Hiring Trends by Generations - Its Pros and Cons

As we are aware, there are six living generations in America.

1.   GI Generation – born between 1901-1926 - All living from this generation are retired and living on their social security, lived the happier days and have seen the widest generation gaps. Had strong loyalty to jobs.

2.   Mature Silent - born between 1927-1945 – Retired, the richest, most free-spending retirees in history. They pledged loyalty to the corporation; once you got a job, you generally kept it for life.

3.   Baby Boomers - born between 1946 -1964 – Two sub-sets: Some retired and some still working. Self-righteous & self-centered. Envision technology and innovation as requiring a learning process. Optimistic, driven, team-oriented.

4.   Generation X - born between 1965 -1980 – Entrepreneurial, very individualistic, self-absorbed and suspicious of all organization, Survivors as individuals, cautious, skeptical, unimpressed with authority, self-reliant.

5.   Generation Y/Millennials - born between 1981 -2000 – otherwise known as the “Echo Boomers”; America’s next great generation. Respect authority, optimistic, and focused. They schedule everything, They feel enormous academic pressure and depend only on technology. Prefer to work in teams. They do not live to work, they prefer a more relaxed work environment with a lot of hand holding and accolades.

6.   Generation Z/Boomlets – Born after 2001 – Smart kids, I call them digital/electronic kids with smart phones, digital games, laptops and have made those as part of their living. They have eco-fatigue. They are savvy consumers and they know what they want and how to get it and they are over saturated with brands.

If you look at the trend, the major job fight is between Generation X and Generation Y/Millennium and partly baby boomers. If you look at the hiring trends, recruiters and HR policy makers, without announcing it and covering it legally, are inclined to actively hire Generation Y/Millennium people and the reasons are obvious:

• Generation Y is the younger generation, not heavy weight in their experience, not expensive to hire, works in the team and quickly learns and adopts the newer technology.
• Whereas the Generation X is very individualistic, expensive people to hire due to their experience. Similarly Baby boomers gets into the challenge to learning by envisioning technology.

The other side of this hiring trend is:

• Generation Y do not live for working, so they change their job frequently, and there is no commitment towards the organization and thus the organizations’ assets is lost frequently. The organization spends more money in training them the same thing again and again due to frequent attrition.
• Generation X having the entrepreneur mindset and individualistic working style it keeps the organization to thrive more. They are more committed towards the organization. The cost is one time and more to hire, but the assets keeps growing for the organization.

How it should be handled?

The hiring should be a mix of all generations. As Generation X prefer to work independently with minimal supervision, they should be hired where they can lead and the Generation Y can work in team collaboratively. At the same time, Gen X and Baby boomers can motivate the team – ‘Generation Y’ to provide better outcome for the organization. Organization, recruiters and HR policy makers should motivate a multigenerational workforce. "To manage across the generations we have to learn to be mindful of each other and treat each other as individuals," "Use everyone's strength, ability and goals." Don't forget to encourage work-life balance. However, it's still your responsibility to make every employee, regardless of their generation, feel engaged. You also need to integrate them into your company's culture and make them feel valued.

     Disclaimer – This article is purely based on observations in the technology industry.