Face-to-Face Communication, Tailored Incentives Critical in Managing Intergenerational Workplace Issues in IT

The workplace is made up of a complex grouping of people from diverse generations, cultures, and career backgrounds, and managing these differences can be a difficult task. The latest findings from an international workplace survey by global workforce solutions leader Kelly Services® examine the key intergenerational differences that characterize the modern workplace. They reveal the views of Gen Y (age 18 – 29), Gen X (age 30 – 47), and baby boomers (age 48 – 65) toward workplace issues including communication styles and attitudes toward rewards.

Introduction

Managing diversity in the workplace can be challenging, particularly when it involves bringing together people from different generations.

Each generation has its own characteristics and preferences on how it wants to be managed, and these factors should be integrated into the practices and policies of the workplace.

The latest findings of the Kelly Global Workforce Index show that while attitudinal differences across age groups of workers in IT can cause conflict, most employees see them as enhancing or having a neutral impact on productivity.

The survey obtained the views of nearly 100,000 people in 33 countries including more than 6,000 in the IT industry across North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region.

What the Survey Found

Across the global IT sector, the main findings of the survey are:

• 41% of respondents say generational differences make the workplace more productive, while 23% say they interfere with productivity, and 25% say they make no difference.
• 76% say they feel they understand the generational differences in the workplace.
• 39% say they have experienced generational conflict in the workplace.
• The preferred type of communication nominated by 72% of respondents is face-toface communication, followed by written correspondence, including e-mail (18%), instant message/chat (6%), and phone and voicemail (3%).
• 73% say that they adapt their communication style to colleagues from a different generation.
• 47% say they are not being managed and rewarded in a way that meets their hopes and expectations.
• When receiving rewards and bonuses, 56% prefer traditional monetary rewards, and 33% prefer non-traditional rewards such as time off work and training opportunities.

Understanding the Generation Gap

With many years of media focus on the so-called generation gap, perhaps it’s not surprising that almost eight out of 10 employees surveyed globally say they understand differences between the generations.

This perception is higher among baby boomers (81%) than Gen X (78%) and Gen Y (74%).

This would suggest older workers feel that they know more about younger generations, perhaps because of their own history and life experience.

This may be an over-simplification or could point to the widely held view that younger generations are more focused on their own issues.

This idea that Gen Y employees want to shape their jobs to fit their lives rather than adapt their lives to the workplace is sparking calls for greater engagement by their (mostly) baby boomer managers.

The survey finds Gen Y and Gen X employees in the IT sector may be more accommodating in adapting their own communication style than baby boomers realize.

Intergenerational Conflict – a Significant Issue

There’s no doubt employee conflict is a potentially serious issue in almost every workplace with its ability to damage productivity, erode a company’s reputation as an employer of choice, and lead to litigation in some cases.

Some 39% of employees say they have experienced intergenerational conflict, ranging from 35% of baby boomers, 37% of Gen Y, and 42% of Gen X.

Age Diversity and Productivity

There is considerable uncertainty as to whether generational diversity leads to a more productive workplace.

A total of 41% say it has a positive impact on productivity, 23% say it interferes with productivity, 25% say it makes no difference, and the remainder (11%) are undecided.

Baby boomers (43%) are the most positive when it comes to the productivity benefits, followed by Gen Y (41%) and Gen X (40%).

In short, just under half of the workforce does not believe that the grouping of different ages in the workplace produces any positive benefit.

The ambiguity among all age groups on this critical question of productivity demonstrates a deep-seated, if largely unstated, problem; there is a high degree of shared concern that the generational melting pot is not working as it should.

This may stem from inequitable work practices or a lack of an effective team-building culture.

When viewed from an international perspective, there is a good deal of variation in how individual countries view the generation-inspired productivity benefits.

There are large perceived benefits in countries such as Germany, Portugal, China, Puerto Rico, India, and Indonesia. But at the other end of the spectrum, countries such as Russia, Denmark, Ukraine, and Turkey are not experiencing the same efficiency gains.

The Human Touch is Still Critical

We’ve all heard stories about offices where employees involved themselves in lengthy and often misinterpreted email conversations with someonesitting at a workstation that was just a 30-second walk away.

Most workplaces invest heavily in new technology systems to make internal communication quicker and clearer and information more easily retrievable. While this investment has been seen by most organizations as inevitable, it may be time to carefully consider how they use these tools, especially for employee peer communication.

An overwhelming number of employees (72%) nominate face-to-face discussion as their preferred means of communicating with colleagues and coworkers. This preference is slightly higher among baby boomers (76%) but is consistent across Gen Y and X (both 72%).

Instant messaging has been seen by managers as a fast and cheap method of communicating common information directly among aligned groups of employees, but there appears to be little enthusiasm for it among survey respondents (6%).

This contradicts the view that Gen Y, who are widely known for their use of instant messaging in social scenarios, prefer instant messaging in the workplace.

Phone and voicemail rated poorly at 3% in total. Written correspondence was more popular (18%) with little variance in support across the age groups.

Effective communication is vital to a productive and happy workplace. However, one communication style may not suit all employees.

To communicate successfully across the many personalities, positions, and age groups in an organization, employees will constantly adapt their communication styles. For instance, very few employees would communicate in the same way to their colleagues as they would to their customers.

With a broad spectrum of generations in the workplace, flexible communication is essential.

Survey respondents agree, with 73% saying they adapt their communication style when liaising with colleagues from a different generation.

This decreases with age, with 76% of Gen Y, 72% of Gen X, and 66% of baby boomers indicating they are willing to be flexible in their communication.

Rewards Not Matching Expectations

Employee reward and recognition programs have become increasingly prominent in driving productivity in recent decades. Employers have enthusiastically linked them to individual performance goals, seeing this as a tangible way of rewarding employees who contribute to collective success.

IT employees are sending a clear message that employers are not rewarding them in ways that meet their hopes and expectations, with 53% happy with their current arrangements.

Almost half (47%) are dissatisfied with rewards and recognition. This escalates with age, from 41% of Gen Y, to 52% of Gen X, and 56% of baby boomers.

When it comes to receiving rewards, 56% of employees express a preference for traditional monetary rewards or promotions, and only 33% nominate incentives such as time off work or training opportunities.

Gen Y (57%) are more likely to favor traditional monetary rewards than Gen X (55%) and baby boomers (51%).

Conclusion

Being able to draw on and obtain the best from employees across all age ranges is an important characteristic of productive and happy workplaces.

Managing the skills, expectations, and aspirations of each can mean the difference between a stable and profitable employer of choice and a dysfunctional workplace.

Employees are acutely aware of the cultural, experiential, skill-set, and communication differences between generational groups. Many have experienced workplace conflict arising from these differences.

Most employees go out of their way to adapt the way they communicate with colleagues from a different age group.

New information channels have enabled faster, but not always more effective, communication in IT. Employees still value the ability to engage colleagues in person.

Many IT managers do not appear to be matching employee expectations to reward and recognition programs, with almost half of all groups dissatisfied.

Understanding the magnitude of generational differences and managing the expectations of thevarious groups are not simple tasks but can significantly enhance organizational performance.