Why is it important not to lose corporate wisdom?
Companies are losing significant amounts of “corporate wisdom” when Baby Boomers start to leave if they avoid the vacuum.
To avoid the vacuum, companies need processes in place that allow the emerging leaders to capture their wisdom – otherwise, organisations will be left with very significant labour and management voids.
Today, Corporate Learning Solutions is seeing the signs of workplaces that are already over stretched, which is having a negative effect on productivity, staff morale and job satisfaction.
They have found that an unwillingness to embrace technological change would be a hurdle for many business leaders to avoid the vacuum. This is being seen in some companies which were banning various social media websites instead of encouraging their practical use and seeing their availability to their staff as a kind of “fringe benefit.”
Many bosses automatically assume that such sites will be abused and don’t see that mastering the use of such technology can sometimes be a skill that will have a future application within a business context.
Top 5 factors of attraction and retention
There are many factors that lead to the attraction and retention of Generation Y’s to their job. Here are the top 5:
Work and Life Balance
Management Style
Workplace Culture
Varied Job Role
Training
The Gen-Y values a career that allows them to continue with other aspects of their life stage. It is also important to create an environment where they can interact socially and work collaboratively with high regard for others.
Their job must offer them variety, change and the chance of a promotion. It is important that their manager communicates with transparency and respect for all staff.
The key to remaining relevant in changing times is ongoing training – remember training leads to retaining.
Valuing generational diversity
As much as today’s Gen-X and Baby Boomer bosses need Gen-Y’s IT skills, Gen-Y’s need wisdom to guide them.
Collectively, this will give organisations their innovative edge if they don’t avoid the vacuum.
Gen-Y’s have something of an unfair reputation for little company loyalty and poor job commitment. However, Gen-Y’s have shorter job tenure not because of lack of loyalty, but because of a desire for variety, challenge, change and a dynamic working environment.
Interestingly, a family friendly workplace will increasingly become important to Gen-X and Baby Boomers – hence, it’s critical not to avoid the vacuum.
In the 1960’s the average employee retention rate was 15 years. Today, the rate is just 4 years. Flexible work environments are essential because the Baby Boomers and Gen-X’s will become the home-carers to their loved ones as the population ages.
