Meagan Johnson - Generational Speaker

Solve Your Challenges and Bridge the Gap between Generations at Your Multigenerational Workforce

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Baby Boomers and Millennials – Working Together

During my keynote presentation at the American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) 2018 Fall Conference, I discussed how Baby Boomers and Millennials can better work together.

My intent of the presentation was to help employees think differently and act decisively when dealing with multiple generations.

Baby Boomers and Millennials in the Workplace

The differences between baby boomers and millennials can wreak havoc both personally and professionally, or they can be a source of incredible energy and creativity. It’s important to understand these differences and to have some specific strategies for dealing with them.

At the conference, we began by having Millennials group together, and Baby Boomers then also teamed up. Each group made a list of frustrations and positives about the other group.

After these lists were discussed, I revealed that for all the criticism Millennials currently receive, the same stereotypes were attributed to Baby Boomers in the late 1960s. The unfair stereotyping goes both ways!

Baby Boomers Working with Millennials

We give Baby Boomers grief about technology, but I bet every Boomer uses technology.

The Millennials now outnumber Baby Boomers, the generation that was thought to be the biggest possible. As Baby Boomers age, the number of senior citizens in America will double.

Tensions in the workplace stem from the different ways generations have been shaped by cultural events, technology and the economy.

However, I shared recommendations for how Baby Boomers and Millennials can work together!

Baby boomers and millennials

Credit for the article and video goes to the American Architectural Manufacturers Association.

Ephemeral Content – Why and How to Use it When Recruiting

Have you heard of an Ephemeral Content? And most importantly, how and why to use it when recruiting?

While speaking at a staffing and recruiting conference, an audience member approached me and said that Millennials and Gen Z are going to seek out jobs that replicate the consumer experience.

I thought this was interesting, so I asked her to elaborate. She said when looking for a job, Millennials and Gen Z want that job search to look and feel like an online shopping experience.

Ephemeral Content and Recruiting

What can organizations do to create that feeling of an ‘online shopping experience’?

One of the biggest social media phenomena of 2018 is in ephemeral content. Wait… don’t run to dictionary.com, as I did, to figure out what an ephemeral content means.

It is any type of web content that has a limited lifecycle. Typically, 24 hours after the creation or posting date the content disappears.

This concept was invented by Snapchat, followed by Instagram and Facebook. Facebook is predicting that this type of story sharing is going to be the primary way people share information with their friends by next year.

While ephemeral content may seem very limiting, it allows a short window of time for people to view your message. However, it is authentic and can result in high engagement.

Why Use Ephemeral Content When Recruiting

Why does ephemeral content work well?

It taps into two aspects of our psyche:

  1. Your YOLO: you only live once – seize the day, carpe diem
  2. Your FOMO: fear of missing out. The fear of missing out is a powerful motivator for human behavior.

Groupon knows this especially when it comes to my buying behavior. Nothing makes me push the Buy button faster than to read the words ‘limited time available’.

How to Use Ephemeral Content When Recruiting

So what can recruiters do in creating an ephemeral content?

Your goal is to give a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to work at your organization. Tap into your current employees, introduce the team, show company outings. Maybe a company party.

What’s important is that the viewer feels they have a behind-the-scenes look at your organization. And you have an opportunity to present employees in spontaneous situations and show genuine interactions.

You can also use an ephemeral content to post job ads.

Ephemeral Content for Recruitment

Taco Bell ran a successful campaign that featured Taco Bell employees and then drove the applicant to the website for more information. Taco Bell realizes that over 80% of employees do job searches on their phone. McDonald’s allowed the applicants themselves to create 10-second videos as their application.

Here are some important statictics:

  • 50% of Millennials check their Snapchat daily
  • 44% of Gen Z’s check social media hourly
  • And visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared on social media compared to any other type of content!

Final Thoughts

So, if we are going to duplicate the consumer experience to attract millennial and Gen Z employees, we will need to replicate the tools they are using today to gather information online.

Ephemeral content and videos may be temporary, but the best part is they don’t have to be perfect because in 24 hours they’re gonna be gone and you get to try again!

Baby Boomers in the Workforce – How to Leverage the Strengths

How can we leverage the strengths of baby boomers in the workforce? What impact do aging baby boomers have on our younger employees?

In 1967, the Beatles – a favorite boy band among the baby-boomer recorded a song titled ‘Will you still love me when I’m sixty-four’. Turns out that question is quite outdated. According to AARP, 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day. That means 7 baby boomers a minute are turning 65.

Baby Boomers in the Workforce

According to CNBC, 10,000 baby boomers are retiring every day. What does this mean? This means that organizations are losing access to that valuable institutional knowledge at an alarming rate.

The window of opportunity is closing. You might think that baby boomers in the workforce are staying as long as they can. We don’t consider 65 that old anymore. Baby boomers are living longer. They are more active. They are healthy and also, financially they want to continue to contribute to their retirement account. 65 percent of baby boomers plan on working past the age of 65! However, the way baby boomers work has changed.

Baby Boomers Staying in the Workforce

We always call baby boomers ‘the generation that lives to work‘. But now, baby boomers have flipped the tables and they really are the generation that is working to live! They’re working part-time. Work-life balance has become a priority and they also are focusing more on their hobbies. Focusing so much on their hobbies that those hobbies have now become their new career pursuits.

I recently interviewed a baby boomer who retired from human resources. She now works in a gardening shop, because gardening was always her passion that she pursued over the weekends. But now, she has retired and she works in a gardening shop and that is her new calling.

It is vital that we tap into the baby boomers knowledge before they take their skill sets and move onto different pastures.

Baby Boomers in the Workforce

How are Baby Boomers Affecting the Workplace

What can older workers teach our younger workers?

One of the most important skills set that baby boomers can pass along is how to manage your work.

I know that when I first began my career, I struggled with how to manage my time. It took a long time to do simple things because I didn’t really know how to prioritize well.

Baby boomers have learned how to prioritize. Younger people have a lot on their plate. They’re balancing their careers along with their children. Sometimes they are also coordinating with the spouse’s chaotic schedule. They may have a difficult boss or challenging clients. They’re also trying to move up the ladder.

Baby boomers have learned to prioritize and how to delegate. The fine art of pushing back when presented with unreasonable demands. They can help younger employees prioritize when it comes to finances.

Baby Boomers Working with Millennials

In one of my earlier segments, I discussed how Millennials are the most financially concerned of all generations. Well, baby boomers are a great generation to tap into about wise decisions when it comes to finances.

One of the biggest regrets I hear from baby boomers is that they should have started saving
sooner!  What better opportunity for millennial to learn how to save and how to prioritize their spending.

What Can Millennials Teach Baby Boomers?

Well, they can teach them how to build their network!

After we turned 50, we stop building our circle of contacts or friends. Our children are grown, so we don’t have that connection with other young parents.

We’ve maybe retired, but we’re pursuing other activities and we tend to let our circle sort of stay the same. Young people, they’re in that mode of building their circle and their connections. And what a wonderful opportunity to learn how to build your circle!

As we age, it becomes more and more important that we really bring in diversity into our lives.

Millennial Managers – Challenges Millennials Face in the Workplace

Millennial Managers face many challenges in the workplace today!

How are these millennial managers and bosses shape the culture of a company? Is there a guide for successful management?

I was recently pulled over by a police officer because I was speeding.

It’s embarrassing enough getting a speeding ticket, but imagine my embarrassment when I rolled down the window. I took a look at the officer and blurted out: “You’re not old enough to have a driver’s license much less write me a ticket!”

As she wrote me the ticket it dawned on me that I was guilty of something that many of my baby boomer parent’s friends are guilty of. They have this frozen picture of me in their mind as a kid. The idea that I am an adult, live on my own and have a job – they struggle with that.

Many of us have similar thoughts about Millennials.

The oldest millennial was born in 1981. That makes them about 37 years old. When I was 37, I already had a divorce under my belt!

So this idea that they are still new to the workplace, they’re just out of school, that’s really outdated.

Challenges Millennials Face in the Workplace

Millennials are facing the challenge that many of us didn’t face at that age. Managing people that are considerably older than they are! The teams that these millennial managers are leading are all ages.

The older people distrust Millennials because they do not feel the Millennials have real-world experience. That lack of trust from older employees can be a roadblock to success and building strong work relationships.

Millennial Managers

Millennial Management Style

I interviewed a millennial manager and I asked him how he dealt with these issues. He said that when he joins a new team, he just treads really carefully at first. No need to go in with guns blazing talking about change.

He takes time to get to know the team members and he’s upfront with them. He states the obvious – that he’s younger than them, and that they most probably have more experience than he does. When issues arise, he asks them how they’d handle this problem.

Millennial Managers in the Workplace

You have to keep in mind if you are a Millennial that some of your older employees will look to you to demonstrate traits that they find are important in a good leader. And some of those traits may seem somewhat traditional to you, such as coming in early, staying late, working from the office etc.

Those are traits that baby boomers and Gen Xers associate with hard-working leaders.
According to a Deloitte survey, Millennials want to make a difference and they want to challenge the old ways of doing things.

As more millennials become leaders and managers, they will continue to challenge and change corporate culture. Not only the culture but rules and policies that older employees have always perceived as untouchable. Policies like dress code, time off, personal time, and working from home. And when that happens, I encourage older employees to not take it personally.

Millennial Leaders

As one millennial manager said to me: “When I make a change, I’m challenging the process, not the person!”

No matter what generation we belong to, we all benefit from strong leaders. Leaders who see opportunity. Leaders who encourage us to grow. Ones who support us even when our ideas are not successful.

It’s good leaders from every generation – that’s how we’re going to work and live successfully as one.

Millennials and Transparency – How to Demonstrate Transparency in the Workplace

Millennials and Transparency – what do millennials care about in the workplace? Millennials are born after 1980. They’re the young generation in the workforce.

I recently interviewed a millennial who just made a job change. I asked him why did he leave his previous employer. His answer was that he wanted his work to be meaningful and he wanted to know that what he does within the organization matters.

I thought it was a great answer, however, I asked him how does a company do that? How is this organization demonstrated to him that his work is meaningful?

His answer was very simple. He said: “My leaders are transparent.”

Millennials and Transparency

Yes, we’re talking about transparency.

And I will be honest, it wasn’t so transparent to me what transparency really meant. Especially when it comes to the millennial generation, because to me, transparency was always brutal honesty. But after further digging, I discovered that true organizational transparency gives Millennials insight into the decision-making processes and opportunities to contribute in meaningful ways.

It’s not just being told what to do, but it’s also understanding the why.

How to Demonstrate Transparency in the Workplace

So… What actions can leaders take to demonstrate their transparency?

One is honesty – with good info and bad. It’s easy to be honest when the info is good, but it’s a little trickier when the info is bad.

Another millennial I spoke to that was laid off said to me that she understands layoffs happen. However, what was so discouraging was that the process was not transparent. One day they received a letter that made it sound like everybody was going to be laid off. Three days later they received another letter that made it sound like some of the jobs were going to be saved. It wasn’t transparent. When it was all over, her manager said that he didn’t know what was going on.  She didn’t believe him.

Millennials and Transparency

How to Demonstrate Transparency

Another way to be transparent is addressing conflict – not letting it foster transparency. Being seen and available.

One of my clients holds weekly meetings and the day before the meeting she encourages everyone to post questions they would like addressed in the meeting. She said they can post the questions anonymously or not, as they wish. If there are multiple questions, she asks the team to vote on the questions that they want to be addressed first.

According to the Deloitte survey, open communication and transparency are one of the guiding factors of job satisfaction for Millennials.

What Can Leaders Do to Demonstrate Transparency

Leaders need to welcome candid feedback from their millennial employees if they want to to foster this transparent communication.

One of my clients asks their millennial employees different questions each and every week.

The questions range from:

  • How can the company make their work-life balance easier?
  • What can they do to make them more productive?
  • On a scale of one to ten, how would they rank this place as a place they would recommend working?

Transparency builds and increases trust within the organization. It builds and increases trust with managers and employees.

How to Demonstrate Transparency

How Millennials View Transparency

Millennials view transparency as a confirmation that they have an opportunity to be heard and make a difference.

Transparency is the new currency within a company, so don’t come up shortchanged.