Page 17 - BusinessWest September 2, 2024

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Culture Clash
Managing Different Generations Can Be Challenging, but Rewarding
BY JOSEPH BEDNAR
[email protected]
‘Zoomers to Boomers.’ That’s how folks at the
Employers Assoc. of the North- East (EANE) refer to the four main generations that populate
today’s workforce: Baby Boomers, Gen X, Mil- lennials (sometimes referred to as Gen Y), and Gen Z.
“We are at a point where, nationally, almost 50% of our workforce is Millennials and Gen Zs. And there are pluses to having all those different perspectives,” said Alli-
son Ebner, EANE president. “You have the thought processes of the Baby Boomers and the X-ers who have all the knowledge, and they are transferring that knowledge to the Ys and the Zs, but the Ys and the Zs are bringing in new, creative ways to do things and tackle projects.”
“You have the thought processes of the Baby Boomers and the X-ers who have all the knowledge,
and they are transferring that knowledge to the Ys and the Zs, but the Ys and the Zs are bringing in new, creative ways to do things and tackle projects.”
It’s a diversity of experiences and perspec- tives from which savvy companies can benefit by considering their varied needs and expec- tations, said Cindy Ryan, head of Human Resources for MassMutual, one of the region’s largest employers.
“While you can’t make sweeping assump- tions about any generation, it is safe to say that there are different drivers and motivators for employees across different age groups,” she told BusinessWest. “In our eyes, the best way to address these differences is creating a workforce where we place trust in our people to do their work thoroughly and do that work in an environment that best suits them.”
For MassMutual, she said, that includes offering a diverse range of benefits that sup- port mental, physical, and financial health;
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Allison Ebner says everyone — including the older cohort of workers — is benefiting from workplace changes being driven by Gen Z and younger Millennials.