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When you ask executives what keeps them awake at night, inevitably in our tight labor market, it is how to retain key talent. The investment required to retain staff doesn’t even compare to the cost to replace staff, which we know runs 50 – 150% of an individual’s annual salary. Then, why don’t we focus our time and money on retaining? Often, it is because there isn’t a magic bullet answer but rather many answers for how to retain talent. Recently, we surveyed 500 individuals in each of the four generations in the workplace to find out what entices them to stay with their organization. We then subdivided those responses by gender and were able to get some interesting facts to help make your lives easier when it comes to finding ways to retain men and women in each generation.

Before delving into retention approaches for each generation and gender, your first step is to figure out what your workforce dynamic looks like. To do this you need to conduct an age profile and gender analysis. According to a survey of 150 HR executives by HR Powerhouse, 66% of companies had not done an age profile of their organization; therefore, they did not have the hard data on the dynamics of their workforce. You can’t begin to apply techniques for retention if you don’t even know what you’ve got. Your first step is to conduct an analysis of your workforce to determine the generational and gender breakdown.

The second key point you need to be open minded about is accepting that all generations and even the genders from the generations are not motivated by the same factors. This diversity in your workplace is what gives you a competitive advantage. In other words, you are not going to be able to apply one magic bullet and retain everyone. There will be different strokes for all your different folks because retention does NOT have a one size fits all solution.

If you know the dynamics of your workforce and you are committed to apply multiply solutions to retain all the generations and different genders, let’s get started…

Retaining Radio Babies (Born 1930 – 1945)
After talking to 500 Radio Babies (250 Women and 250 Men), the top reasons that compel them to stay with an organizations were:

• A place where we feel our experience and expertise are respected

• A place where flexible and tailored benefits are offered

• A company that shows loyalty to their employees

Amazingly, the responses were twice as high for all three responses for the men than the women; however, traditionally you’ll see Radio Baby men work more outside the home so than Radio Baby women. However, Radio Baby women volunteer their time and continue to do so well into their 70’s, 80’s, and even 90’s. Depending on your workforce, you may find yourself managing volunteers who are Radio Baby women and will need to find ways to offer them a place where they feel their experience and expertise are respected in order to maintain their volunteerism as long as they are capable and willing to provide it.

Remember, this is a generation that built the foundation of many of our companies and wants to contribute as long as they are capable of giving. The respect and loyalty you provide to them will help them continue to want to give. Ways to show you respect their expertise may include:

• Inclusion in strategic planning

• Involvement in focus groups or task forces on technical topics

• Involvement on establishing a diversity initiative that includes different age groups

• The opportunity to mentor other (not necessarily just the younger) employees

• Request to write articles on behalf of the company for journals / periodicals

• Opportunity to speak on the company’s behalf at conferences / conventions

The flexible and tailored benefits will help them be more capable of giving. Some examples of the benefits they shared with us that they’d like to have offered to them include:

• Vision Care

• Long-term care insurance for themselves or their spouses

• Short-term stay for self or spouse in nursing care

• EAP for grief

• Elder Care

• Financial and Estate Planning

Retaining Baby Boomers (Born 1946 – 1964)
The Baby Boomer generation is the generation that was most unique in their responses between the genders. Again, we asked 500 Baby Boomers (250 females and 250 males) “what compels you to stay with an organization? The top answers we received across the board for this generation were:

• Continuing advancement opportunities

• Experience and expertise is respected

• Work continues to be interesting

However, when we broke the data down further, we found that the men were much more interested in continuing advancement opportunities (31% more) and desirous of respect for their experience and expertise (21% more) than the women. Whereas, the women (45% more) had a stronger preference that their work continue to be interesting.

This was an interesting statistic considering the push for advancement of women to higher level positions in organizations. A key point we want to make is that advancement alone will not retain Boomer women. They also want work that is very challenging and interesting rather than a title or seniority alone.

Interestingly, the Boomer men we interviewed did not necessarily define advancement as promotions. They consider advancement as growth opportunities, too, which could include job rotation, special projects, or specific long or short term assignments.

There are a few simply retention options that Baby Boomers shared with us that an organization can consider implementing

• Flexible work schedules

• Part-time jobs (phased retirement options)

• Longer vacation times

• Training and development

• Job sharing options

• Voluntary demotions

• Active recruitment of older workers

Given the size of the Baby Boomer generation, astute companies will accept change and learn to accommodate this generation in order to keep them around as long as possible.

Enticing the Gen Xers (Born Between 1965 – 1976) to Stay
Once you understand what influenced the Gen Xers as they grew up, you’ll understand why the 500 individuals we interviewed in this generation said the top reasons that would compel them to stay with an organization are:

• Career development opportunities

• Ability to enjoy work/life balance

• Work with a company that has values/integrity

Remember, this is the smallest generation of the four working generations. Many of them grew up either in broken homes or in dual income families where they were raised in latch key and learned to survive on their own. They watched their parents experience the first rounds of downsizing, cut backs, rightsizing, whatever the terminology. They’ve learned to survive for themselves. So, it is very important to them to look out for themselves.

With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that the top reason 41% of our interviewees said they’d stay with a company was career and development opportunities. This was pretty equal across both male and female respondents but slightly more important to the males. The organizations that can create and implement multiple ways for their employees, particularly Gen Xers, to partake in development will succeed in retaining them. We’d recommend sitting with each individual and developing an individual development plan that meets their individual needs internally and externally. The more the company can support their personal and professional needs, the more likely the individual will remain loyal to the company.

The second highest response was the ability to enjoy work / life balance. Surprise: more women than men said this! However, men were only 20% behind the women in expressing a need for work / life balance to keep them in an organization. More men are beginning to take an interest in helping share the roles and responsibilities that once appeared to be only for the female and many want quality tine with their family. Organizations need to find ways to create this balance by offering such benefits as:

• Concierge services (oil changes, dinner on wheels, dry cleaning)

• Time off with or without pay

• Flexible working hours

• Onsite child care / sick childcare

• Telecommuting

• Encourage involvement in children’s activities

Remember, other generations are watching and starting to ask for the same balance!

The Xers we interviewed were keen on working with ethical organizations. An important question for them is, “Do my values and integrity line up with that of the company?” The women definitely outweighed the men in this area. If you want to retain female Gen Xers, you’ll need to ensure you have a high level of trust and values that mirror those of your employees. Focus on building a brand as an ethical organization.

How in the World Do You Keep Gen Ys?! (Born between 1977 – 1990)

The average tenure of a Gen Y is about 18 months. You can blow this average out of the water if you can pay attention to what the 500 interviewees told us during our research. The top responses we got for what compels Gen Ys to stay with an organization were:

• Their ideas/input valued and respected

• They have continued career development opportunities

• The company provides a quality service or product

The women in this generation were more consistent and strong with their responses than the men. This is a trend you may have noticed as we’ve progressed from the older generations to the younger generations. The women are taking stronger positions on their expectations in the workplace.

Somewhat similar to the Gen Xers, the Gen Ys will continue working for a company that provides a quality service or product. If the company does not have quality and integrity behind the product or service, don’t bat an eye or you’ll lose your Gen Ys before you know it. Quality and integrity are very important to them.

Gen Ys are new to their careers and extremely thirsty for an opportunity to grow and develop. Interestingly enough, the women were 36% more expressive in their desire for continued career development opportunities than the men. This is not a generation where you can implement one solution and solve all the professional development challenges. You’ll need to customize your solutions to each individual’s needs. Some possible solutions may include:

• Coaching

• Mentoring

• Offering support roles on projects

• Shadowing senior team members

This is a highly technical generation. Whatever solution you identify, incorporate as much technology as you can, particularly if you are doing any type of training. Because you need to individualize the solution, you may find the individual career development plans mentioned under Gen Xers above to be a safe solution here too.

Finally, the women slight more than the men are demanding RESPECT. If they are not getting respect from the organization and are treated like children, they will leave and take their bright fresh new ideas to start an organization that competes with you. Here are some suggestions to demonstrate that you respect your youngest workers:

• Explain how they impact the project

• Explain how the project impacts the overall company

• Give them an opportunity to share ideas / provide input

• Give them some autonomy

• Provide feedback and recognition

No Magic Bullets – Just Some Time and Effort are Required

Yes, we’re saying that it takes a great deal of effort to retain quality diverse staff. However, that effort will definitely cost you much less time and money than to replace the same talent if you have to recruit it all over again.

Think about these suggestions. . .

• Conduct an age and gender profile analysis of y our workforce.

• Ask your employees what would make them stay at your organization.

• Try implementing at least one magic bullet for each generation or gender.

• Your competitors will think you’ve found a magic bullet!!!!

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If you have questions about this article or want more information contact Robin Throckmorton at robin@StrategicHRinc.com or Linda Gravett at linda@gravett.com.

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