Generation gap

ONE of the more difficult tasks of managers nowadays is how to manage employees coming from different generations. Obviously, there are a lot of differences on the beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of people based on their generations.

Last week, I was given the opportunity to join a seminar organized by the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) Baguio Chapter that tackled among others managing multigenerational workforce. Although there are obvious differences that I know of, I learned a lot more than what I expected.

The facilitator, Mr. Jesse Rebustillo of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, was the former president of the national organization and has been an HR (Human Resources) practitioner for many years now. He started the talk with the quote, “The quality of an organization depends on the quality of the people.” This is one powerful statement that sends out a resounding message to many managers in various organizations.

Many managers think that organizations, especially the bigger, famous and influential ones can stand on their own laurels and reputations, forgetting the fact that the people who are the employees, the workforce of the organization, being the most important assets, are essential to their success or downfall. This is consistent to the perspective that expenditures related to the personnel is an investment rather than a cost.

If human resources are considered as a cost center and if there will be costcutting measures that will be done in the organization, the first that is thought of is reducing the workforce. It is considered an investment because when people grow in the organization, the quality of their work will be the basis of the growth of the organization as well.

It is in this context that the need to have a good understanding of the generational differences of the workforce is very important now more than ever. At present, the workforce as well as the workplace is very diverse with respect to race, gender, ethnicity, etc. It is also at this present time that there are four generations working together in organizations, all having unique qualities and different attributes towards work, specifically and towards life, in general.

The four generations that we are talking about are: the Traditionalists, those born from 1924 to 1942; the Baby Boomers (1943-1961); the Generation X (1962-1980); and the Generation Y or Millennials (1981 to 1999). The Generation Z, born from year 2000 to present, are the next generation who will be joining the workforce in a few years.

The facilitator warned the participants, who are mostly HR practitioners and managers in different organizations that if there is a lack in understanding across generations, they may be detrimental effects on working relationships and communication amongst them which will have a disastrous effect on the organization.

The Traditionalists are those that were born at a time when the Great Depression happened as well as the start of the second world war. Being born at this time, they are more likely not to attack the instituted by generations before them, but they focus on improving these institutions for the benefit of everyone.

They work within a system rather than to change it. Those from this generation have loyalty to the company and are not comfortable having conflicts and disagreements at work.

Mr. Rebustillo describes the Baby Boomers as very idealistic, and generally have issues toward their parents and think that they would not raise their children differently from how they were raised. Their values include strong work ethics, loyalty and commitment, and delayed gratification.

Therefore, rewarding the people from this generation is more effective after a certain period of time has gone by. For example, those who have been religiously coming to work without absences and tardiness are rewarded at the end of the year. They would appreciate this recognition.

The Generation Xers were born at the time when the first man walked on the moon, and video games and personal computers became famous. They were described by Mr. Rebustillos as conscientious, pragmatic and self-sufficient, because they were born and raised at the time when children were the least among the social priorities. This is the reason why they are also “me” oriented.

If the Baby Boomers are teamoriented and relationship builders, the Gen Xers are task-oriented, self-paced and hate group work. They have special focus on the speed. The Generation Y, also called Millennials are supposedly the most misunderof

stood generation. These are the people that were born during the boom of the dot.com era and are the recipients of the Baby Boomers’ success as these are already the children of the Baby Boomers.

They were born at the time when there was individualization and globalization, a paradox of some sort. This is the reason why the Millennials are described to be civic-minded, optimistic and have the belief that they have the potential to be great.

Since the Millennials were born during the time of the great technological progress, they are described to work by trying it their own way, always looking for better and faster way of doing things. They prefer graphics before text that is why they thrive more using Instagram and Facebook, but would skip the long text posts.