Finding and retaining top talent in today’s highly
competitive business environment is challenging and complex. We are five generations in the workforce,
all seeking work, but approaching it with very different styles and attitudes. Organizations are faced with an
ever-increasing demand for talent, a shrinking talent pool and a desperate need
to groom leadership from within.
The Baby Boomers, who climbed the corporate ladder, and
sacrificed personal life balance for success and prestige, are changing the
timeline of retirement. A 2015 Gallup
Poll shows that approximately 50% of Boomers age 60 and above are still
working, and a third who are 67 and above remain employed. The news continues
to report that 10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65 each day. In the not too distant future, this
generational mainstay of the workforce will disappear, except for those
resistant stalwarts who can’t imagine life without work and will continue until
they drop. Organizations throughout the
world are pondering how to deal with this loss of leadership and sheer volume
of experience and how to cultivate the four other generations garnering the
best each generation has to offer.
One population, the Millennials (born 1977 to 1995), is cited
as being very different job seekers and employees than Baby Boomers. But are they?
It’s often a challenge to Baby Boomer to understand and work with
Millennials, but to also use the differences between them to advance growth,
foster mentorship and help them make the transition to leading the future
workplace.
I fall on the younger side of the Baby Boomers, and though
I’ve always worked well with colleagues regardless of generation, I believe we
must make a better effort to bridge the generational divide.
The
Pew Research Center reports that more than one-in-three American workers
are Millennials and currently represent the largest share of the American
workforce. The more I read about them, the more I truly appreciated who they are! The distance between us (Boomers and Millennials) offers bold
opportunities for partnership that have the potential to be recruitment and retention
game changers when it comes to Talent.
But the trick is speaking to the differences between our generations and
then maximizing our strengths to their needs.
As Baby Boomers, we were the corporate ladder climbers, we strived for
leadership roles, and trained to reach success by investing in ourselves,
working as many hours as possible to catch the brass ring and we were willing
to wait or be tapped to achieve it.
Millennials are confident multi taskers. They are “can do” believers in their own
abilities who want to work in diverse teams and believe that leadership is the
ability to make an impact on their company’s success from day one, as well as
an ongoing impact on the world community.
They know they need some degree of structure and want training. They crave challenge and feedback from us,
but demand immediate opportunity and
respect for their work, and operate in a sphere of social media where constant
communication feedback and over-sharing are the norm. They will not be held
back and will not stay in a job and wait.
I say to any Baby Boomers struggling with how to turn over the keys,
this is not a problem, this is an invitation.
Millennials hold all of the ingredients for SUCCESS! They are tenacious
and will use the network and visibility that they have personally crafted to
advance to the next opportunity. They
are positioned with strength from Day One and are not afraid of change! That’s really not so very different from the
Baby Boomers, but the Baby Boomers journey and struggle to this same space was
perhaps longer and more arduous.
On a recent visit to an Apple store, I watched a Millennial
in action and admired his capabilities.
There he was at the “Genius Bar” surrounded by a multitude of consumers,
and an ever growing stack of problematic iphones, laptops and ipads. Jared, the young man, smiled broadly as his
hands and fingers rapidly took on the challenges before him. He knew everyone’s name at the Genius Bar,
remembered everyone’s immediate issues and was working very hard and quickly to
resolve them. He was courteous, clear
and determined. It was amazing to watch
his cool, confident, eager composure in the midst of total chaos. One by one the matters were resolved, and yet
for every one resolved, there seemed to be four more devices added to the
stacked pile and an increase in the crowd watching him. He thrived on the attention and on questions
being pelted his way. All the while
Jared’s eagerness and confidence kept climbing higher while he gave credit to
the triple expresso macchiato Venti
he enjoyed earlier as the source of his strength and his delight in doing
more. When my own iPhone’s issues
stumped him, he impressed me even more by reaching out to his Manager, Joseph
(a Baby Boomer), to join the team. Together,
they indeed resolved the matter by collaborating and respecting one another’s
input and skills. It was wonderful to
watch the interplay between the two generations and how each of them approached
the situation – each one with his own
bag of tricks, but with a united purpose and common goal.
As Managers and Leaders, I believe we must celebrate,
foster, support and embrace this generational detente. It means we may have to change our way of
thinking and see the similarities instead of the differences. We must raise up
these new young leaders, who – with our leadership, will develop faster if we
provide feedback, challenge, praise and acknowledgement. Help them rise within your ranks instead of
seeking a new opportunity elsewhere.
Unless you give them a reason to stay, they will always be looking. Losing talent is one of the greatest threats
to any organization. A joint
study by the firm Millennial Branding and the online career network Beyond.com
showed that Millenials leave because they believe they are not in a good
culture fit or their goals weren’t in line with their employer. Within their
teams and through their focus on work, we commit to feeding the Millennial
employee’s quest for balance so that they are given every opportunity to
achieve and perhaps even surpass their goals.
Their greatest enemy is boredom, lack of authority to achieve and not
enough challenges to quench their thirst for more. It’s our job to make sure we satisfy the
hunger, feed the spirit and provide a bounty of tasks to feed upon. If they don’t make it after that, they will
not have lived up to the meaning of a Millennial. If they do, they will have the baby Boomers
to thank and that will be our greatest legacy of all.
Jeanine Bondi Banks SCORE
Counselor
Visit us at: www.scoresouthflorida.net
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