Intergenerational Workforce: Maximizing Strengths for Workplace Success in 2019
by Rich Miller-Murphy
The intergenerational workforce is now the norm. Ever wonder why it seems harder and harder to get people to work together? Even in your own workplace, conflict is inevitable given so many age/generation variations working or trying to work side by side.
Today we have 4 or even 5 generations of workers in companies…
Traditionalists – born before 1946
Baby-boomers – born between 1946 and 1965
Gen Xers – born between 1965 and 1980
Gen Y (or Millennials) – born between 1981 and 1996
Gen Z (or Gen 2020) – born after 1996
When you then couple diversity with intergenerational workers, you definitely can encounter leadership challenges!
Diversity + Intergenerational Workforce = Leadership Challenges
Intergenerational Workforce Success: An Example
At our workplace, New York Blood Center Enterprises, we have staff from over 50 diverse cultures and all of the above mentioned generations working together. We try to maximize individual contributions by recognizing that each group has special areas of expertise to offer the collective corporate mission and everyone wants to help us achieve results.
- We start by recognizing and encouraging active communication.
- We assign work in areas of digital competence.
- We offer continuous training and assistance among generational colleagues.
(Some people learn in the classroom, some via PPT, some hands-on and some online!)
- We learn from each other without taking things too personally!
Part of our leadership challenge is to strategically “Drive Everything Digital” and we started this by introducing the Salesforce CRM platform in 2010. Now we are still training people and looking to move to the next level of Marketing automation and artificial intelligence. But it has been challenging to keep everyone moving forward and learning. We have started charting out pathways to learning digital skills by incorporating weekly training calls via ZOOM and bi-weekly in-person meetings to review basic platform functionality and processes. We’re excited about our growth and that’s what keeps us focused.
Recommended Online Reference: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/
Rich Miller-Murphy has worked in the healthcare industry for over twenty-five years, currently as Executive Director at New York Blood Center Enterprises (NYBCe) focusing on marketing initiatives for the organization’s Blood, Medical and Laboratory Services areas. Previously at NYBC, he was Chief – Strategy & Marketing, Office of the President and also managed the Office of Contracts/Pricing Administration for this $500M+ provider of blood products, research and medical programs serving patients locally, nationally and globally.
