With 4 generations in the workplace, employers expected to juggle vastly different expectations

For the first time in contemporaryhistory, there are four generations in the workforce baby boomers, Generation X, millennials and the first of generation Z human resources experts say.

With employees ranging in age from their late teens to their 70s,businesses must tailor management styles to the multi-generational workforce.

The wide age gapis "pretty unprecedented," saidDalhousie University professor Eddy Ng, who teaches human resources management at the Rowe School of Business in Halifax.

"This can become a contentious issue when you have four generations at workwith different value sets and expectations of each other. It makes it a bit more challenging for managers to handle."

Ng saidmost company policies were written by boomers toreflecttheir own work style a standard day at the office featuring plenty of face time. "Then they had millennials come in and disrupt the workplace."

Theyasked for things like flexible work arrangements, and progressive workplaces have adapted,he said.

Now, the oldest of thosemillennials, born between 1981 and 1995, are in their late 30s, saidNg. They're being joined in the workplace by members of generation Z, born between1996 and 2010.

Bruce Mayhew, a human resources consultant and trainer, saidthe workforce of today isboth "culturally dynamic" and wide-ranging in age. "Those things are really impacting the way that we communicate, the way we listen,and what we think might motivate the person sitting beside us."

Different views on loyalty

Given the size of their cohort, boomers have always worked in environments where most people wanted the same things that they did, he said.Advancement up the corporate ladder and loyalty have beentwo big pillars of the boomer working life.

"When you're looking at what happened historically, boomers were very loyal," saidMayhew."Globalization came and companies started letting people go."

Some gen Xers and older millennials saw theirloyal 50-year-old parents "havetheir lives completely erupted" by layoffs from companies where they'd worked for two decades or more, he said.

Mayhew saidthis led gen Xers to conclude:"If they're not going to be loyal to us, why should we stay?"

They were the first to move quite freely between workplaces, he said."Gen Xers would leave for a better job. Millennials will leave and then go find a better job."

Those experiences also shape the kind of hours and sacrifice younger generations are willing to make for a company.

More importance on lifestyle, impact

Aiman Attar sees that playing out in her work as a recruiter forthe real estate industry, hiring mostly executive assistants and other administration staff to support realtors and brokers.

Betweenthe tight labour market and the shifting values of potential hires, Attar saidher company has had to do a lot of "re-education" around client expectations and managementpractices.

Boomer real estate agents are accustomed to working long hours including plenty of evenings and weekends with the payoff of big commission cheques in mind, she said. What's changed is that they can no longer recruit young assistants to work those same hours for $40,000 per year.

"There arecertain expectations that they could get 10 years ago that they can't get anymore," she says. "Millennials want work-life balance. A lot of them would like to work from home. They don't see the need to be at the office."

Likewise, Attar saidrealtors would like assistants to stay with them for 10 or15 years."But that's really old school.The younger generations can't stay in the same position for 10 years."

Carly Silberstein is CEO of Redstone Agency,an event and association management firm based in Toronto where millennial staffers are partnered with mostly older clientele.

It's important to understand what motivates younger generations,saidSilberstein.

"Millennials and gen Z are just looking for purpose," she says."While yes, it's a paycheque and having that financial support is definitely important I think that having purpose and working toward a larger goal of something that's bigger than themselves is something they're looking for ... in the work that they do."

Keeping that top of mind is key for attracting and retaining talent, saidSilberstein.

Retirement age rising

On the other end of the age spectrum at work, the boomers have changed the way Canadiansthink aboutretirement.

Since 2000, the average retirement age has risen from 61.6 to 63.8, according to Statistics Canada data, and that trend is unlikely to reverse.

"In thinking about this multigenerational workforce, the context of population aging is extremely important," saidStevenTobin, executive director of the Labour Market Information Council, an Ottawa-based non-profit that helps Canadians navigate the changing world of work. "Our population is aging which means the labour force is expected to shrink."

That's particularly problematic given there's already alabour shortage affecting business in many parts of Canada. Without a full complement of staff, part of the economy could slow.

"To mitigate that slow down, we absolutely must encourage a diverse mix of people to join and stay in the workforce, and age is a critical component of that diversity."

Think knowledge exchange, not knowledge transfer

When the implications of the aging workforce first began to catch the business world's attention about 10 years ago, Tobin saidthe focus was on mitigating the loss of knowledge in the workplace when boomers retire by ensuring that knowledge is passed down to younger workers.

"We thought about this being uni-directionalolder workers transferring knowledge to younger workers," he said.

There is an opportunity andpotential to learn from one another, to complement each other and share that respective knowledge and expertise.- StevenTobin,LabourMarket Information Council

Instead, managers need to think about helping different generations ofstaff to exchange knowledge. One example: technology.

"Given that technology is changing, there are new and different skills being demanded in this economy," saidTobin. Younger generations can share technical skills, while older generations pass on industry knowledge and overall wisdom about the workplace.

"There is an opportunity andpotential to learn from one another, to complement each other and share that respective knowledge and expertise. Each generation brings a unique set of skills that others can benefit from."