Closing the Generation Gap in the Workplace

This one-day workshop will help you teach participants how to:

• Identify where the generation gap issue surfaces, and the impact it has on the modern workforce
• Describe and apply language that is specific to each generation currently in the workplace
• Explore organization strategies that overcome gap issues
• Evaluate the need and effectiveness of recruiting, retention, and succession plans in context of the generation gap

Course Overview

• You will spend the first part of the day getting to know participants and discussing what will take place during the workshop. Students will also have an opportunity to identify their personal learning objectives.

In this course, we will talk about the perception of a gap among generations that can interfere with people working together. We will discover that the gap is a manageable although real issue, but not the great chasm that people sometimes make it out to be. History in Brief

• First, we will discuss the history of the concept of a gap, and defined the generations currently identified as being a part of the workforce.

Finding Common Ground

• Then, we will learn about common ground as a way to approach generational issues, and examine how a millennial’s perception could also be similar for people of other generations.

Silents, Boomers, X’ers, Millennials, and Gen Z

• Next, we will learn about definitions that could help us speak about the generations, and to consider the major influences common to each group.

Recruiting that Bridges the Gap

• In this session, we will move on to how recruiting as a process could benefit from what we know about generations, and how no matter what generation you are hiring, people of all ages appreciate certain things.

Pre-Assignment Review

• In this session, we will review the pre-assignments and consider how the answers sit alongside what participants have learned in the course already.

Creative Solutions

• In this session, we will discuss the things that people want out of job advertisements and to how that could apply in a recruiting plan.

The Value of Planning

• Next, we will learn some essential elements of succession planning and coaching and how having those strategies within the recruiting and human resources function can also help to reduce effects of the generation gap.

Developing Retention Strategies

• In this session, we will consider elements of retention that could influence people to decide to stay or retire, including how staying at work or altering their hours could change their pension benefits or life insurance.

What We Really Want

• The last part of the course is dedicated to an exercise that brings all the information together in a way that reviews what we learned, and could potentially help us as learners to identify a learning gap we might need to resolve.

Workshop Wrap-Up

• At the end of the course, students will have an opportunity to ask questions and fill out an action plan.