Managing a Multi-Generational Workplace

  • 1 min read

Millennials keep joining to the workforce and their numbers grow each day in the companies. Meanwhile, due to harsh economic conditions, Baby Boomers and Gen X postpone retirement and actively keep working. This leaves managers with a challenge of managing teams which consist of three generations.  Each generation has their strengths and weaknesses. The importance is to know which generation’s skills fit best to a certain task so that managers can assign parts of a project accordingly.

According to an infographic done by Yorton Clark Jr., a professor and chair of the business administration department at MidAmerica Nazreen University, below are the eye-catching facts about these three generations.

  • There are 53.5 million millennials out there in the US workforce. This makes up 35% of the total workforce. Gen X consists of 52.7 million workers and finally, Baby Boomers consist of 44.6 million workers.
  • 75% of the managers agree that managing three generational teams is a challenge.
  • While 55% of millennials describe their generation as the most productive, Gen X and Baby Boomers disagree with this.
  • Employees from Gen X and Baby Boomers think that millennials lack work ethics and millennials seem to support this opinion. Only 37% of millennials describe their generation as having a strong work ethic.
  • Millennials want to grow their careers and are very open to learning opportunities. 61% of millennials stated that they have a mentor and 94% of this group reported that they receive good advice from their mentors.
  • When it comes to Gen X, they also think that they are the most productive generation. 74% of Gen X describe their generation as the most productive. The reason for this is that Gen X believe that they are the best problem solvers.
  • 49% of Gen X believe that their generation is the most creative. However, millennials strongly disagree with this opinion.
  • When it comes to Baby Boomers, only 14% of them think that their generation is the least cooperative. On the other hand, Gen X and millennials disagree with this and think that Baby Boomers are not cooperative at all.
  • 61% of baby boomers describe their generation as the most friendly and helpful. However, the other two generations disagree.
  • Only 20% of Baby Boomers think their generation is the most creative.
  • Only 20% of Baby Boomers leave the office to eat lunch. It is important for managers to encourage their team to eat lunch outside because studies have found that creativity and innovation spark when people change environment.

You can find the full infographic in this link.

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Ceren Cubukcu

Ceren Cubukcu is a top 5 bestselling author of Make Your American Dream A Reality: How to Find a Job as an International Student in the United States. She recently founded her consulting business to help more international students find jobs in the US in addition to her self-service digital event ticketing platform, Etkinlik Fabrikam (My Event Factory), to offer her webinars. 

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