22 HR Magazine N ovem ber 2014 COVER STORY u H o w can em ployers capture th e skills and know ledge of four generations? By Susan Milligan h, those pesky Millennials, thinking they can set their own work schedules and demanding meaning in even the most mundane office tasks. Then there are the Baby Boomers, just biding their time until retirement, phoning it in, all the while complaining about how younger employJ ees aren't paying their dues. And what's up with those folks from Generation X? Don't they know how to work collaboratively? These are stereotypes, of course, but they are based on many people's perceptions as well as real inclinations that researchers have associated with the broad generational groups. And while employers have always had to deal with tension among different age groups (experienced old-timers grousing about cocky young upstarts, and vice versa), this marks the first time in history that four distinct generations are coexisting in the labor force. They are the Traditionalists (born 1922-45), IMAGES FROM SHUTTERSTOCK . November 2014 HR Magazine 23 COVER STORY Baby Boomers (born 1946-64), Generation X (born 1965-80) and M illennial (born 1981-2000), according to Jay Meschke, president of the Cleveland-based business consulting firm CBIZ Human Capital Services. Part of the reason for this four-generation mix at work is the recession, which prompted many Baby Boomers to delay retire ment while their 401(k)s recover. Moreover, many T raditionalistswho would have been considered past retirement age in an earlier erahave decided to keep working, either for money or for personal satisfaction. Each of the generations has a different way of learning, advancing and collabo rating. And while that is its own challenge, HR professionals and senior managers are dealing with another issue as well: how to ensure that vital knowledge and skills are being transferred among the different groups, especially since the older workers who delayed retirement during the recession are now beginning to think about leaving. \"From an HR standpoint, it's really critical,\" says Giselle Kovary, managing partner and co-founder of n-gen People Per formance Inc. and an expert on generational differences in the workplace. \"The big piece about the generational perspective is, how does it start to impact your human capital, and what is the capital risk?\" W hy K now ledge Transfer M atters Technology has had an enormous impact on the need for knowl edge transfer and education, with the high speed of development requiring workers from every generation to learn new technolo gies more quickly. Consider the telephone, says Brad Karsh, president of Chi cago-based professional training company JB Training Solu tions. When Karsh was born, his family had a rotary phonea device created in 1918 that didn't change much for a half cen tury. By comparison, there have been five versions of the iPhone in seven years. Fast-changing technology means workers have less time to get up to speed on important new skills. It also means older employ ees must be willing to learn from younger onesthe so-called \"digital natives\" who grew up immersed in computer and mobile technologies. In addition, employers can no longer count on employees fol lowing routine career paths. Traditionalists, for example, likely entered the workforce with the idea that they would have one career and possibly just a single employer. Baby Boomers and members of Generation X were prepared to work for a number of employers, but most likely in the same field. M illennial, however, are interested in both job- and career hopping. They might have eight different careers in their life timesnot because they're unhappy at work, but because they feel like a change or want to do serial, mini-retirements so they A lo t o f companies aren't ready yet for the looming retirements o f older workers. T hey were preparing, then stopped.' Deb LaMere, Ceridian can go hiking for two months. \"They'll be a freelance writer, a chef and then an engineer,\" Kovary says. \"That's completely reasonable to them.\" While that might produce an exciting path for the worker, it makes workforce planning a challenge for HR managers. They don't want to lose the knowledge and ideas of the younger gen eration, even as they are trying to ensure knowledge transfer from older employees who may start to retire as the economic recovery proceeds. A lot of companies aren't ready for the looming retirements of older workers, says Deb LaMere, vice president of employee engagement at Ceridian, a Minneapolis-based HR services firm. \"They were preparing, then stopped,\" she notes. \"Now we have to hurry up again.\" And with the economy turning around, even employees who aren't of retirement age are ready to make a change, even a risky one, such as starting a business or mov ing to another firm, she says, which adds to the uncertainty for HR managers. The Four G enerations To handle the knowledge exchangewhether or not it involves people on their way out the doormanagers must understand what drives the different generations and how that affects the way they teach and learn. It's about more than age. Much of what defines the generations is world events and parenting styles. Traditionalists. This generation may have lived through the Great Depression and World War II. Its members have strong ideas about loyalty and hard work, believing that both will be rewarded with financial and professional benefits. Job-hopping f W ATCH a video about m anaging fo u r generations at work: w w w .shrm .o rg /1114-m terg eneration al-kno w led ge-transfer 24 HR Magazine November 2014 is viewed as disloyal, and many have made a life tim e com m itm ent to one job or company. By the same token, T raditionalists are also more com fortable w orking on longer-term projects, Kovary notes in her book, Loyalty Unplugged: H ow to Get, Keep & Grow A ll Four Generations (Xlibris, 2007). B aby B oom ers. K now n as the \"m e\" genera tion, Boom ers were shaped by the V ietnam W ar, a tim e of g reat social change an d u ncertainty. T he b irth con tro l pill gave w om en m ore fre e dom to delay m oth erh o o d and pursue careers, an d the unrest of the 1960s im bued m any w ith a sense of social respo n sib ility as they fought \"the E stablishm ent.\" Loyalty am ong this group is to the team , n o t the organization or m anager. Such employees tend to operate com fortably in siloed o rgan izatio n s, seeking to rise to the top of th e ir p a rtic u la r sector. M any B oom ers are w orkaholics, w ith identities closely aligned w ith their professions. G eneration X. Parenting styles changed dra matically starting in the late 1960s, Karsh notes. P a r t i c i p a n t s in G l a x o S m i t h K l i n e 's F u t u r e L e a d e r s P r o g r a m , w h i c h r o t a t e s w o r k e r s t h r o u g h d if f e r e n t d e p a r tm e n ts to f a c ilit a t e le a r n in g . Instead of having mothers and fathers who looked like they came from the cast of \"Leave It to Beaver,\" many members of Generation X grew up in homes where both par Lor many Millennials, their first job out of college is their first ents worked and divorce was increasingly common. As a result, job ever, Karsh says. The percentage of teenagers with summer they often fended for themselvesw alking to school, making jobs has declined steadily for the past 18 years. And increased their lunches and waiting a couple of hours at home until a parent homework loads mean fewer kids are working after schcol. Kids returned from work. T hat has made for a group of employees who often have three or more hours of homework a night, says Laura are perfectly happy to toil away individually, Karsh says. \"They Sherbin, executive vice president and director of research at the don't like authority figures. They don't like being told w hat to do.\" Center for Talent Innovation in N ew York City. In addition, p ar ents have s teered their chil dren tow ard summer activ ities such as soccer cam p Parenting styles underwent big changes instead of a job at M cD on again in the 1980s. The mentality went from alds, according to K arsh. N ew emp.oyees wno have "M y children are the mostimportantthing in never h ac to deal w ith a my life" to "My children are the only thing in boss face a big adjustment. W h ile M il le n n i a ls my life .'" tend not to think that they Brad Karsh, JBTraining Solutions need to \" pay th e i: dues\" to advance at w o rk as older generations did it's M illennials. Parenting styles underwent big changes again in n ot fair to conclude th at they have no w ork ethic, says Tammy the 1980s. \"The mentality w ent from 'My children are the most Browning, senior vice president ofU.S. Field O perationsat Phil im portant thing in my life' to 'My children are the only thing in adelphia-based staffing firm Yoh. \"They have this Justin Bieber my life,' \" Karsh says. Kids were protected and lavishly praised, thought process, thinking they'll get discovered on YouTube,\" m aking for grown-up workers w ho are eager for feedback and she says. Yet \"they'll still work 60 hours a week. They just w ant perhaps a bit fragile when it's not all positive. to do it on their ow n schedule.\" > November 2014 HR Magazine 25 COVER STORY Generational Learning Preferences Traditionalists Baby Boomers Generation X Millennials Structured. Traditional classroom through facilitation. using technology. Edu-tainment. environment. Link learning to making Dislike being singled out. applying new skills. involved! Link learning w ith overall goals. Interactive/group learning Need tim e to practice Link learning to new ways to add value. Fluid, just-in-tim e learning Learn by doing get Teamwork and technology. money. Make the learning fun, skill- based; link to marketability. Source: n-g e n People P erform ance Inc., re p rin te d w ith perm ission. M illennials have also had to deal with constant global insta bility and economic ups and downs. This has made them very focused on bettering the com m unity and finding m eaning at work, not just a paycheck. \"For this generation coming up, their needs are so different. T here's got to be mobility [for them]. They're going to come in and work 12 to 15 m onths and move on,\" says Michael M olina, chief human resources officer at Vistage, a San Diego-based exec utive coaching service w ith 161 employees. \"It has very little to do w ith great pay, a great environm ent or great leadership. It's the purpose-driven life most of them w ant.\" Different Ways of Learning Although there are commonalities among the generations, there are differences as well. Conflicts often arise from differing learn ing styles, especially as they relate to how inform a tion is acquired and used, experts say. M illennials, for example, tend to process inform ation quickly and prefer to get it through com puters or social m edia, Brow ning says. \"M illennials learn faster th an any other generation, and they learn in short bursts,\" she explains, so forcing the youngest gen eration to sit thro u g h lengthy train in g sessions taught from a podium isn't the best option. Jan Becker, senior vice president of hum an resources at the 3 -D design firm Autodesk, which is based in San Rafael, Calif., and has 7,390 employ ees worldwide, has experienced the generational divide. She hosts \"coffee m ornings\" so staff can brainstorm together. W hen Becker asked for feed back on the inform ation made available to them by the company, a 50-year-old lawyer and a 35-yearold engineer reacted very differently. \"The older gentleman said, 'Well, you need to tell me. My m an ager hasn't told me, and his m anager hasn't told him.' He was very much saying, 'You need to feed it to me. I'm not going to find it,' \" Becker says. But the younger engineer had seen all the inform ation he needed online through the com pany's website 26 HR Magazine N o vem ber 2014 and intranet and didn't w ant or need to be told anything by a manager. Facilitating the Transfer Fortunately, there are things H R can do to make sure knowledge is transferred effectively am ong different generations, experts say, including through: M entoring an d reverse m entoring. In such arrangements, tw o employees are paired to share experience and basic techni cal knowledge. A younger w orker proficient in social media or basic H T M L can teach those skills to an older worker, and the older individual can provide institutional knowledge or advice on skills th at require experience or a learned kind of finesse, such as customer service or people management. At Vistage, a \"pal\" program matches people at similar levels \"ladder\" structure, w ith lower-level positions on bottom rungs building up to more-advanced roles th at require more responsibility and skill. But Generation X and M illen n ial may gravitate more tow ard paths th a t are spiral or web-like, with employees moving back and forth between vastly different roles and responsibility levels. By understanding these models, H R and managers can get a better picture of employees' expectations and work with them to capture w hat they know at different points on their career trajectories. Jo b sh a d o w in g a n d jo b ro tatio n . Employ ees in such programs either follow another worker around in his or her job, preparing for the pass ing of the baton or in the case of GlaxoSmith Kline (GSK), a global health care company based in Brentford, England are rotated around to dif ferent jobs upon entering the company. J o h n S w e n e y , HR m a n a g e r a t G la x o S m ith K lin e (a t c o m p u te r), w o r k s w it h e m p lo y e e s a s p a rt O ver the p ast few years, GSK has passed o f th e c o m p a n y 's ob r o ta tio n in itia tiv e s . hundreds of new college grads through various departm ents as p a rt of its Future Leaders P ro w ithin the organization so th a t the tw o can use each other as gram , says John Sweney, one of the firm 's H R m anagers and sounding boards as well as tutors. Ceridian has a \"buddy\" p ro director of the program . N ew and current employees can apply gram to help ycung workers navigate the terrain. And Autodesk for the program , which rotates the w orkers through different uses a reverse-m entoring program so that veteran staffers can departm ents over the course of tw o or three years. GSK also learn from you nger ones. Becker herself says that she has some offers a separate internship program , and participants can apply one at the company w ho helps her w ith social media for talent for the Future Leaders Program when they are done. \"They get acquisition groups. \"H e's tw o or three levels down from me,\" exposure to different parts of the business, having a new manager she says, \"and, at a more traditional organization, I probably and new mentors throughout,\" Sweney says. w ouldn't interact w ith him much.\" C ro ss-g en e ra tio n a l te a m -b u ild in g ev en ts. Bringing gen P h ased retirem ent. At the Zeeland, Mich., furniture manufac erations together for nonw ork tasks helps build com munication, turer Herman Miller Inc., with a staff of 6,000, employees are eli Becker says. At Autodesk, employees work together on a H abitat gible to begin tie retirement process two years ahead of their actual for H um anity project. In general, the more comfortable people departure date, working fewer hours as full retirement approaches. feel w ith each other, the more likely they are to ask one another T hat allows them to ease out of the job while slowly passing on their to share w hat they know or how to do something. knowledge ar.d skills to other employees in the process, says Tony I n te g r a tin g p r o je c t te a m s . At T riN et, a San L eandro, Cortese, senior vice president of people services. Calif.-based H R services provider, workers are assigned to w hat The workers continue to get full benefits even as they reduce are called \"cross-functional project team s,\" breaking dow n their hours to part time, while preparing financially and emotion the silos created from the basic workplace structure, says M or ally for the transition to retirement. \"It's a win-win solution,\" Cortese gan M assie, m anager of talent development. Employees work says. \"The employer benefits from the knowledge transfer, and the together on various initiatives or com mittees, and it gets them employee can co the appropriate planning.\" talking to each other. \"Different generations then work shoulder C a re er p a rh in g . At Ceridian, H R has mapped career paths to shoulder, regardless of tenure, age or experience, and it's an for positions in each division and shares the inform ation w ith environment where anyone can feel free to speak up,\" she says. all employees. This gives employees a clear plan if they w ant to Dnce H R departm ents begin to accom m odate a variety of move to a particular position in the future. Each w orker is then learning styles that facilitate knowledge transfer among the gen given a mentor to help guide him or her. \"It's integrating all the erations, they can focus more on the hum anity that unites every generations together. It's taking that knowledge and experience one and how to capture its wisdom for generations to come. D 3 and using it in a different capacity,\" LaM ere says. According to Kovary, Traditionalists and Boomers tend to Susan Milligan is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C. be accustomec ro career path models that follow a conventional N o vem b er 2014 H R M agazine 27 Copyright of HR Magazine is the property of Society for Human Resource Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use