Today, “New Employee Orientation” is out and “Onboarding” is in. New team members need to be welcomed and appropriately shown the ropes, briefed on the ground rules, and woven into the fabric of your organization. Here are some guidelines as to how to effectively welcome new employees based on their generation.
Traditionalists: This generation grew up with a steady guide of trial by fire, and war stories being bandied about where it was a source of pride for the individual to tell how he had survived battle after battle on the job as his way of learning the ropes. Our Traditionalists started their jobs at a new organization with the philosophy of the senior members being, “Sink or swim! You will either figure it out, or you will be washed out.”
Baby Boomers: This generation had the attitude in their onboarding days of “I learned the hard way; so can you. If I tell you too much, then I’m giving you a competitive advantage that I didn’t have.” With 80 million peers to compete against, Boomers weren’t willing to give away this advantage. Friendly competition is a tone that Baby Boomers have honed to a fine art in business. Their entire formative experience was an ongoing game of musical chairs. Enough resources (chairs) were never available for everyone playing the game. You had to be quick, perhaps throw a few subtle elbows, and keep your seat to stay in the game. For Boomers, the tone of communication is all about subtle competition or outright war with the caveat, “It’s just business.” Boomers like communications that come across in a positive, upbeat, youthful tone, but they are clear that when push comes to shove, they are still looking out for number one.
Gen Xers: This generation entered the workforce with peer-to-peer latest market information. With the competitive Baby Boomers before them, Generation X’s members banded together to help their friends find their ways through organizations. With the advent of the Internet, e-mail could be sent under the radar between the Xers.
They helped one another find out the secrets of an organization. They turned the Baby Boomers’ theme of “Information is Power, so withhold information to keep the power” on its ear and responded with their own theme of “Sharing Information is Power.” Many Gen Xers didn’t have resources invested in them early in their
careers. Today they want to see proof that managers trust and value them, and they often equate the amount of training invested in them as proof that the organization is committed to them. Xers feel “The more we learn, the longer we’ll stay.”
Millennials: When Millennials enter the workforce they expect immediately to be part of the cool action. From day one, they want to like where they work and the people with whom they work. If they don’t, during the day they will go onto their social media outlet and update their statuses on Facebook to reflect that they are not having a good time at their new job. The update will sprinkle out to their community that the job they
were so excited about is not turning out as they had hoped. Such information can affect whether peers with similar talents and values in the future want to work at your organization.
Generationally Savvy Solutions: Generationally Savvy organizations create an onboarding timetable at least thirty to ninety days in duration. The worst scenario is that an organization’s management and leaders just neglect new employees because that’s the way those older employees were themselves treated. Putting in place a proactive onboarding program right now can put you ahead of the curve. The easiest way to lose an employee is to make her feel like she made a bad decision by coming to join your company because she isn’t able to find her footing or find a way to fit. Avoiding this situation is an easy process if you have the mentoring program to allow somebody to find her place in your culture and immediately feel like part of the team. Millennials are entering the workforce with the expectation that they will be welcomed to your organization in the same way they were welcomed to school, both public and private institutions. Regularly check and ensure that your company’s orientation and training programs take generational diversity into account. Create an immediate mentorship or team experience, something to help new employees feel comfortable and secure from the beginning.
