Imagine this scenario: the general manager of your organisation has retired, and his or her replacement is a 28 year old, straight out of graduate school. S/he’s anxious to get going, and you hope that s/he will bring some fresh ideas and energy into the organisation. 

As the weeks go by, however, you begin to see growing discomfort and conflict between the older staff and this new team member. Your older colleagues think the new kid on the block is overconfident, pushy, and too anxious to start work not a minute after 8am and not a minute after 6pm.

After a while, the young manager finds it tricky to get support from his or her older colleagues. S/he’s concerned that his or her older subordinates cannot or will not multitask, they are less confident with technology, and they are unwilling to share their hard-earned knowledge.

As a result, productivity suffers because cooperation is at a low point.

Many organisations have employee engagement policies that typically address employees as one cohort, and yet differences in generations of employees are evident.

That said, how can we bridge this generation gap, and why is this important?

Generation Y, also known as the millennials (born between 1980 and 2000), have values and work styles that are starkly different from that of Generation X (born between 1965 and 1979), and the baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964).

Seen as the largest age group in today’s workforce, Pew Research Centre indicates that the millennials are increasingly changing the way work is done as they work more in teams and use more digital technology.

Also, while boomers usually view long hours as evidence of loyalty and hard work, millennials tend to try to have more work/life balance; work hard, play hard type of attitude.

It appears that over the years, the millennials have seen their parents’ lack of quality of life, for various reasons of course, and they do not feel that life is just about work.

In addition to flexible hours and friendlier workplaces, millennial employees are interested in receiving regular feedback on performance rather than the infrequent traditional annual reviews.

This young generation of employees want to know that they have done a good job and they want to know now. Also, they expect to leverage technology to work efficiently, instead of staying late in the office to get everything done.

Boomers have traditionally felt that you have to ‘pay your dues’ to your organisation – and if you hate your job, that is just part of life. Millennials on the other hand do not accept this; they want rewarding, intellectually stimulating work, and they do not perform well under micromanagement. This new group prefers independence, room for creativity, and forward thinking. They embrace open-door policy where every employee has access to the top in the chain of command.

Notably, however, many have also observed that millennial employees seem always ready to leave an organisation and move onto something better, as soon as there is an opportunity.

While this argument holds water, it is not an indication that this new generation workforce is not loyal. It simply means that if you want to keep the best and brightest in your organisation, you need to offer them an environment that allows them to be flexible, creative and more importantly, an environment that embraces technology.

By and large, as the millennial generation grows in the workforce while generation X and baby boomers retire, public and private organisations striving for excellence will need to develop new employee engagement models that take into account the multigenerational differences.

The new models will have to accommodate teamwork and open communication values while at the same time encouraging collaboration. Unlike boomers, millennials will not expect to follow their leaders just because they are in charge.

They need to understand why things are done the way they are, hoping that a better way can be found.

As a result, if you are a member of a team whose leadership is being passed from an older generation leader to a new generation leader, you will probably need to adjust to having more autonomy delegated to you, and you may find that your boss is not around as much to check on things.

This new generation values action and hard work too, but they also know when it is time to leave the office and go play. After all, they can always keep on top of things from wherever with a click of a button.

junior.mutabazi@yahoo.co.uk