At the end of the webinar there was a short Q&A session. One of the questions posed to me was “Are the needs of each generational group the same or different?” Due to the brevity of the session, my answer was that we are all humans and it doesn’t matter to which generational group we are from, we all have needs for a safety and security work environment, to be paid fairly in relation to our peers and to the market, to have strong and meaningful relationships, to be recognized for who we are and not just for what we do and to be given opportunities to gain personal growth and meaning from our work. I really believe this is universal.
For some reason, this question stayed with me after the webinar. I started to wonder, did the participant mean to ask about the similarity of needs of various generational groups or was the true question more around the strategies to satisfy these needs. When we look on the surface at the members of different generations, a Baby Boomer’s life is much different than someone who is in the Gen Y group. A Baby Boomer may be dealing with ageing parents; a blended family from second or third marriage; grown children; grandchildren, etc. Do they have the same needs as a Gen Y adult that is single, maybe still living at home; has a huge social network; and has no financial obligations or responsibilities other to themselves? From this perspective, we seem to have a very different question.
When we work with employee needs we are dealing with the emotions and qualities of a person. We invest our time and energy in getting to know the core values of a person and understanding what behaviours exemplify them. Through this process, there are no generational differences because everyone is seen as a unique individual. From this place, the manager is looking to get to know their employees beyond the usual skills, talents and abilities that we are used to understanding in the workplace.
Where difference may come out is when we focus on extrinsic instead of intrinsic motivators. When we truly focus on employee needs we are for the most part leaning on intrinsic motivational strategies to support us. Intrinsic motivators are psychological rewards that employees get from doing meaningful work and performing it well. Intrinsic motivation comes when a person feels that they have accomplished something of real value – something that matters in the larger scheme of things. They feel that their time and energy has made a contribution, which in return provides them with a sense of purpose.
In contrast, extrinsic motivators are the tangible items given to employees. These strategies have been found over the years through many research studies to not be consistently effective in improving and maintaining long term engagement. However, business leaders and managers are still focused on these types of strategies. When we look at the generational needs in terms of extrinsic motivators, we easily see how there are significant differences. Does a 25 year old need flexibility to work from home? Does a 60 year old want to have monthly parties at a local bar? My sense is that the participant’s question was stemming from our natural and archaic way of thinking of employee engagement. To make a true and impactful dent on the dismal data we find on employee engagement, there must be a hard shift to focus more on employee needs and the intrinsic motivators that support the fulfillment of these needs.
