Tools You Can Use: 4 Generations in the Workplace
Welcome to Tools You Can Use, our series about—what else?—tools you can use to improve your organization’s compliance outcomes, right now. In this series, we serve up resources such as worksheets, checklists, and how-to’s that our clients have found particularly useful in creating, assessing, and improving their compliance programs and compliance management systems.
Today’s tool is the 4 Generations in the Workforce worksheet.
Here’s a thought that will probably make you feel old: people born in the year 2000 are turning 18 this year. That’s right: the 21st century is officially passé. Gag me with a spoon.
Soon—if they haven’t already—members of Generation Z (or iGeneration, or Post-Millennials, or whatever we’re calling the new crop of young people) will be entering your workforce. And they’ll be bringing with them new expectations about work, new communication styles, and new patterns of behavior.
All this newness should serve as a reminder that we were all the precocious, hip, naive kid in our workplace at one point. Remember how old-fashioned things felt when you first started out? Remember all the great ideas you had, and all the people who told you had no clue what you were talking about?
Intergenerational conflict can be demoralizing for all parties involved. And when we think about employee motivation, we often overlook the critical ways that differences between age groups can impede collaboration and reduce employee engagement. Age may be just a number, but the various age groups can bring great value—and have an immense impact on retention in your organization.
With this worksheet, you’ll gain insight to turbocharge engagement across the generational spectrum. Use it as a tool to understand and address age-related tensions between millennials, Generation X, baby boomers, and matures—before Gen Z throws another fidget spinner-shaped wrench into the machine.*
Download the 4 Generations in the Workforce worksheet here.
Once you’ve reviewed the worksheet, it’s time to consider how you deliver training to your workforce, and whether your compliance management system is robust enough to tailor learning to various age groups. If you’d like to discuss your CMS with compliance professional, get in touch with us.
*Compli would like to apologize to all teens and twentysomethings for the antiquated reference to fidget spinners. We’re sorry AF.
