Here is an interesting tidbit of information from the U.S Center for Women’s Business Research: 28.2 % of U.S. businesses are owned by women yet they are responsible for only 4.2% of U.S. business revenue!
As a women owned business here at FutureDecisions LLC we are doing our part to raise this percentage!
A recent survey conducted by Deloitte Consulting indicated that executives in large companies are more concerned about their Gen Y employees jumping ship than their Gen X employees. Hmm, sounds like that could be a problem for those employers who are guilty of making that assumption.
Why? Well a companion survey of employees found that only about 37 percent of Gen Xers said they planned to stay in their current jobs after the recession ends, compared with 44 percent of Gen Yers, 50 percent of baby boomers and 52 percent of senior citizen workers who said the same.
This information is consistent with what we see and hear when conducting our Generations in the Workplace workshop. More and more we are hearing from Gen Y’s that they want to stay put while Gen X employees are feeling more disgruntled than ever. Gen X’ers are filling a very important gap in the workplace as a bridge between the boomers and the Y’ers. Employers who lose significant numbers of these individuals will find themselves finding it more and more difficult to be competitive in the workplace as the economy turns around.
If you would like more information on the generations in the workplace contact FutureDecisions regarding our workshop on the four generations in the workplace, “From the Typewriter to Texting – Understanding Four Generations in the Workplace”.
We at FutureDecisions LLC have been talking about the 4 generations in the workplace for several years now. We have made numerous presentations and written extensively on the subject. Now we are about to move on from our 4 Generations theme, not because multiple generations in the workplace is no longer valid but the landscape has changed considerably since we first broached the subject several years ago.
As individuals have watched their savings evaporate in the economic meltdown we have experienced many people working later in life. What this means is that soon we will have 5 generations in the workplace, not just 4!
According to the World Health Organization, men and women who are healthy at 60 will, on average, be physically capable of working until they are 74 and 77, respectively. Combine these statistics and the newest employees entering the workforce might not be joining their parents or grandparents, they might be joining their great-grandparents.
This translates into a social phenomenon not yet witnessed: five generations are about to be working side by side. They include:
Around 2015 Baby Boomers will cede the majority of the workforce to Gen Y’s. (Due to their smaller size, Gen X will never have the majority spot in the workplace — and so in essence, we will have skipped an entire generation.) What will this mean for your organization, how will you effectively recruit and retain individuals from 5 different and distinct generations? The challenges are real and the solutions are still being created, FutureDecisions LLC can assist you in creating an environment that maximizes the potential and contributions of all of your employees no matter their age.
We have all read about various workplace related incidents that have been blamed on stress in the workplace but we at FutureDecisions LLC recently saw an article that exceeds anything we had previously run across.
According to an article on the CNN website France Telecom has been experiencing a rash of suicides and attempted suicides. There have been 24 suicides and 13 attempted suicides among France Telecom employees since the beginning of 2008! Much of the angst of France Telecom employees is due to the high level of uncertainty they are experiencing.
Sound familiar? Are your employees experiencing a high level of anxiety due to uncertainty? While their anxiety may not manifest itself in the form of suicide changes at the least they probably less productive than you would like.
What is the number one action you can take to lower the anxiety levels of your employees? Communicate, communicate, communicate! The more information they have the less time and effort they will take making up things about what might be, or not. Even if the news is not good it is better to share than to make them guess.
To read the entire CNN article click here.
Here is an interesting bit of information brought to us by the Pew Research Center:
From 2006 – 2016, 93% of the growth in the U.S. labor force will be among workers age 55 and older.
This cannot be good news for all the Gen X’ers who are anticipating the Boomers moving aside so they (Gen X’ers) can begin to take on additional responsibilities.
Here at FutureDecisions LLC we feel it is yet another reason that organizations need to begin now to plan for the all that is to come in a fast changing work environment. One way to gain assistance in getting a handle on how to put together a comprehensive workforce/succession plan (WSP) is to grab a copy of our new book: “FutureDecisions: Workforce/Succession Planning for the Perpetually Busy”. The book contains an easy to understand road map of how to establish an effective WSP along with numerous worksheets to assist in creating your plan.
For more information and to purchase the book just click here!
