Smart businesses make the most of every generation's strengths


  • September 8, 2016
  • /   Shannon Nickinson
  • /   training-development

Thomas Greek knows what people think about Millennials in the workplace.

It might not be that different from what baby Boomers thought about Generation Xers like him when they were coming up.

“Boomers thought we were all slackers, and we thought Gen-Y were slackers,” says Greeker, the vice president for learning, development and communications at Navy Federal Credit Union’s Pensacola operation. “Most of the time as leaders, we spend time stressing how we are all the same. (But we also) need to (talk about) leveraging the independent strengths of each generation in the workplace.”

Thomas Greek, Navy Federal Credit Union.

Thomas Greek, vice president for learning, development and communications at Navy Federal Credit Union in Pensacola.

Bridging the gaps among generations in the workplace is one of the key challenges that employers and employees mention when it comes to business. Navy Federal has been named one of FORTUNE Magazine’s “100 Best Workplaces for Millennials” the last two years in a row.

Greek will share what his company has learned about bridging the generation gap when he speaks at the Studer Community Institute’s workshop on Sept. 15.

“The Multigenerational Workforce: Busting Myths and Bridging Gaps,” will be at Pensacola Little Theater, 400 S. Jefferson St., Pensacola. The doors will open at 8:30 a.m.; the session will run from 9 to 11 a.m. Click here to register.

The session is the latest in the Institute’s ongoing series of workshops that aim to support business, nonprofits and organizations with the tools, support and resources they need to be successful.

Greek says that understanding and using each generation’s strengths is more than smart team building — it’s crucial market strategy as well.

“It comes down to understanding what Millennials expect from their workplace and understanding their motivations,” he says. “At the end of the day, you have to so that you can adapt. You have to adapt in business, whether you want it or not. If you resist that change, or lack understanding of your team members, you could be left with a less engaged workforce,” which leads to turnover and retention issues.

As workplace trends change — as Boomers extend their working lifetime, as Gen-Xers navigate management, as parenthood and work-life balance gain prominence in X-ers and Millennials’ lives — listening to and understanding your team’s motivational buttons is critical to a business’ success.

“As a leader, you have to be flexible,” Greek says. “If you don’t give Gen-Y feedback, you do so at your own peril.”

“The other piece of (bridging the generation gap) is the customer,” Greek says. “What you offer may not be in line with what your customers want. Make sure that you listen to (your employees is each generation). They are your conduit to your customers.”

Training and education is a big piece of how Navy Federal has baked this into their culture, Greek says, for team members and leaders alike.

It includes a positioning Millennials with “high potential” so that they have a voice in the company and the products and services the credit union offers.

“For all the negative things you hear about Gen-Y — the neediness, the technology dependency — they’ve brought a lot of positive change to the workplace,” Greek says.

That includes workplace flexibility in terms of hours, virtual working, and leave time.

“The leaders who listen (to Millennials) and ask questions of that generation, can enhance the workplace for everyone,” Greek says.

“They have demanded that workplace change,” Greek says, from the 9-to-5, lifetime of employment with one firm tradition Boomers might be familiar with. “If you don’t offer those things, they’ll go somewhere else.”

“And then you have Generation Z, or the iGeneration,” he says of people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s, so-called “digital natives” who have known social media saturation and technology interconnectedness from the youngest ages. “They’re coming and they will look like Gen Y in a lot of ways. Who knows what they’ll bring to the workplace, but we need to be listening.”

 
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