Worker life spans continue to increase, and generation gaps between workers can manifest in different managerial styles, work ethics, and priorities. Four different generations inhabit the workforce: Veterans (b. 1922-1945), Baby Boomers (b. 1946-1964), Generation X (b. 1965-1980), and Millennials (b. 1981-2000). With such a wide-ranging scope of employees, workplace perspectives vary significantly. Veterans tend to place more value on seniority, defer to individualism, and follow the status quo. By contrast, Millennials tend to value creativity, flexibility, and view the employee-company dynamic as a symbiosis. Generation X tends to be independent and value loyalty, while Baby Boomers are motivated by teamwork and value sacrifice. The best way to foster a communicative work environment between these generations is for managers to educate employees about what motivates each generation of workers, with one person's flextime request being an equivalent incentive to another worker's desired bonus pay. One firm indicated that its Veteran workers were more readily available to share their knowledge with Millennials than the Baby Boomers, who were too busy to "coddle" the younger generation. Jefferson Government Relations recently noted flexible work schedules were one item all generations of workers could agree on, though for different reasons. Baby boomers were eager to get off at 5:30 pm to get to soccer games with their kids, while Millennials wanted to get to yoga class, though they replied to messages later in the evening.

Generation Y, or the Net Generation, is constantly connected via cell phones, email, instant messaging, and other technologies, which HR professionals claim poses a significant challenge when integrating this tethered generation into the workforce. One of the major benefits of the younger generation is that they already understand many of the emerging technologies, they can easily multitask, and have little difficulty merging into a diversified workforce. However, some experts content that the tethered generation is not as developed in terms of independent thinking and self-reliance, which are needed in order for these younger workers to become successful in leadership roles. Other experts are concerned that instant gratification could also hamper younger workers' abilities to set realistic goals in the corporate setting. According to a 2006 Society for Human Resource Management study, 75 percent of executives and HR professionals found that college graduates had minimal skills in terms of professional etiquette and work ethics. While skills can be developed and nurtured in the tethered generation, workplaces will also have to deal with "helicopter parents," who increasingly supervise their children on interviews and in the workforce. In order to integrate these workers successfully into the workplace, HR professionals and executives need to set boundaries for communications and other processes, as well as create programs that engage younger workers, improve their basic skills sets, provide them with more frequent feedback, and allow them to balance their work and home lives more easily.

The old adage, "if you aren't learning, you're already behind," is still current today because change occurs so rapidly in the global business arena. Business-thought specialist Gary Hamel says it is crucial to invest in people in order to boost company share prices and earnings. Hamel believes that a company's workers are the ones who generate ideas and are the true source of value. But many smaller and mid-sized firms and organizations do not regard training and development as necessary, and those that do allocate training dollars often eliminate them during challenging times. Investment in training and development provides such benefits a rise in overall quality, more productivity and timeliness per worker, and improved customer service and staff relations. Cross-training is a way to let employees widen their capabilities, thus boosting their value to the organization. They also become more self-confident and motivated, and may gain a better understanding of operations and decision making. Companies can also evaluate the monetary value resulting from time saved due to the reduced need to supervise, improved time management, reduced operating time, and shorter lead time to acquire skills.

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BONUS ARTICLE!

In order to determine if training programs are worth the corporate investment, total training costs should be calculated, including facilitator fees, training designs, course materials, and facilities rentals. Once a total cost can be determined, companies need to estimate the potential operational savings these training programs can generate, including the savings from fewer errors, lower customer turnover, reduced equipment downtime, increased revenue, and lower employee turnover, among other items. In order to determine if programs are effective and saving the company money, firms need to first establish concrete goals such as increased performance goals or assign dollar amounts to error rates. For example, a decrease of 150 errors per month could save $187.50 assuming that each error takes five minutes to correct and a worker is being paid $15 per hour. Once these figures are determined, companies can then use a per participant figure for costs and savings to demonstrate whether training initiatives will be beneficial. These efforts should help firms accurately estimate costs and savings and to better align training to business outcomes.