To learn more about how different generations collide in the workplace, and how millennials are disrupting the office, I spoke to Haydn Shaw. Shaw has researched and helped clients regarding generational differences for over twenty years. He is author Sticking Points: How to Get 4 Generations Working Together in the 12 Places They Come Apart and FranklinCovey based their bestselling workshops "Leading Across Generations and Working Across Generations" on his content. Hailed as a “leadership guru” by the Washington Post, Haydn speaks and consults in excess of 160 days each year to clients who consistently invite him back.
In this interview, Shaw talks about why millennials leave companies after only a brief period of time, succession planning, his career advice for all generations at work, and his predictions for the future of work.
Why do you think that Millennials leave their first job after only two years and what can managers do to better retain them?
Millennials leave their first job after two years because it is their first job.
If you look at the data, Baby Boomers and Gen Xers left their first jobs fairly quickly as well. I’m 50 and I’m typical of many Boomers and Xers. I left my first job after a year and a half because I got married and needed more money. I left my second job after 2 years because my parents and my mentors all told me to get away from that boss. My third job lasted 7 years. Now I’ve been at FranklinCovey 22 years in a job I love and with the freedom to pursue speaking and writing on my own as well.
Because many managers are in a more settled stage of life, we forget that Millennials are doing what most of us did in our 20s—
So my best advice to managers who want to retain Millennials is to quit thinking something is wrong with younger employees when they leave. Actually, some Millennials need to leave your organization so they can try other jobs to find their life’s work.
So instead of asking how to retain Millennials, we should ask: how do we get them engaged and productive so they make a big contribution for as long as they stay. If we figure that out, and if we give them ways to explore what they really want to do with their careers, even if that means leaving us, they may stay another couple years.
Then they wouldn’t leave their first job after only two years.
How do you believe succession planning should work as more Boomers retire in the next five years?
An organization must figure out generational sticking points because those differences will break a succession plan. A president of one of the USA’s largest banks told me that their executive team is confident in every Boomer candidate in the succession plan but they’re concerned about each Gen Xer: “We worry that the Xers don’t really understand what it will take to step into this role.” Because Gen X’s focus on work-life balance worries these executives, they put off making moves until the younger candidates “get it.” But their Xer high potentials keep wondering how much longer they have to deliver results before it becomes obvious that “I’ve got this.” If your organization doesn’t know what to do with the inevitable generational sticking points, succession planning will be much harder to implement.
They will need some depth as well. The Traditionalists were more loyal so succession plans didn’t need three or four candidates. Gen X learned that they often had to leave to get ahead. Your “heir apparent” might get a better opportunity, so quit gambling on one person and develop a pool of leaders.
What do you think it takes to succeed in a workplace that has different generations?
Generational sticking points are inevitable, but generational collisions are avoidable if we quit seeing differences as problems and turn them into strengths. The same differences around work ethic or loyalty or dress code can be turned into new ideas and stronger relationships if we can understand rather than irritate one another. These three steps will help us succeed with different generations:
1. Move from irritation to appreciation. Some people complain about other generations instead of trying to understand why those generations see the world differently. If we don’t understand generational differences, we get upset at small things, ignore the big things, and try to fix the wrong things. Get curious and ask people of different generations how they see a sticking point.
2. Flex where you can to accommodate a different generation’s preferences. A Boomer on a webinar told me flip flops should not be allowed at her customer service call center because the slapping sound when people walk was distracting. Others on the webinar teased her that many sandals made slapping sounds, until she finally admitted that she thought flip flops were for the beach not the office. Your organization may have a legitimate business reason for prohibiting flip flops, but the boss not liking them isn’t one of them. Flex where you can.
3. Look for ways to leverage those differences in projects or communications. Quit trying to figure out on yourown how to rework your new employee orientation or streamline decision making. Ask the different generations how to make it better and pull pieces from all their suggestions.
A lot can happen to upset predictions for what the workplace will be like in 20 years, but five things seem solid bets:
1. Technology will create greater work flexibility. Currently, every generation wants more say over where they work, but Millennials are the least concerned about working outside the office. They know they get more mentoring if they show up in person. But as communication technology gets better and more visual, in twenty years the Millennials will be able to mentor the next generation from anywhere.
2. Feedback will be shorter, more frequent, and more informal.
3. Millennial women will lead. Millennial women graduate college in greater numbers than men. Therefore, more leaders will be women. Plus, Millennial mothers are more interested in getting ahead than mothers of any other generation—almost dead even with Millennial men.
4. They will use their technological savvy to make the world better for . . . Boomers. Boomers will live longer than any other generation: one in five adults in the US in 2030 will be over 65, the same proportion that Florida has today. That means their wealthiest and largest market will be Baby Boomers. Millennials won’t ignore Baby Boomers, they will focus on them.
5. They will respond to leadership. Good management will always be essential, but decentralized information and service-driven economies require good leadership to keep every brain engaged in the business. The more decentralized our work becomes, the more we need a vision that keeps everyone moving in the same direction and the trust to keep us engaged.
Dan Schawbel is a workplace expert, keynote speaker and the New York Times bestselling author of Promote Yourself. Subscribe to his monthly newsletter.
