How key motivators differ across generations

From established Silent Generation employees to the Generation Y newcomers, workplace values and communication methods can vary greatly. Understanding the key differences among generations and what keeps them motivated at work can help you keep employees engaged and job satisfaction high.

The following are some findings from Engaging a Changing Workforce: A Study of Four Generations, by The Learning Café.

The study focused on four main groups: Millennials or Generation Y (born between 1977 and 1998), Generation X (born between 1965 and 1976), Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), and the Silent Generation (born between 1933 and 1945).


Everyone looks for a challenge

Across all generations, the top motivator was the same - “challenging, stimulating, varied work,” but different generations define the statement differently.

Millennials want to work on a variety of substantial, important projects that allow them to learn and use new skills. Baby Boomer and Silent Generation want their work to make a meaningful impact on the success of the organization.


Motivational differences across generations

Millennials and Gen Xers want career growth, learning and development. Gen Xers identify with older employees in the importance of their work making a difference.

Millennials list pay as their second most important motivator.

Gen Xers were the only group to include “healthy work/life balance/flexibility” high on their list of workplace motivators.

Baby Boomers value appreciation and recognition for the extra hours and hard work they put in.

The Silent Generation wants autonomy and the ability to innovate.


Demotivators by age group

All generations, place “boredom, no challenge” as a top four demotivator. Three out of four of the generations find frustration when unabe to learn, grow and develop.

Gen X noted “no work/life balance” and lack of development as top demotivators. Learning and development are the key factors to retaining Gen X employees, being that 77% would leave a job for more intellectual stimulation.

The top demotivator for Baby Boomers is a lack of appreciation, respect or recognition. The Silent Generation is similar to the Boomers, citing “feeling undervalued” as their top demotivator.


Bad bosses disliked across all generations

All generations placed having a “bad boss” as one of their top four demotivators, but each generation uses different qualities to define a “bad boss.”

Gen Xers don’t like to be micro-managed or have a boss who is insensitive to their need for work flexibility and family values.

Millennials want a boss who is like a coach or mentor and dislike bosses who play a more formal or hierarchical role.


Generational workplace conflict

Boomers who wear the number of hours worked each week as a badge of honor may look at Gen Xers as slackers because of their need for work/life balance.

Boomers and Millennials may bump heads in their different views of workplace interaction. Hard-working Baby Boomers dislike fun-loving Millennials who like to socialize in the office instead of being isolated in a cubicle.


Because of their different views regarding the workplace, generational conflict may be inevitable. However, understanding the differences across generations in the workplace can help you build teamwork, motivate and train employees despite their conflicting views.

5 simple ways to transfer knowledge between Gen Y and Baby Boomer employees

Currently, there are about 76 million Baby Boomers in the workforce, with 19 million ready to retire by 2011, according to the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp). Most organizations have done little or nothing to retain the valuable corporate knowledge retiring employees possess.

In May, i4cp surveyed 118 organizations to find out “what they have done or plan to do about tapping into the knowledge experience of Boomers as they approach retirement.” They found:

• The majority (71%) of survey respondents said their organization did not incorporate retirement forecasts into knowledge transfer practices.
• Only one-third incorporate a skills gap analysis into their retirement forecasts.
• Less than a quarter (23%) said they train managers in the art of critical skills transfer.
  

Another study by the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations backs up the i4cp findings. In a similar survey from February 2008, the Association found only 28% of over 400 small business owners are working on knowledge transfer plans and only 4% have a formal plan to transfer knowledge to younger employees.

Even with all the buzz and statistics about “Boomer brain drains” and lagging knowledge transfer plans, many have found a simple way to get started - teamwork.

Earlier this year, Tammy Erickson from Harvard Business published an article chronicling the ‘love fest’ between Baby Boomers and Generation Y. Her research found that Gen Yers and Boomers enjoy spending time together and learning from each other.

Gen Ys enjoy the challenge:

“Y’s, when faced with a new challenge, tend to function like a heat-seeking missile – single-mindedly pursuing the person in the organization with the most relevant experience. In many cases, this person is a Boomer – often in some distant part of the organization, or several hierarchical levels removed. This approach reflects how Y’s like to learn – from an expert, just-in-time, and in response to the specific challenge they need to address. And it reflects their comfort in relating to Boomers on a peer basis, developed over an adolescence of friendly interaction with their parents and parents’ friends.”

Boomers like the recognition and a chance to learn:

“Boomers are finding they enjoy the questions (once they get over the shock of receiving emails or text messages from very junior employees) and the obvious recognition of their expertise. They are even learning a lot themselves – new ways of communicating and thinking about getting things done.”

We know it has to be done and employees enjoy learning from each other, but how do we facilitate knowledge transfer across generations?

Margery Weinstein from Training Day shared a great idea in a post yesterday:

“To make knowledge transfer efforts more salient, pair up out-going workers with promising Gen Y and X'ers. Giving their presentations together will spice up the lesson. One way to do it is by having the Gen Y or X'er interview the retiring chieftain about his/her legacy and the company's upcoming challenges. Then have the old guy/gal on the block pose a few questions to the fledgling. Rather than let a perhaps partly loved/partly loathed executive get away with self-congratulatory rambling for an hour, this give-and-take approach is potentially more substantive.

Whether savior or ogre, you thought enough of them to capture their wisdom. They shouldn't mind fielding a few questions about their corporate savior/ogre methodology.”

Embrace the “love fest” and get your Boomers and Gen Y/Gen Xers working together. Here are some ideas for fostering corporate knowledge transfer from older to younger generations:

• Set up interviews. Use Weinstein’s idea and pair together retiring workers with promising younger employees. Let the pairs interview each other and create a presentation on their findings.
• Develop a shadowing program. Like an apprentice learning from a skilled craftsman, have your younger employees shadow older workers for a given period of time.
• Teamwork. Many employees learn best by doing, so find an upcoming project that the pair can work on together.
• Let them eat cake. Or at least lunch, on the company’s tab. Send the pair to lunch for some one-on-one bonding time. It will help them develop a personal relationship, rather than strictly focusing on work.
• Make it fun. Set up fun activities around the office for your Gen Y/Boomer pairs to participate in. If they know they can have fun together, there’s something they can learn from each other.

Teamwork between your Baby Boomer and Generation Y employees is the key to slowing the “brain drain.” Find opportunities to connect the generations together and keep valuable corporate knowledge from walking out the door with retiring employees.

Beat the Baby Boomer retirement 'brain drain'

As Baby Boomers move into their retirement years, they may be taking more than just their 401(k)s with them. Insider information and all the ‘tricks of the trade’ will retire with the Boomers, if companies don’t focus on transferring information to younger generations now.

The Baby Boomers are some of our country’s (and your company’s) longest running and most loyal employees. That time and loyalty has added up in the form of valuable corporate knowledge.

It’s estimated that by 2010, more than half of the U.S. workforce will be over 40 years old. In order to give them a little more leeway and delay the knowledge gap, many companies are doing anything they can to hang onto their older employees. More than 60 percent of U.S. companies are bringing back retirees as contractors or consultants, according to a recent AARP study.

A recent SHRM article examines how other companies are babying their Boomers to keep them working a little bit longer with health care benefits, flexible hours and guaranteed salary.

If keeping retirees on the job isn’t an option for your company, do your best to transfer the knowledge now. “How to Beat the Baby Boomer Retirement Blues” from CIO.com examines how some big name companies like Rolls-Royce dealt with the brain drain. Using both a knowledge management system and an employee tracking map, companies can manage the knowledge transfer effectively.

First, develop a knowledge management system. You must be able to tackle two types of knowledge: explicit and tacit. Explicit knowledge can be stored in databases or manuals. Tacit knowledge includes ‘tricks of the trade,’ personal experience, stories and creative business solutions.

Work on documenting explicit knowledge. Do your best to have the retiring employee document all the information someone in their position would need to know. Establish “Standard Operating Procedures” in the form of manuals, stored on your network. These even come in handy when an employee goes on extended leave.

Tacit knowledge can be transferred by experience. Have the employee who will be taking over the retiring employee’s job to shadow that person for a time. More than learning the facts, the younger employee will learn the method.

Going forward, track employees and soon-to-be retirees. Keep a database of all of your employees. Document how long they have been with the company, in what positions or departments, and if known, when they plan to leave or retire. A map like this could help you plan ahead when hit with multiple retirements or if an employee plans to go on extended leave.

Don’t be afraid to pair younger and older generations together, Harvard found that there's a "love fest" going on between the two. Gen Y and Baby Boomers generally like each other and enjoy learning from each other. Many times it is your Boomers who are the most energetic and engaged at work. Get some of that energy and excitement to rub off by pairing Generation Y workers with older coworkers.

Companies should encourage Boomer/Gen Y work relationships, in order to be more proactive than reactive when the retirement rush comes around. Do your best to hang onto the valuable corporate knowledge that has built up over the years in your Boomer employees and don't let it slip down the drain when the go.

Employee recognition ideas that don’t work

“Never give a plaque to an employee who has no wall!”

This quote from Anne Bares at Compensation Force sheds light on something important to remember when coming up with new employee recognition ideas - it doesn’t matter what you think is a great gift, give employees what they would most appreciate.

In one of our past posts, we mentioned that younger Gen Y employees would much rather have a gift card to their favorite store or a pair of movie tickets over a shiny silver “You’re #1” award pin.

An unfitting employee recognition award can actually have a negative outcome. A boss may think they’re giving a wonderful gift to an employee, but that same employee thinks the gift is old fashioned and that their boss doesn’t care.

Recognition needs to be tailored to the employee who is receiving it. Don’t assume someone will like a gift based on what you think is nice. The solution is simple - just ask your employees what they would most like to get.

Bares shares a great lesson:

Recognition can be a powerful and effective tool, particularly given its ability to accomplish a lot on a relatively small budget. But recognition plans can have extraordinarily limited shelf lives. You have to keep 'em fresh and keep 'em real, and you have to watch carefully for signs that they are fraying around the edges.

So keep it fresh, keep it real and keep on showing employees they're appreciated.

Motivating generation Y: How-to and how-not-to

Generation Y, Generation X and the Millenials ... accept it, they’re young and here to stay.

They like to be rewarded and taught in much different ways than their older counterparts. What are the best techniques to engage and motivate your Generation Y employees? Paul Herbert at Fistful of Talent has a few ideas to add.

- They don’t like top-down corporate control. They’ve been able to customize everything in life from their MySpace page to their sneakers. Give them an option to customize their incentive, reward and recognition programs. Herbert recommends creating a shell and asking the employee to fill in the blanks.

- Peer recognition is more valued than “boss” recognition. Lunch with the CEO has no appeal. Let them go to lunch on the company tab, with the employee friends of their choice.

- They won’t be motivated by out-dated incentives like employee anniversary lapel pins. Instead of giving them what you think they want, just ask them what type of incentive they would like.

“To sum up: Be honest, open, collaborative and fast. You'd be surprised how much you both will appreciate the results.”

And, because its Friday, here’s a great video demonstrating the “G.R.E.E.D.” motivational program, a new take on employee incentives.

Tips on motivating Gen X and Gen Y

Half of the workforce is now made up of younger generations, those we like to call Generation X, Gen Y or New Millennials. What’s a Baby Boomer to do when faced with the task of training these youngsters?

The first step is to understand what this new group of workers values in life.

Time. It’s precious and belongs to them. Staying late at work is crazy.

Technology. No, they will not put down their iPhone for a second, it is a part of who they are.

Loyalty. Younger generations are more loyal to a single person than to an entire organization. If they don’t like the boss they have, they’ll change jobs to find a new one.

Find out a few things from your younger employees:

What do they want to gain from their jobs and bosses?

How do pay and benefits affect their loyalty?

What motivates them at work?

How important is it to keep their job? If they’re still living with mom and dad, rent free, it may not be on the top of the list.

The job market is uncertain and always changing in the eyes of these young employees. Show them that your company is a secure place to be and that they are valued. A little bit of understanding may be all it takes to keep every generation at your company happy.