Making Employees Feel Welcome

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Workplaces are typically a mix of generations and backgrounds, so how can you make everyone feel welcome? One book has a few good suggestions.

“Generations at Work: Managing the Clash of Boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Yers in the Workplace,” by Ron Zemke, Claire Raines and Bob Filipczak, was recently released in a new edition a decade after its initial publication. The book draws on real-world examples to offer a number of tips that could make any business a more enjoyable place to work. You want to embrace diversity in the workplace as the valuable asset that it is, and these practices can help.

  • Booz Allen Hamilton organizes in-house community groups by interests (poker, kickball, trivia games, etc.), not by age groups.
  • KPMG requires that every manager have a protégé and every younger worker a mentor.
  • Infosys picks nine high-performing younger workers every year to participate in senior management strategic meeting sessions.
  • Brainstorc invites teenagers to visit and help solve problems.
  • PepsiCo unites employees with their shared passion in global causes.
  • The U.S. Army is encouraging drill sergeants to switch from “intimidation” training tactics to leadership by example.
  • Lockheed Martin has embraced more interactive training rather than PowerPoint presentations to better engage younger workers.
  • Deloitte hires career coaches who are paid to transfer knowledge from and to workers.

Adapted from How Companies are Addressing the Generation Gap by Dennis McCafferty at CIO Insight.