The average life expectancy is going up around the globe — thanks, in part, to tech. In fact, centenarians are the fastest growing age segment, projected to grow eightfold by 2050 to reach 3.7 million globally, according to Pew Research. With this statistic comes the reality that people are living, working and consuming for longer than they ever have before.
The workforce of today is more age-diverse than ever. Yet the tech industry is lagging in age-diversity. According to Built In’s 2021 The State of DEI in Tech report, 27 percent of employers reported having zero employees over the age of 56 on their staff.
The benefits of diversity are countless: Diversity drives innovation. Diversity improves market growth. Diverse perspectives strengthen teams. Each generation is shaped by different events that have impacted their point of view, and the tech industry is losing out on the wisdom of older generations.
These different perspectives, from boomers to Zoomers, can make the groups seem at odds. But with a little creativity, those differences can become a huge asset. GR0 Marketing, a Los Angeles-based digital marketing agency, has employees spanning four generations. Built In checked in with GR0, which also puts a significant emphasis on building employee loyalty, to see how the company overcomes differences to maximize the potential of employees across ages.
Tell us about a specific time when having a multigenerational workforce made your team stronger or improved the outcome of a project.
Fostering a multigenerational workforce at GR0 has proved to be a competitive advantage. With employees spanning four generations, we’ve created a diverse community that brings different ethics, values, habits and expectations to the table.
While working on an HR training and development project, I collaborated with everyone from millennials to baby boomers. This ensured that the training materials represented the different perspectives for new hires while diminishing unconscious bias. We ensure that our new employees are introduced to employees of varying levels and departments, allowing for open communication that paves the way for a healthy discourse; a diversity in perspective and opinions; and a richness in dialogue.
As an agency with clients who also span across generations and sectors, having a multigenerational workforce has provided a wealth of knowledge from all sectors of life that make us even better suited to cater to the needs of our customers.
Our leadership team at GR0 looks at our multigenerational workforce as a benefit rather than a challenge.”
How do you work to leverage the unique strengths and skill sets of different generations within your workforce?
It’s a tall order to foster a productive, collaborative environment with mutual respect when addressing the needs and preferences of so many different generations and backgrounds. However, our leadership team at GR0 looks at our multigenerational workforce as a benefit rather than a challenge.
We’ve found that creating mini pods within our structure, even within departments themselves, allows for a more open and collaborative environment where different generations can build trust in each other. Our SEO department is separated into smaller pods, with a three-level tier that oftentimes reflects the variety of generations working at GR0. Leveraging the intimate culture that these pods can create, we enable our employees to learn from each other in an engaged setting that doesn’t allow for generational differences to create a rift. This results in an open-source environment of problem-solving, managing and sharing information as we bring those new perspectives to our work and our clients.
There is no one-size-fits-all with a multigenerational workforce.”
What steps have you taken to understand the diverse needs and values of a multigenerational workforce and then create a company culture that supports those different needs?
There is no one-size-fits-all with a multigenerational workforce. Understanding what works and what doesn’t for each individual is necessary, and with that comes the need for flexibility. At GR0, we recognize that all of our employees want flexibility, whether that means time to care for children, an aging spouse or their own health.
The other idea we find consistent across all generations is wellness — a concept that includes everything from physical, mental and financial health. Our compensation and benefits packages are built to reflect these two areas: to ensure that our employees feel supported physically, mentally and financially, and to allow for a flexible work-life balance personally catered to each individual. Employees are our most valuable asset as a company, and we take pride in the fact that we can show our team how much we appreciate and support them by catering to their individual needs. What we see in return is an incredibly diverse, multigenerational workforce that goes above and beyond to invest in their work, service their clients, innovate new ideas and go the extra mile.
