Bringing New Employees into the Multigenerational Workplace
The moment a new employee steps into your office, you need to take the necessary steps to make that person feel comfortable, but you also need to ensure your new hire follows all the rules and regulations you’ve put in place. With new employees ranging from recent college graduates to workers with years of experience from a variety companies, you'll likely face some generational differences in the workplace. Holding one large new hire orientation for all employees, being aware of your own hidden prejudices towards different age groups and explaining everything carefully can help you bridge the gap between employees of different generations.
The Mulitgenerational Workplace
Today’s employees typically fall into one of three generations: baby boomers, gen Xers or millennials. Millennials refers to those born between 1982 and 2005 and represent the largest number of people entering the workforce. Baby boomers are those born after World War II, while generation Xers were born in the 1960s or early 1980s. When employees work with people of different ages and backgrounds, they might make assumptions about coworkers. A common mistake is thinking that a baby boomer doesn't understand new technology or that millennials surely know the ins and outs of certain software.
Before you create your new hire orientation, consider your own prejudices and thoughts. You can stop yourself from thinking a certain way and put all of your employees on equal footing. You’ll also set a great example for the rest of your workforce.
Increase New Workers’ Productivity
With office and productivity supplies, you can help your new employees increase their productivity at work. Every employee should have access to the same tools, software and products. During new employee orientation, take the time to introduce your workers to the products frequently used around the office and the tools needed on the job. Even those who have previously worked with the equipment will benefit from learning more about how your company uses it.
Encourage Communication
When employees learn how to effectively communicate with each other, your business runs like a well-oiled machine. During orientation, offer samples of your products to new employees, and ask them to talk about what they like. You can also match new employees with experienced employees who can show new hires the ropes. This also helps your new employees understand that people of all ages have something important to offer in your company. By pairing younger and older employees together, you set a tone of everyone working together.
Hiring new workers, especially new grads, can create a workplace that spans a significant age range. As a company, figuring out how to manage these differences and get rid of assumptions will only benefit the work you offer to the outside world. If you can all get along within the workplace walls, then you will certainly be able to manage differences with customers as well.