Today’s workforce is different than any other as it is comprised of four distinct generations of workers.

While this diversity can provide opportunities for organizations, it often presents challenges as well. On Tuesday, April 13, the Office of Alumni Affairs and Development and the Faculty of Business Administration’s Gardiner Centre hosted a panel discussion to discuss the multigenerational workforce and the associated opportunities and challenges that it creates for businesses.

Panellist Dr. Travor Brown, from the Faculty of Business Administration, started the evening by defining a generation as a group of individuals who grew up in the same context, therefore having a shared set of views and values. It is easy to understand then what challenges may arise in a workforce when employees do not share a common foundation.

This was exemplified further by examining the general characteristics and objectives of the four generations who currently comprise the workforce: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. These ranged respectively from strong characteristics of organizational loyalty and commitment, to prioritizing job security and a pension, to desires for work-life balance and schedule flexibility in one’s job.

Dr. Rob Shea, Faculty of Education, noted that over the years, the career ladder analogy is no longer accurate.

"Workers now play on a career jungle gym: moving up, down and across positions at a rapid pace,” he said. “This is especially the case for Generation X, because they suffered from underemployment and fewer available jobs than previous generations."

A further examination of Generation Y --  or ‘why not’ as one panellist described them, given this segment’s questioning nature, quickly became a focal point of the evening, as Jocelyn Power of Newfoundland Power and Bradley George of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business shared their experiences with this tech-savvy group who are the fastest growing segment in the labour force.

Jocelyn Power shared that, in her experience, this generation expects both employee development and time flexibility. Indeed, in a recent job interview situation, she realized she was the one being interviewed by the Generation Y candidate, as the candidate was the one evaluating his options. Ms. Power explained that this generation is not just today’s employees, but are now also customers, with a new set of expectations for services such as paperless billing and round the clock service via the Internet.

Mr. George echoed the sentiment, saying that these experiences were also common among small business, citing recruitment and retention concerns as main issues for this group. He said that to leverage the diversity in today’s workforce, it is essential to understand the differing values and views across generations.

Understanding these differences will allow employers to benefit from a multigenerational workforce and the sharing of experiences and practices that can occur among workers, particularly when mentoring programs are established correctly.

All four panellists agreed that magic happens when the different generations work together in synergy, sharing information and ideas.

The panellist presentation was followed by a lively question and answer period and post-event networking session with the panellists and the multigenerational audience.

The key take-a-way from the event? The multigenerational workforce presents a tremendous opportunity for businesses to take advantage of organizational experience coupled with youthful enthusiasm and technical know-how. However, matching and merging the two takes effort and a willingness to understand and appreciate the context of another generation.