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Communication at Work

A few months ago I heard Boston Globe columnist and "Brazen Careerist" blogger Penelope Trunk give a vivid example of the difference between the younger generation of workers and their elders.

Trunk told of one of her young employees whose parents were visiting. This Generation Y worker – or Millennial, as they are sometimes called – wanted Trunk to join him and his parents for dinner. The line between social and work life were not just blurred for this employee; it was nonexistent.

A lot has been written about the difference between Baby Boomers – people born between 1946 and 1964 – and Generation Y, who joined the workforce around the new millennium. Yet, for all their differences, a new global study commissioned by the IABC Research Foundation found that the two generations have some striking similarities as well.

First, the differences, which many of us already know:

Millennials are generally more positive about their jobs, benefits, work environments and company management than Baby Boomers.   The younger generation is more likely to be proud of their employers and to recommend them to others.Millennials place more value on informal communication and fun ways to build teamwork than their older colleagues, who prefer more formal means of communication and just want to stick to business.Millennials rely more on technology such as e-mail and text messaging to build relationships than their Boomer colleagues do.Younger workers are more likely than older workers to rate their employers' communications as credible.

Now consider some of the similarities between the two groups:

For Millennials and Baby Boomers, being proud of their employers is one of the key drivers of their overall satisfaction on the job. Who doesn't want to be proud of where they work? For both groups, the most important types of communication coming from their employers are performance recognition, feedback about job performance and opportunities to interact with their fellow employees. Everyone, it seems, likes to know how they're doing and needs to connect with others. Although Millennials are comfortable using technology to build relationships, both groups prefer face-to-face interaction as the primary way. Nothing beats human contact. Millennials and Boomers alike gave mostly positive ratings of their employers' communications in five areas: credibility, relevance, understandability, timeliness, and explanations of the information's importance. This is good news about the quality of employee communications overall.

When it comes right down to it, we all have the same basic need for communication, no matter how old or young we are.

Robert J. Holland owns Holland Communication Solutions LLC in Mechanicsville. He works with Fortune 500 companies and small businesses to help them develop communication programs that support business goals. He is also available to speak to business groups about workplace communication. You can reach him at robert@hollandcomm.com , at http://www.hollandcomm.com/ , or by calling (804) 368-0312.