Personalization helps meet the needs of multiple generations in the workplace

In many workplace organizations, there has been an increase in age demographics. As many generations are beginning to work together, it's necessary for organizations to cater to all generations while catering to their different needs, wants, and styles. Read this blog post to learn more.


Changing demographics are creating more age diversity in the workplace, and this 5-generation age range means employers are increasingly faced with catering to different priorities and communication styles with benefits.

When it comes to health and wellbeing, employees between the ages of 55 and 64 prioritize benefits related to physical health, while younger employees care more about social and mental health, according to a study from Optum.

“The one-size-fits-all approach to communication, benefits and services needs to evolve,” says Seth Serxner, chief health officer at Optum. “The challenges a 35-year-old woman with young kids has is very different from a boomer or an empty nester who are dealing with other issues, so the life circumstances are very different.”

Instead, employers should look towards implementing a personalized communication strategy, or even hyper-personalization of benefits related to life cycles, Serxner says.

“If you think about saving in a health savings account, for example, we like to really target these different groups,” he says. “Once we do that, we see a tremendous increase in contributions and the overall savings averages.”

Wil Lewis, a diversity and inclusion executive and head of global disability strategy at Bank of America, says that since the company functions in several different countries, it emphasizes diversity of experience, culture and generations.

“One of the things that we've done as an organization is focused on how to integrate the wisdom that comes from past experiences and be sure that we leverage some of their ideas and make decisions for the future,” Lewis says.

Bank of America is one of over 1,000 employers who have signed the AARP Employer Pledge Program, a nationwide group of employers that stand with AARP in affirming the value of experienced workers and are committed to developing diverse organizations. They have pledged to promote equal opportunity for all workers, regardless of age.

Bank of America also has an intergenerational employee network, with chapters across the U.S. and other countries. The network has, among other things, created mentoring programs where employees in different generations can come together and learn from each other in person or virtually.

“It's actually one of our fastest growing employee networks inside the company,” Lewis says. “We’re really trying to drive connectivity and opportunity for them to learn from one another.”

The company aims to have a broad and comprehensive benefit range that touches on all individual generations, says Ebony Thomas, a global human resources executive at Bank of America.

“We are really thinking about where employees are in their life cycle, and tailoring services, learning, training or benefits to that life cycle,” she says. “It's really thinking ‘are we inclusive of everyone in the organization, in different stages and points in their lives?’ and how a benefit impacts them.”

The Optum data also discovered differences in financial service needs among generations. Younger generations are more concerned about debt, student tuition and how to start saving, whereas older generations may be more interested in things like buying a house, family health or retirement, says Optum’s Serxner.

Technology is another area of great discrepancy among the workplace age gap. Serxner says understanding how millennials or younger generations think about text messaging versus older generations can help employers rethink how they’re utilizing technology and what impact it has.

“There can be mental and behavioral impacts from using technology,” he says. “Employees can start to feel isolated, lonely or left out, based on the way an organization might cater to only one group, or might have a bias toward one kind of technology, whereas some people really feel it's critical to be face-to-face or on the phone.”

It’s critical employers learn and understand the makeup of their workforce, and tailor their communication strategy to their needs, Serxner says. Employers can drive up engagement and participation in their benefit offerings.

“I work with one digital company communications company that’s more than 70% millennial, and all of their outreach, benefits and promotions are phone based,” Serxner says. “I have other older energy and utility companies where they still do big pool meetings, and hand out brochures and packages, where they have individuals explaining the benefits. So the employers tend to have a sense of who their populations are, and tailor their approaches accordingly.”

SOURCE: Nedlund, E. (08 May 2020) "Personalization helps meet the needs of multiple generations in the workplace" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/news/personalization-helps-meet-the-needs-of-multiple-generations-in-the-workplace


What Employers Can Learn From Millennials

Great read by Christina Folz on generational communication.

It's a tale as old as time: Middle-aged and older adults kvetch about the next generation and speculate on what this world is coming to. Business author and consultant Jamie Notter recently shared a reference to young adults' lack of respect for elders and poor work ethic—from the ancient Roman philosopher Cicero.

"Every 20 years, a new generation comes into the work world as adults, and we all freak out about it," says Notter, who co-wrote the book When Millennials Take Over (Idea Press, 2015). As the largest living generation, Millennials (those younger than 35) have perhaps borne more than their fair share of scorn.

"We are really mad about how many trophies they got," says Notter, who is a member of Generation X and founding partner of WorkXO LLC. "We're constantly saying they don't get it, they don't know how to work in the real world." In truth, however, they likely understand more about the future of business than others, given that they are shaping it. "They have a lot to teach us," Notter maintains. "We need to shift conversation away from complaining and more toward being curious."

For their book, Notter and co-author Maddie Grant researched organizations that had alignment with the Millennial approach to business. These companies tend to be:

Digital. This is about more than technology. It's a philosophy based on the concept that software must work for the user—by being customizable and constantly updated. "We need to bring that mindset into leadership and business," Notter says. The American Society for Surgery of the Hand, a Chicago-based organization with about 20 employees, shaped its whole enterprise around the needs of employees rather than management—by letting people wear what they want to work, for example—and the organization has experienced off-the-charts engagement as a result.

Clear. "It's not just transparency for transparency's sake," Notter says. "It's about making things visible in order to improve the quality of decisions that get made." Menlo Innovations, a technology firm in Ann Arbor, Mich., pairs two software designers at a single workstation; one comments on the code as the other is writing it, and each pair's tasks are posted on a wall so they know what is expected at all times. "They charge more than competitors and still have people lining up," Notter says. "The product is that good."

Fluid. The hierarchy is still there, but everyone is actively engaged in the organization's mission. At Quality Living Inc. in Omaha, Neb., a rehabilitation facility for people with brain and spinal cord injuries, there is a standing rule: No matter where a person is on the organization's hierarchy, he or she must connect decision-making to the hopes and dreams of the patient. "For this to work, you need to be crystal clear on what defines success," Notter says.

Fast. All the organizations Notter and Grant studied were agile and quick—in part because employees are trusted to make choices themselves. At Menlo Innovations, for example, "decisions get made without e-mail and boring status update meetings," Notter says.

Instead, employees communicate and resolve issues using something Notter referred to as "high-speed voice technology."

In other words, they talk to each other.

Read the original article posted on SHRM.org on July 27, 2016 Here.

Source:

Folz, C. (2016, July 27). What employers can learn from millennials [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/0716/pages/when-millennials-take-over.aspx