Enough About Millennials. Here's How to Foster Intergenerational Collaboration in the Workplace.
Author’s Note: I originally published this article on LinkedIn on February 20, 2018.
What do millennials want? You can’t go to a conference these days without seeing at least two sessions that address this conundrum. One might even be delivered by a ‘millennial workplace expert’ like me. While our obsession with millennials is certainly warranted—there are 75 million of them in America, and they represent the largest generation in the workforce—over-focusing on one generation creates more problems for organizations, often alienating Gen-X and Baby Boomer employees. It’s time we stop worrying about what millennials want, and start asking how we can create a workplace where everyone feels heard and where every employee matters.
Here are ten ways to foster international collaboration and create a company culture that works for everyone.
1. Remember that purpose isn’t a millennial thing, purpose is cross-generational
Purpose and meaning often get framed as uniquely millennial values. The truth is that all employees are searching for meaningful work that makes them excited to wake up in the morning.
2. Value your employees through coaching and mentorship
A study by The Energy Project and Harvard Business Review found that employees who have supportive supervisors are nearly 70 percent more engaged. If you want your employees to feel cared for by their supervisor, increase access to coaching and mentoring opportunities.
3. Create co-leadership opportunities so millennials and Baby Boomers can learn from each other
One way to foster inter-generational collaboration is to encourage co-leadership opportunities, where early talent and more experienced talent have the opportunity to co-lead a project that is of paramount value to C-level executives. This way, a hungry millennial has the ability to step-up and take ownership, while learning from someone who is an expert in their field. Co-leadership values the great wealth of experience and knowledge Baby Boomer employees have, while accepting that Baby Boomers may benefit from seeing a new product or initiative from the perspective of a younger employee.
4. Treat company culture like a product
Glassdoor has found that the main reason people leave a job is to go to a firm with a better company culture. But culture is not a mission statement or words on a piece of paper. It’s a living, breathing set of people, priorities, and programs that evolves every time you hire a new employee, and every time something new happens in the world. Justin Rosenstein, co-founder and head of product at Asana, named the best culture in tech by Fast Company, believes that company culture is something that can be improved upon, enhanced, and prototyped, just like software. Commitment to core values such as inclusion, communication, honesty, compassion, mindfulness, and healthy work-life balance, provide the foundation for Asana’s popular culture.
5. Make performance management about your people, not about their KPIs
All employees, regardless of age, want more agency in the types of projects they work on, how they work, and how their performance is measured. Tools like Glint, Reflektive, and CultureAmp, create opportunities for data-driven performance management, real-time feedback, and positive reinforcement. Backed by positive psychology research, 15Five helps organizations determine the right questions for weekly employee feedback and engagement check-ins. Many companies have abandoned the annual performance review all together, opting for frequent check-ins, employee feedback surveys, and personalized performance metrics. Instead of having 'exit interviews', where employees tell their supervisor everything that isn’t working on their last day in the office, I encourage teams to have 'stay interviews', allowing supervisors to routinely ask their employees, “What isn’t working for you? What could we be doing better? What would make you want to stay in your job for another year—or three years?”
6. Invest in Gen-X
Companies routinely ignore the needs and contributions of Gen-X employees in their late 30s to early 50s, in middle and upper management, often tasked with the challenging role of managing vocal and hard-to-please millennials. Companies should spend more time investing in leadership development for Gen-X employees, as the growth and success of many organizations depends on this talent. Tirza Hollenhorst from Luman.io works with large companies like Siemens to build intrapreneurship bootcamps for top performers, which is a great way to invest in your middle and upper leadership.
7. Take employee wellness seriously
The Energy Project found that only 56 percent of employees feel physically energized at work. Fatigue is costing organizations money. For all the millennial generation’s emphasis on passion and hustle, workplaces instead need to do a better job of prioritizing patience and balance. Employees who take a break every 90 minutes report a 30 percent higher level of focus, a 50 percent greater capacity to think creatively, and a 46 percent higher level of health and well-being. Rather than rewarding hustle and a competitive work culture, companies should be recommending their employees take frequent breaks for meditation or relaxation, and that they go home early to spend more time with their families.
8. Prioritize focus, and get rid of cell phones in meetings
If you think millennials are distracted, just wait until Gen-Z (the Smartphone generation) joins the workforce en masse. Too many employees, especially younger employees, are spending their days on social media, instead of doing their job, and research has linked time online to surging levels of anxiety and depression. Getting people off their phones increases connection, communication, and empathy, which are essential for any high-performing culture.
9. Always be learning
Deloitte’s annual Millennial Survey found that millennials expect their job to provide learning and leadership development. With rapid changes in technology, all employees, regardless of age, are using their position as a stepping stone to reinvent their career. The workplace has become the new grad school. Create a culture of learning by encouraging employees to share new ideas, try new projects, learn new skills, take online classes, and collaborate across teams and disciplines.
10. Belonging happens when tough conversations happen
Increasing employee engagement isn’t easy, but it starts with open and honest communication about challenges your organization is facing. Whether it’s diversity and inclusion, or intergenerational collaboration, the path to a more engaged workplace begins with admitting you have a problem and addressing your challenge head on. If you want to create a company culture where everyone belongs, then the first place to start is listening to the people who don’t feel seen or heard. As the Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging group at SYPartners explains, “Top-down only approaches drive compliance, not commitment. From senior leaders to frontline employees, every individual across a wide range of diversities must see and understand their role in company culture. This means identifying differences in employee experience and values across the organization so that change can be made relevant for each person.”
Author’s Note: I originally published this article on LinkedIn on February 20, 2018.
