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At a keynote panel at Facilities & Estates Management Live, Lauren Stirling, Head of HR & People Development at Elior UK, chaired a discussion on the wellbeing of employees in a multigenerational workplace. Madeleine Ford reports
The panel, which consisted of Lucy Hayes, HR Director at Q3 Services, Andrew Hulbert, Chair of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM) and Vice Chair of Pareto, and Steven O’Leary, Transformation Director at Paragon Workplace Solutions, opened by highlighting the importance of this topic due to the fact this is the first time in history that we’ve got five generations working side by side. How do we build careers that engage everyone? How do we retain talent across generations? How do we make sure that every colleague feels seen, valued and can thrive?
GENERATIONAL DIVIDE
By 2050, one in four people in the UK will be over 65. Looking at these numbers, we see a generational workforce that is getting older, and in the future we may end up with six generations in the workplace at once said Andrew Hulbert.
While generational mix at work isn’t a new thing, there is a challenge posed by the position of the workplace in the generations and how they view the office in general, as Steven O’Leary suggested. He elaborated: “Broadly speaking, our research shows that people who are more advanced in their career are happier to work from home, and those entering their careers want to be part of something and have a workplace to go to. Making that work is the challenge.”
It is no surprise that Covid has been a huge influence on this and impacted different generations in terms of working life very differently. For example, when those individuals in their 50s who had been working in an office for their whole career realised that they could do their job from home, a lot of them didn’t really want to come back. Additionally, the generation that entered the workforce during or just after Covid, didn’t have that office interaction and so it isn’t a part of their lives. Now, Hulbert explained, we have the generation behind them that aren’t impacted by Covid and do want the sense of belonging and in-person collaboration.
Accepting that different age groups/ generations will work differently is important. The topic of wellbeing in the workplace tends to come back to the one-size does not fit all approach, and that is no different here.
IS GENERATION THE RIGHT LENS?
Perhaps instead of ‘generations’ we should be looking at life stages, values, or personal circumstances. Is it a broader spectrum than labelling people as baby boomers or Gen Z? We must remember that when looking after the wellbeing of employees that they are people, no matter their age or life stage. As Lucy Hayes further explained: “Just because you’re a baby boomer doesn’t mean you aren’t tech savvy, we get too encompassed with these generational marks. We need to be very careful that individuals remain at the core of the culture we are trying to build.”
Steven O’Leary added: “The point of personal circumstances is really important. I have three young children and if I was asked to go into an office 9-5 five days a week, I wouldn’t and couldn’t do it, equally someone later in life may have responsibilities as a carer for a parent or something similar. Managing the individuals based on their personal circumstances rather than a collective team is far more effective.”
“We have to think flexibly”, Andrew Hulbert affirmed, “yes you can have five generations, and we need to focus on them all individually, but this is a movement and a change in the structure of the workforce. At all stages of our lives, regardless of all our other attributes, we need the business to be flexible with us.”
Hulbert went on to discuss how by 2030 more people will be leaving the workforce than joining it. With this in mind, it is incredibly important to create workplaces and productive environments for various groups in order to retain and attract talent because there is going to be less choice.
BURNOUT & THE YOUNGER GENERATION
Research suggests that Gen Z report lower satisfaction and higher burnout than any other group. “I think there is an expectation for them that they aren’t allowed to switch off. Growing up with social media as a huge part of their everyday and working lives means it’s constant for them. For millennials like me, we have that ability to switch off because we didn’t have that growing up”, said Hayes.
She continued to say that businesses should encourage a culture where is it okay to say ‘no’ and to set boundaries, for example finishing at the time you’re supposed to and not feeling pressured to work overtime.
Another important note with social media is that of comparison. It is so easy to see other people of the same age succeed and being promoted for example, and if you’re not exactly where you want to be in your life it’s easy to feel that you’re doing something wrong and not moving as fast as you need to be, whereas 20 years ago, social media didn’t exist to serve as a constant reminder.
