The age of employees has continually expanded in the workplace. This is due to employees entering the workforce early (since multiple long-term internships are often a requirement for college graduation) and staying later (as the retirement age slowly gets pushed back). Ensuring a harmonious and diverse workplace is critical for global teams. Read on for some insights!
Expectations between employees from different generations are one of the most frequently miscommunicated topics in the office. A workplace can help employees avoid seeing one another as "lazy" or "inefficient" by establishing clear expectations across teams. A structure for trading information and skills within teams will help establish these expectations. For example, employees can take turns sharing a relevant computer skill or key learning about the industry every week.
Another helpful approach is creating a mentorship program within teams. This hyper-focused relationship can help employees of different ages and backgrounds connect, when they otherwise would have had no reason to interact much beyond daily tasks.
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Employees may not realize that one of the barriers to being on a successful team is poor communication across generations. By enlisting intercultural trainers or the Human Resources team, an informative training session can be truly transformative. The training does not have to be extensive; it just must bring to light some of the biggest differences between generations. These differences would include what each generation values in the workplace (hard work, loyalty, efficiency, innovation, and so on) and how the members of each generation can best communicate with others.
No matter how your workplace decides to help employees reach across generations to succeed, a prevailing theme should always be conveying value. Each and every employee, no matter their age, offers essential knowledge and skills that are more powerful when exchanged with the team.
Dwellworks offers Cross Cultural Training to assist teams and employees work not just across generations, but across the world as well. The clash of cultures can be detrimental to a business, but it is completely avoidable with proper training. To learn more about global teamwork, explore these posts:
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