How Gen Y and Boomers Will Reshape Your Agenda

LEADERSHIP

in the

NEW WORLD

How Gen Y & Will Reshape Your Agenda

Your oldest and youngest talent cohorts demand many of the same things in a workplace – and have the numbers to get their way. | by Sylvia Ann Hewlett,

Boomers

Laura Sherbin, and Karen Sumberg

RIGHT NOW, managers of people are operating in full recessionary mode. They’re wrestling with whether and how much to reduce head count, weighing alternatives like furloughs and pay cuts, and generally trying to get by with less. Not many are focused on what just a few years ago was described as “the war for talent.” As the economy recovers, however, companies will return to the challenge of winning over enough highly capable professionals to drive renewal and growth. Only then will they realize that the rules of engagement have changed – that the landscape of talent management has been transformed. The combination of Generation Y eagerly advancing up the professional ranks and Baby Boomers often refusing to retire has, over the course of a few short years, dramatically shifted the composition of the workforce; each of these generations

Dave Wheeler

hbr.org

|

July–August 2009

|

Harvard Business Review 71

LEADERSHIP

in the

NEW WORLD.

is roughly twice the size of Generation X, which lies between them. More important, Boomers and Gen Ys are together redefining what constitutes a great place to work. As we will show, they tend to share many attitudes and behaviors that

IDEA

IN BRIEF

» Two large surveys of college

graduates reveal remarkable similarities in workplace preferences between Baby Boomers and Generation Y – the oldest and youngest groups in the emerging workforce.

» Both Boomers and Gen Ys want

to contribute to society through their labor; seek flexible working arrangements; value social connections at work and loyalty to a company; and prize other rewards of employment over monetary compensation.

» Given the large size of these

generational...