Why No One Under 30 Answers Your Voicemail

DiversityInc held a webinar July 27 on 4 Generations in the Workplace.

Also read: generations at work, boomers, mythbusting

To understand the generational divide that exists between older and younger workers in today's workplace, consider the simple case of voicemail. Try leaving a Gen Y employee or colleague a voicemail message, and see what happens. They're not going to hear it. Gen Y members tune out practically any communication effort they perceive as unsolicited or spam.

"If you send a message on voicemail or send an e-mail, they are likely to ignore it," says Jeff Schwartz, U.S. and global talent leader at Deloitte, No. 25 in The 2010 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity®. "It's very frustrating to our leaders, most of whom are boomers [and] some of whom are Gen X'ers. When they broadcast voicemail messages, big swaths of their organization are not hearing it. They're not even listening to it and they're not even sure it's directed to them because they don't think about being communicated with in that way. CEOs or HR leaders or business leaders think they're sending a direct message, but that is not the most effective way to communicate across the generations."

Deloitte's solution: Instead of leaders sending broadcast voicemail messages on the telephone system, employees now get a digital recording of the message embedded in an e-mail.

Sound complicated? It is. Welcome to the modern-day workplace 2.0.

This is the first time in American history that four different generations are working side-by-side in the workplace, bringing their own values, goals and communication approaches to the workplace. What's the biggest difference between Generation Y (born between 1980 and 2000) and baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964)? And how do those in Generation X/millennials (born between 1965 and 1979) fit in?

"Millennials grew up with computers and cell phones the way baby boomers and Gen X'ers grew up with typewriters and corded telephones," according to a recent Deloitte report, "Decoding Generational Differences: Fact, fiction ... or should we just get back to work?" "The implications of this technological dispar­ity are profound: Baby boomers see technology as a tool, or even a toy, while younger workers see it as an extension of themselves. These millennials see themselves as 'technology natives,' moderate multi-taskers who get a lot done. Most of them mix entertainment and work."

Who Are These Employees & What Is Their Preferred Mode of Communication?

Depending upon which resource one is perusing, the generations are roughly represented as:

Veterans, also known as traditionalists, the silent generation or radio babies: Born 1927–1945, "Radio Babies grew up with the least amount of technology, which makes it no surprise that they reported that they prefer to communicate face-to-face about problems, concerns and suggestions," say authors Linda Gravett and Robin Throckmorton in their book "Bridging the Generation Gap." "Their second option for communication might be a phone call; however, they get very frustrated when they call someone and continually get a recording—or worse yet, no return phone call."

Baby boomers: The U.S. Census Bureau defines baby boomers (hereinafter "boomers") as individuals born between 1946 and 1964. "They are used to having lots of people around," say Gravett and Throckmorton. Their preferred mode of communication is to have meetings—lots of meetings—to tackle problems and concerns … Consensus building is important for many boomers, and face-to-face discussion is their preferred way to make this happen. A conference phone call is a second option, as long as everyone has an opportunity to participate."

Generation X: The U.S. Census Bureau defines this segment of the population as people born between 1968 and 1979. However, the upper limit of Generation X in some cases has been as high as 1982. They tend to value time and have grown up with more technology than the previous two generations. They prefer to communicate via e-mail because it's efficient and in-the-moment; they don't like to waste time or energy. Meetings are for rare occasions when no other option is available, and you may find them checking their e-mail or sending e-mails to others while sitting in a meeting.

Generation Y, also known as millennials: This generation is people born between 1980 and 1999, although some sources place the lower limit as low as 1978 or the higher limit as high as 2002. This generation has always been surrounded by technology. "Games, music, mail and data have almost always been digital. They came of age in a world of interconnections, even hyperconnections," according to a new IBM report, "Inheriting a Complex World." "To find information for school reports, they learned to follow links instead of directions from librarians. They used Facebook instead of phone books to connect with friends—and friends of friends." IBM is No. 8 in the DiversityInc Top 50.

How Can Companies Minimize Communication Conflicts?

Accommodate employee differences: Treat your employees as you do your customers. Learn all you can about them, work to meet their specific needs and serve them according to their unique preferences.

"We can learn a lot from what we are doing on the customer side because on the customer side we have become very sophisticated as organizations dealing with very complex differences among our customer groups," says Deloitte's Schwartz. "In the same way that it's extremely common for customer strategies to have multi-channels of communications and interactions, I think we as professionals need … to increase our sophistication in terms of how we use multi-channels … in order to effectively communicate with generations and help them communicate with each other. On one level that may look like redundancy, but on another level it's recognizing that the same message delivered through four or five or six types of media will reach different parts of your organization and different generations in different ways."

Provide flexibility around media choice in the communication process: "One of the things that we have started to do much more deliberately is figure out based on what it is we're trying to communicate and want to communicate: What's the best medium to do it? Is it podcast? Is it through the iPod? Is it through e-mail? Is it through the blog?" says LaMae Allen deJongh, U.S. human capital and diversity leader at Accenture, No. 22 in the DiversityInc Top 50. Accenture received DiversityInc's Generational Communications award at our November 2010 event. "[This way,] it's not just the traditional styles of communication all of the time. Even on our project teams while we're on client sites, IM has become much more the norm in terms of communication than even e-mail."

Gen Y'ers want to stay in complete control of the information that makes its way onto their computer or handheld device. Instead of just blasting news about their new community to an e-mail list, a fair number of large companies are creating platforms that look like Facebook or MySpace within the firewall of the company. At Deloitte, for example, it's called D-Street, an internal version of Facebook.

"We built it to be similar to Facebook, but it's a business system. Surprisingly, we saw very seasoned partners who were very quick to log on and create their own communities," Schwartz says.

Healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente, No. 4 in the DiversityInc Top 50, is using social media to help its 160,000+ employees connect and collaborate through blogs and online communities, says James E. Taylor, senior director of diversity strategy execution and workplace inclusion. The company built an internal networking site called KP IdeaBook, an interactive site where employees can create detailed professional profiles, find and connect with colleagues via search and browsing capabilities, establish groups and provide status updates on work projects. Once they establish a profile and connections, users can initiate and participate in discussions; create and share documents, blogs and announcements; and even create and conduct polls.

Consider implementing inter-generational mentoring and generational employee-resource groups: In the modern-day workplace, mentoring across generations and knowledge transfer is critical to maximizing individual and organizational talent, experts say. Five years ago, none of The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity had generational employee-resource groups. This year, 44 percent do.

"We have a Generation Y resource group and I use it for great data, especially about education and learning," says Cal Jackson, senior diversity practitioner at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, No. 38 in the DiversityInc Top 50. "This group provides a great reverse-mentoring opportunity. You prep the baby boomers or veterans that they will be receiving information about Gen Y, their job ethics and how they work."

While researching their book, Gravett and Throckmorton asked 500 people in each of the generations what their preferred communication method was in order to learn more about the different communication styles. They came up with a few basic tips to help organizations to bridge the generational divide:

Utilize the experiences of everyone: "Engage everyone in the conversation," they write. "Someone younger has a great deal to offer, including fresh new perspectives that you may not have even thought about. And someone older has typically 'been there' and 'done that' and you can benefit from the expertise and experience they bring."

Focus on job-related common ground: "Keep your conversations focused so you don't drift off and make a mistaken comment such as 'you probably don't understand because you are too old/too young' or 'you may not know about this because it is before your time...' or 'I have grandkids older than you.' These types of comments only create friction and don't foster cooperation."

Share opportunities to lead: "Don't always assume that the most senior person should lead the discussion or project. If you are working on a team, don't hesitate to let a younger team member take the lead. The older team member may not want to be the leader again; been there and done that. And, the younger team member may want the leadership experience and appreciate some mentoring."

via diversityinc.com

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