Demographic Changes and Employee Engagement

There have been a great number of demographic changes in our workplace over recent years. Right now, we are at a very unique time in our history. We have four generations working side by side in the workplace, Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y.

The Traditionalists are our seniors, these are our most seasoned professionals that have been in the workforce for quite some time.

The Baby Boomers are the folks that were born in the 1950s and early part of the ’60s. Many of the baby boomers are the parents of the younger workers. They are sometimes what we call the sandwich generation. They are taking care of their aging parents and they may still have kids in the household coming up.

Generation X – these are the bulk of the people in our younger industries. These are the folks that are in their 30s and early 40s. They have young families and are often juggling a great deal while also trying to grow their career. They are coming into a very fruitful time where they have some experience in the workplace, they want to leverage that experience, and they want to grow in their careers while they also have a lot that they are trying to manage on the home front.

Generation Y – these are our youngest workers. These are the new college graduates. These are what we call the early career folks. They are fresh out of college, they are excited, and they are taking the world by storm. They are super technologically savvy and they work in a very different way to that of any of their predecessors.

The unique differences among the generations have an impact on their philosophy towards work. There are many different ways to look at these four different segments in the workplace but I am just going to look at a few of the factors that I think are most relevant related to Employee Value Proposition, Total Rewards and Employee Engagement.