In this highly competitive era of business, employers must realize that recruiting and managing talent drawn from all ages is the key to staying ahead of the market curve. Hence BW People got into an in-depth conversation with Giridhar G V, Executive Vice President – Global Human Resources, Hinduja Global Solutions on he is planning the retention and what are his views on managing and retaining talent in a multi-generational workforce.
- What are the unique ways to optimize a mixed talent pool?
The first step to a healthy workforce is to build a workplace culture that encourages honest communication and helps in breaking down barriers between generations. Too much emphasis on one form of communication can disrupt employee engagement strategies. A simple example is how the younger generation prefers to communicate via email or chat, while older members prefer face-to-face interactions. A combination of verbal, written, and digital communication is therefore essential for organizations catering to a multi-generational workplace.
- How can businesses provide purpose to promote passion amongst their multi-generational workforce?
Creating open channels of communication that provide opportunities to participate in important company conversations and decisions creates a much stronger sense of purpose among employees, which in turn leads to higher employee engagement. Sharing an organization’s vision and goals will give work meaning and help employees understand why their work matters on a larger scale. The organization must ask their employees what motivates them, and not assume they already know it. This will create motivation and team camaraderie.
- What is the one common approach that helps in bringing together talent from all generations?
The best way to create synergy between multi-generation teams is to take advantage of everyone’s abilities and recognize everyone’s goals. A “one size fits all” style of management simply won’t work with a multigenerational workforce.
It can also be very beneficial to try reverse mentoring programs and build mixed-age teams to help them share their knowledge. Providing rewards and benefits and always encouraging work-life balance is very essential. And making sure the company’s incentives resonate with employees by being clear about where they are in their lives.
- How an organization can re-imagine employee engagement strategies to build a workforce and a work culture that is borderless and inclusive?
In order to make sure everyone at the table feels included, organizations must provide a safe forum for every employee – no matter what age group or level in the organization – to share their thoughts and ideas, raise their concerns, make suggestions, and their unique contributions. This helps build trust and a sense of ownership for their work. To summarise, companies need to foster a work environment that thrives on diversity and inclusion, because members from different generations—with their own levels of knowledge and abilities—can and should work and learn in harmony.
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