Multigeneration Workforce

(Four generation workforce)

Contents
Assignment 1- Generational Differences...........................................................................................2
Assignment 2- Mind the gap..............................................................................................................3
Assignment 3- Considering ourselves................................................................................................4
Assignment 1- Generational Differences
Q1. Do you believe the descriptions given for your generation is accurate? Please state the
evidence that supports your answer.

Ans1: I agree to the certain extent for the description given for my generation. My Generation which
falls into the category of Millennials (born 1980-1994) are super anxious, agile, and full energetic in
their thoughts and actions. They have ability to take risks, adaptable to any environment, embrace
the changes and work accordingly. They believe in their strength and approach to do any tasks no
matter how much its challenging to shape the future of society or organisation.

People of my generation are energetic and confident workforce and hence they believe in changes
which is NOT bringing productivity or efficiency in the organization. They shouldn’t try to change the
person or their employer but should be participating in the process of reform in the traditional or
legacy approach of doing the things keeping in mind the fact that other generation people are also
the part of the organization and respecting their views and stand points as well. They should work on
increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the workforce while keeping the organization goal and
objectives to be accomplished ultimately.

Ex. In one of my previous projects, delivery manager was not having good communication with the
team members as he used to interact only with the Leads, Architects, etc. This resulted in developing
the low feelings amongst the team members and also lacks transparency. I suggested the
management to have a monthly team connect which they accepted, where each team members
participated along with the business owners, managers, etc thus imbibing more trust and
transparency amongst the team members. Also, this helped in the reaching the organization goal
and objective to reach each team members, led them to feel about ownership and pride within
themselves

Q2. Do you believe the descriptions given of the remaining three generations are accurate? Please
state the evidence that supports your answer.

Ans 2. Yes, I agree with the descriptions given for the other generations to a certain extent and not
completely what is described of their characteristics. Let me speak about the different generations in
brief

a) Traditionalists (born before 1945)- They are usually silent, mature, honest, and hardworking
people. They are authoritative and loves to follow authority. They love to follow rules strictly
and commanding directions. Coming to workplace, in an organization they believe that
power should flow top to down, like in Military era where CEO of organization is supreme
head/ commandant, and each department is manged by managers. All employees should
adhere to what their senior dictate or order irrespective of their own skill or thoughts. E.x in
my family, my parents and grand parents are not expecting extra from us but basic respect
and following their orders and rules set simply meet their expectations.
b) Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964)- I agree that this generation’s members are characterized
by their optimism and idealism. They have strong work ethic, disciplined and focussed. They
 are hard working and love to work from offices instead of remote locations since they want
their manager to see them showing up to work on time every day and working hard until the
day ends. They are self-reliant and self-sufficient and believes in their strength which they
are taught to work independently to work for the organization goals and objectives. They
believe to take help for the people whom they think are more aged and senior but in real
world this become challenging since many younger force proving themselves to be more
better decision maker and expertise in the particular field
c) Generation X (born 1965-1980)- I agree that these generation believe in independence, self
sufficient but these are not due to the products of broken homes and grew up in time of
political scandals rather they developed this attitude since they learnt to take care of
themselves properly and overcome challenges of their own. They love to take challenges
and bear the responsibility of take care of their family, dependents, etc whom they love and
care for. Since they born during early 80s where technology transition took place from
Analog to digital, they are adaptable to cell phones, computers, laptops and new technology
which comes to their path. Its true that suffered more hardships compared to Baby boomers
so they often challenge the institutions ways of working as they suspect their intent. Since
they think that can bring the change in the organization by their philosophy which
sometimes not correct considering the organization’s goal and objective. They believe in
work life balance and appreciate informality, are technologically adept, flexible and highly
educated.

Assignment 2- Mind the gap

Q1. If you were a member of the Green Globe Team, how would you structure the team’s
communications to ensure that project deadlines are met and that the communication methods
utilize the strengths and preferences of each team member?

Ans 1.

Recommended Communication Style/Structure for Traditionalists:

As a member of Green Globe Team, I would like to recommend more in person communication with
the Traditionalist and also to give them timely feedback in a meeting which will help them in
clarification of organization goals and objectives. I will also encourage them to share their knowledge
and expertise which can benefit the entire workforce. This can accomplish by developing mentoring
and coaching programs to pass down information and best practices. Since they love technology but
not very familiar with them so encourage them to carry out their work in more offline mode and
timely appreciate their hard work. I will also recommend Traditionalists on our team to meet face-
to-face twice a week for an hour each time.

Recommended Communication Style/Structure for Baby Boomers:

Since this generation believes more interpersonal skills, face 2 face meetings, I would like to
recommend this generations to interact often with other generation workforce live through
interactive trainings, seminars, etc where I can leverage their knowledge and expertise for the
growth of the organization as a whole and meeting the firm’s ultimate objective. I would also
recommend having quarterly thanksgiving ceremony where employees from these generation can
be awarded for all their hard works, they put for in the growth of the organization. I will also
recommend participate in a daily online chat at 9:00 each morning to answer questions and
exchange ideas.

Recommended Communication Style/Structure for Gen-Xers:

As a member of Green Globe team, I would like to recommend more flexibility to Gen-Xers in
carrying out their day to day responsibilities. I would like to encourage them to self-organize and
collaborate with other generation employees in both offline and online mode. I will encourage them
to have more offline discussion in terms of physical meeting with Traditionalist and Baby boomers
generation people, listen their thoughts and approach and take their view points into considerations
since traditionalists and baby boomers are more experienced and rich in their thought process. I
would also like to promote better work life balance for these people by enabling work from home,
remote working, facilitating the online meeting, Skype call, etc so that they take care of their families
along with the business. I would like to recommend that they should use more means of
communication for exchanging their ideas, thoughts to other team members via Email with bullet
points highlighted, phone texting and calling through different collaborating tools like Teams, Skype,
Cisco Jabber, etc.

Recommended Communication Style/Structure for Gen Y’s or Millennials:

As a member of Green Globe team, I would like to recommend more honest and transparent mode
of communication. Since this generation of people are more concerned about the content of the
work they have accomplished rather than number of hours spent in office, I would recommend to
have more open communication with the employees so that their hard work can be recognized
which will in fact turn in the accomplishment of the objective of the organization as a whole.
Recommend taking a transparent and honest approach, making sure to invite questions from
employees in both online and offline forum. I would like to recommend that people should ideate
and innovate and come up with their thoughts openly through different workshops, meetings and
conferences such that they can bring their opinion which will be reviewed by other team members.

Assignment 3- Considering ourselves

Length of work shift and days worked per week:

Since I represent Gen-Y or Millennial generation, the length of work shift and no. of days worked per
week matters least to me. I am more concerned about the output or contents which I could draw
from my research and analysis which will eventually be helpful in achieving the ultimate goal and
objective for the organization. I believe that efficiency matters more than the quantity of work
means that how much task has been accomplished in a stipulated time with less resources (time and
money) ultimately accomplishing the goal of the organization.

Flex-time options:

As a Millennial generation member, I think that more flexibility should be given to the team
members in terms of working e.x employee should be allowed to work remotely, work from home,
etc Not necessarily they need to be present in the office and spend certain no. if hours in office. This
will help them to come with more agility and self-collaboration amongst the other team members
since they are tech savvy and can make use of multiple collaboration tools and technology to work
with people of diverse background, not only in their office rather outer world as well. In this manner
they can actually work on their innovation thoughts and ideation with very least micromanagement
and time adherences.

Frequency and form of team meetings:

Employees should be encouraged to meet frequently like daily stand up meeting to discuss what
they did last day, what they will be going to do today and any other obstacles or roadblocks. This
meeting should not be more than 15 minutes of time. This meeting should not be to discuss the
issues in detail, which can be addressed in other subsequent meetings. The team members should
be allowed to meet through online or offline with NO dependency on physical presence in the office
campus.

Preferred leadership style of team leader:

Open and empathetic leadership is encouraged. Leader is supposed to have empathy towards their
employees who will not only motivate them but also lead them from the front. Leader should also
lead by an example, protect his team member from other impedances which hamper them from
doing their quality work. Leader should come to forefront while protecting their team member from
other obstacles which employees may face during their day to day work. Team leader shouldn’t act
as a boss rather coach and mentor for their subordinates. Employees are also looking for that they
are being paid for what they have contributed or done for the growth of the organization and not for
the number of hours spent in the office.

Strategies used to motivate workers:

To motivate worker, regular award, or reward programme to be organized in terms of monetary

benefit or services. Employees should not be judged for how long they are in office, or how many
days they were present in a week rather the content of work they have done. They should be paid
off accordingly. Leader shouldn’t act as a boss and do the micromanagement rather act more as a
coach and mentor for their employees. They should protect their employees from unwanted
external impediments and listen to them their views in more open and transparent manner.
Workers are allowed to work in any mode Online or offline with more flexibility in their time slots
such that they can take care of their familiar along with the work. Work life balance should be
encouraged. Workers can take paid leaves for a month or two so that can go for some social
gatherings, family vacations, etc. They should be allowed to work on group project or something
which has measurable outcomes.

Work/life balance considerations:

This is very much desired need for the Millennials as they prefer to socialize, prefer to spend time
with their family, more flexible time options and not the stereotype selfish mindset of GenX. They
are “go do it” generation and believe in community or group. They should be encouraged to spend
quality time with their friends as well. Meetings and collaborations can be done through different
collaboration tools like Teams, Skype, etc from any place or locations irrespective of their presence
or absence in the office.

Preference for Learning/Training methods/modes:

Various learning modules include videos, quizes, assignments can be organized so that workers can
able to go for self-learning and discuss their learnings amongst their team members through various
collaboration tools like Teams, Skype, Zoom, etc. Both online and offline trainings can be imparted to
the workers including classroom trainings, recorded video sessions, online library, etc.