The perception of the workplace has changed forever during the Covid-19 pandemic. And while numerous business leaders are aware of the increasing popularity of hybrid and remote work models, they don’t know how their employees of different generations feel about these changes that are here to stay.
The numbers you’ll see here will help you better understand how your Gen-X, Millennial, Baby Boomer, and Gen-Z employees perceive the disrupted workplace so that you can create a productive and tight-knit work environment.
How Different Generations Perceive Remote Work
Despite the widespread opinion that fully remote work is preferred among employees, only 21.4% of Gen-X and Baby Boomers wanted to work remotely every day. This number further drops when it comes to Gen-Z and Millennials. At the same time, this preference aligns with the wishes of 62% of employees to see their employees working from the office for 2 or 3 days a week.
Despite the numerous benefits that remote work can offer, many employees may find it hard to cope with its downsides. According to a Microsoft study from March 2021, 60% of Gen Z employees were struggling to find a much-needed work/life balance while working remotely. Another survey on the topic found that 37% of Gen-Z employees missed working from the office, while only 25.6% of Millennials and 19.8% of Baby Boomers felt the same way.
The reason for this may lie in the fact that the majority of Gen-Z employees still live with their parents and may not have a dedicated home office space.
Furthermore, many Gen Z and Millenial workers worried about the stress and anxiety induced by high productivity expectations and a requirement to work within fixed work hours. This said Millenials were the demographic the most concerned with burnout and work-related stress ( 70%). And 59% of Gen-Z and 42% of Baby boomers shared the same concern. The blurred line between work and private life followed by the urge to always be available for work may drive many remote employees to burnout.
For all these reasons, the majority of Gen-Z and Millenial workers would prefer a hybrid work environment with three days of remote work and two days spent with their coworkers in the office. They state that they need more in-person interaction, adding that occasional work from the office may boost their motivation and engagement.
Knowing how the needs and expectations of your employees change with age, creating a tight-knit and highly productive multigenerational work environment may seem challenging.
But don’t worry, keep reading to find out the strategies you can use to achieve this goal, avoiding potential inter-generational conflicts.
Shed a Positive Light on Feedback
Many perceive employee feedback is often perceived as an outdated practice that employees and managers dread. Because feedback is often based on personal opinions and can’t offer anything but vague and cryptic performance evaluation.
You can change this negative attitude by including advanced apps like remote pc monitoring software in the employee evaluation process. By collecting and analyzing employees’ track records you’ll gain real-time detailed insight into their daily activities, productivity and performance. This information will help you identify top performers and those who need additional support or training.
By doing this you’ll modernize the entire employee evaluation process making it more relevant and transparent. And this is something that can motivate your employees, especially Millenials to be more engaged in their work and use honest and objective feedback to revel in their achievements and work on their weaknesses.
Foster Open Communication and Collaboration
If you want to fight disengagement across different generations in your team, you need to encourage open communication and collaboration. Top-down leadership is a thing of the past and if you want your employees to be engaged in their work and feel good about their role in the company, make them feel heard and appreciated.
Instead of creating a generational gap in your workplace, allow different generational skill sets to work to your employees’ advantage. This said tech-savvy Gen-Z and Millennials can help Gen-X and Baby Boomers to cope better with different apps and tools they use to complete their tasks.
Vice versa, younger employees can learn a lot about creating meaningful relationships at work from their older colleagues and improve their social skills.
Make Professional Growth a Part of the Equation
Many companies recognize the importance of offering professional development opportunities to attract and retain top talent. At the same time, the demand for personal growth opportunities has increased recently with more and more employees wanting to know how their roles can help them grow personally and define their future careers.
To help your employees have a clearer picture of their career path, use different strategies, like DiSC assessments, or hire a coach to help your employees identify aspects of their work that offer room for growth and move forward in their careers.