A lot of the time, you’ll find there are a number of generations all working in one company. People are retiring later and age is no longer a barrier to starting a new career. This means that you can have a variety of different people working together who, in ‘real life’, wouldn’t normally have much in common with one another.
This is actually an important point to note. You might assume that everyone is going to work in the same way and do the same things, but the truth is that different generations will have different working methods, ideas, and requests. You need to make sure that everyone is as happy as possible to have a productive workspace. With that in mind, here are some things you can implement. Remember, though, compromises may well have to be made.
Serviced Office
Not everyone wants to work remotely. This might be something that younger generations are asking for, but it’s likely that older people will prefer to go to an office every day and work there. There will, of course, be exceptions to the rule, but in general, this is the case.
You might have a rented office, but if only half of your workforce ever use it, is it really worth the money? You might tell everyone to work from home, but that could mean that half of your workforce is unhappy. The solution is a serviced office from BE Offices. When you rent an office like this, you can save money compared to a full-time office, and you can please everyone. Those who want to work remotely can, and those who prefer an office space can have one. There is plenty of flexibility for everyone.
Training
Training is something that all good employers will incorporate into their businesses. They will set time aside to ensure that training is carried out regularly, and this could be external training or it could be done in-house; often it’s a combination of these two things.
When everyone is trained together, no matter what generation they might come from, it’s a good chance for the entire team to feel connected. On top of that, if you can also have various team members talk about their own expertise – perhaps one person a week can give a short training session – no one is going to feel left out or as though they should know something when they don’t.
Team Building
As well as training, team building is crucial when you have different generations working together. Even if it is not intentional, the various generations might not entirely understand or trust others. They might worry that the generational gap is too big to bridge, so everyone stays separate.
This is terrible for productivity and for company morale. Team building events or days will help to show everyone that, although they are indeed different, there will also have many similarities. When people work together outside of the workplace, they can bond more easily and they will feel freer to talk about themselves. Regular team building with all generations together could make a big difference to the success of your business.
