Between the baby boomers, Generation X'ers and millennials, today's work force is filled with a wide range of employees who all come from various backgrounds and operate with different styles. That, of course, means managing these employees takes an understanding of each generation's values, says Stephen Coco, principal at Buck Consultants, a human resources consulting firm in New York City.
Greater flexibility and remote offices are especially becoming more popular among the millennials, says Rebecca Brereton, consultant in Buck's Talent and HR Solutions line of business. Traditionally, flexible and remote work arrangements were reserved for working mothers and those on the cusp of retirement, but now two-thirds of college students and young professionals believe an office is unnecessary for being productive, according to a 2011 Cisco study.
Coco says baby boomers have typically followed a more regimented schedule, but the millennials tend to be more focused on how and where the work is completed.
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"While Gen Y/millennials are comfortable both with being managed and managing others remotely, the other generations are less comfortable with remote management and may feel it gives employees too much freedom, leading to less efficient work habits and the opportunity to take advantage of what is seen as a privilege," Brereton says. "In fact, studies have shown that when given the freedom to work remotely, employees feel trusted and respected and, therefore, are both more loyal and more productive."
An employer should also help its work force engage in social media, which is easier for the millennials than the baby boomers, Coco adds. For millennials, social media is a part of their personal lives, and while more baby boomers have integrated social media on a personal level than in the past, it still does not play as strong of a role as it does to the millennials. To balance these two views, employers should look at other social media avenues besides Facebook.
"Sharing personal information or putting yourself out there in an unprivatized way is something a lot of baby boomers want restricted to a smaller audience," Coco says. "Using mechanisms such as corporate intranets and tools like Yammer instead of Facebook are platforms that we're seeing all generations adapt to. I think we'll see a greater increase for social media in the work force down the road."
Once all generations of the work force embrace their employer's social media efforts, the company can grow stronger as a whole, Coco says. Social media is a large part of an employer's marketing and communication success, and it's not going away anytime soon. An employer can be sure its competition is also using social media; thus, it needs to develop a strategy in order to compete.
"Social media is a mechanism by which companies will continue to use to publicize themselves, to allow for a voice of the people and for a ground swelling of ideas," Coco says. "If your organization, management and all generations of the work force don't get on board, you're at a real competitive disadvantage."
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