5 Tips to Effectively Manage Employees of Different Ages in the Workplace

Oracle organizational development consultant Jessica Kriegel writes in Business Insider that recommendations based on generational stereotypes lead to bias that carries human consequences, including misunderstanding between millennial employees and their older managers. She offers five strategies to manage intergenerational offices, with the first being to avoid assumptions based on trends. "Just because the baby boomer generation might statistically tend to stay at their jobs longer than millennials according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, that does not mean your baby boomer employee is not a flight risk," Kriegel notes. Her second suggestion is to stop using generational labels, and the third is for people to always be checking their own prejudices. Kriegel's fourth piece of advice is to ignore trends and focus on people. "Instead, talk to your colleagues and team members," she recommends. Kriegel's fifth and final tip is to welcome the diversity in each generation. "Working effectively with different generations in the workplace means giving each individual — not his or her label — due respect," she concludes.