Collaboration is critical to business success. However, with five generations in the workforce, business leaders must focus on inclusive initiatives to ensure everyone feels heard, seen, and invested in.
Robert Half's sister company, Protiviti, has partnered with The Inclusion Initiative at the London School of Economics (LSE) on a three-year study called GENERATIONS, which explores aspects of inclusion linked to productivity in the workplace.
Topline insights from the first two GENERATIONS reports were recently shared and explored as part of a C-suite discussion hosted by Charlie Grubb (Senior Managing Director, Robert Half) and Dan O'Leary (Managing Director, Robert Half Executive Search) at The Shard in London, featuring keynote speaker Matt Duncan (Managing Director, UK Protiviti).
Read the reports
Over the course of an hour, C-suite executives from sectors including renewable energy, veterinary services, technology, and construction discussed the challenges and opportunities of having a multigenerational workplace. They explored topics like workplace productivity, communication, office design, and strategies for bridging generational gaps.
1) Generational inclusivity needs a comprehensive approach
There might be five generations in the workforce, but keynote speaker Matt Duncan revealed that many employers are mistakenly focusing all their attention on Gen Z to the detriment of older generations.
"What some of the research has shown us is that the Boomers are feeling a bit excluded. They don't feel like there's as much investment in their development, particularly those who haven't advanced to executive positions. So, the boomers, or anyone that's Millennial and older, feels they are less invested in," he said.
2) Addressing different spaces and different needs
The discussion revealed the complexities behind creating office environments and hybrid models that accommodate the working styles of all five generations. While younger generations seek social learning opportunities and more in-office time, older generations prefer more flexibility to accommodate childcare duties and achieve a better work-life balance.
“It's really hard to design or build an office that attracts all generations,” said the CEO of a global workplace design, strategy, and construction company. “We look at things like having separate acoustics, separate pods, and touchdown areas. We try to work around five different spaces in an office — lounge, quiet, library, work, screen. We try to incorporate those so that, at any one time, you could have people working in different spheres in an office.”
"It's the culture you’re trying to build,” said another attendee. “It’s disingenuous if you say, ‘We're a collaborative organisation; we need to collaborate to do our jobs’, and then you put physical barriers up. The culture you're trying to foster should really drive what your hybrid approach looks like.”
3) Team age gaps can cause productivity drop-offs
Research for the Generations study has shown that there are self-reported productivity drop-offs when the age gap between the manager and team members exceeds 12 years. The data revealed that the wider the age gap, the more significant the productivity drop. Survey responses suggested that this was due to difficulty in connecting, primarily because of the lack of societal areas of commonality.
“When I'm next thinking about the structure of my organisation, when I'm starting to design for productivity, as well as an inclusive workplace, there's something really practical I can do about that age gap,” says Matt Duncan. “I can actually take a look at the age gap in my team because then I can be deliberately thoughtful about how I'm constructing them.”
4) Establishing a strategy for cross-generational feedback and communication
Unsurprisingly, there are vastly different communication styles across all five workplace generations. Where younger generations expect feedback as part of their learning process, older generations are less comfortable receiving it. Similarly, younger generations expect more progressive language and inclusive policies, which older generations interpret as 'entitlement'.
The most effective ways to facilitate positive, productive conversations are to establish reverse mentorship programs and to favour a communication strategy that respects individual differences while maintaining professional standards.
"We run mentorship programs, and what we found was that having a mentor/mentee relationship is like reverse mentoring. I had a mentee who's a Millennial, and after four or five meetings, I felt I was getting more from it than they were because I now understand more about how that generation thinks," said one attendee.
“The tools we learned during recent feedback training was the difference between ‘nice’ and ‘kind’,” said another attendee. “Training the whole company on that distinction was really powerful. People now understand that feedback is not criticism. It's help — it comes from a place of support and growth and wanting to invest in this person.”
"It's not just about having the tools and the equipment to have the conversation around different generations, which is very, very important, but also saying, I'm setting some expectations for you, and I'm going to hold you to account on this. Is that fair? And if it's not, we'll discuss that," says Matt Duncan.
5) AI and generational adaptation
The study also explored how different generations are reacting to AI in the workplace, indicating that all generations are equally concerned about its impact on their jobs, albeit for different reasons. Baby Boomers appear concerned about AI taking their jobs, while the younger generations are more concerned about having the requisite skills to use it.
The generation most comfortable with AI was Gen Z, who often use AI tools to help craft email responses to their colleagues, thereby managing the issue of being new to the workforce and unfamiliar with corporate diplomacy. The ability to adapt to different tech tools presented itself as a learning curve for all generations.
"I ran a focus group session yesterday and uploaded all the documents onto Teams, but the conversation among Gen Z staff was 'I don't even know how to use Teams.' They don't use this stuff in their day-to-day work. We make the assumption that the technology, the working environment, is all accessible," said an attendee.
Another said, "The reality is, we already have people—whether it's generational or tech-savvy—that are now using AI to completely craft email responses. That's going to become more and more prevalent. Soon, there will be an event like this talking about the AI-native generation; people who have grown up with it and know nothing but how to interact using AI. That's what's coming next."
