being more widely embraced right now, and yet there are still differences in how team members interpret this depending on the era in which they grew up.
Younger workers are less likely to have a problem with being expected to handle work emails when they are out of the office, for example. Meanwhile, their older colleagues, who still remember a time when clocking off left them completely unconnected from their workplace, can find this state of affairs less amenable.
Just because businesses can keep employees on a technological leash, does not mean they should. Doing so can foster discontent, increase stress, and ultimately lower productivity across all age groups.
Ultimately it is essential for managers and decision-makers to implement team-building exercises and encourage cross-generational collaboration so that the differences in work culture are less pronounced or problematic. Likewise, listening to feedback from employees will let you gauge how effective your tactics are.
