Mistakes to Avoid When Managing a Multi Generational Workforce – More than reaching targets and chasing deadlines, the most challenging work a manager or a company faces is effectively managing a team with a multi generational workforce.
According to the New York Times, with the oldest members turning 20 and 21, Gen Z becomes a significant part of the workforce. It indeed is a perfect time for companies employing people of different ages.
At the same time, managing this type of crowd can be challenging. Even if you think from all different angles and come up with strategies to run the place smoothly, there are chances you may slip in any one aspect at least.
But the key is to recognize where you are going wrong and rectifying it to avoid facing the repercussions. Here are some mistakes that you must not commit, especially when managing multigenerational workforces:
Being a Stranger to Your Team
When working with a multi generational workforce, motivating them does not stop with letting them know their goals and their impact. You must also be a part of the team by understanding their individual needs and preferences, encouraging them, and supporting them in the process.
If you fail to make sincere efforts to connect and get to know your team members, it will cause a rift between you and the employees. Instead of entirely focusing on improving productivity, you must also see the employees as individuals instead of just working machines.
Only when you behave with humanity and connect to them personally will you figure out what works and what goes wrong in a team with multigenerational employees. So don’t be a stranger to your team.
Don’t Judge and Label Your Employees
It is very easy for you to fall into the habit of judging your employees and tagging them under a group. It will not work in a company with a multigenerational workforce. It is time you quit talking about the topic of generational differences.
Streamline your management goals in such a way that you will work with individuals without talking about their ages. It will make the age gap topic redundant in the team, and they will steer clear of stigma and generalizations.
Drive your multi generational workforce to focus on other topics that will help them work together as a team.
Avoid Favouritism
Though this applies to all aspects of a professional scene, it is critical to talk about this if you manage a multigenerational group. If you have a new project to head, don’t blindly choose a baby boomer from your team, just considering the experience. And this goes vice versa as well.
When you are planning staffing, come with strategies to put together a team of diverse or assorted employees belonging to all generations. Choose the people purely based on the skill set they will bring to the project. Don’t base your decisions on any other aspects.
The more chances they get to work together, the more they concentrate on goals instead of the age difference.
Don’t Fail To Recognize Individual Strengths
Every employee will have specialized and unique strengths. You can find common ground for all the generations and leverage it for profiting as a team. But when you fail to recognize and bring them together, you will only be wasting talents.
Communicate with them and try to find common ground between the multigenerational workforces. Pair the employees with different strengths, which will help your work grow smoothly and establish trust and respect between them too.
Avoid Single-Minded Approach
It is not mandatory that you have to treat baby boomers the same way you treat Millennials or Generation X. It is entirely acceptable to use different management tactics for employees of different generations.
Instead of combining them all into one, manage them based on their abilities, strengths, and goals. The only thing you have to keep in mind is staying within the human resources parameters. Instead of evaluating employees based on which generation they belong to, evaluate them based on who they are.
Never Hold Back On Mentorship
Mentoring is one of the best ways to bring a multi generational workforce together. If you don’t bring this up, then you will be missing out on a jackpot. Both the older and younger employees can mentor each other in their ways.
As Generation Z is aligned more with technology, someone from this group can help out when anyone needs help related to the internet, mobiles, etc. The baby boomers and Gen X can help the younger employees by providing insights on career growth and more. So always encourage knowledge transfer and mentoring.
In the end, mistakes tend to happen no matter what. With the strength of your team’s multi generational workforce, you can immediately rectify it and create a stronger bond with them. Think and identify where you are going wrong. Recognition is the primary key to change.
