Filling Jobs With Different Generations and What That Means For HR Professionals

By: Alyse Kassa

            Matching an employee with the correct company has many factors. Not everyone can work under the same conditions, in the same culture, with the same benefits, etc. Increasingly, the different generations in the work force, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y or millenials, all have different characteristics that can require different types of HR management. For any company struggling with employee retention, this could be the missing piece.  Understanding how each generation works the best will help keep your employees the happiest.

            Because everyone in the three generations have grown up in different times, with different history, and use of technology, it is no wonder they will have different skill sets. Fortunately for employers, millenials have an overwhelming need to achieve. Since they have always grown up with technology and are used to being in constant connection with whoever they went, whether it be friends, family, and supervisors, they are most willing to finish work at home. HR professionals have only recently experienced a large amount of millenials in the work force and they can require different types of HR management due to their constant use of technology and how that has shaped them.

            The best way for HR professionals to address employees of different generations is to offer a variety of practices and benefit packages so that an employee can choose what is best suited to them. Everyone working for a company is not the same. Millennials seek flexibility in the work place when it comes to time spent at the office, assignments, and work locations. Baby boomers are more traditional and loyal to a company, however the millennials can be of great help to them in regard to technology.  Millennials are most likely to choose high compensation packages because they seek materialistic items and have a higher standard of living with technology and their social life. Baby boomers and Generation Xers are most likely to choose packages more geared toward saving for their retirement.