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 Now we are about to move on from our 4 Generations theme, not because multiple generations in the workplace is no longer valid but the landscape has changed considerably since we first broached the subject several years ago.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:

• Traditionalists, born prior to 1946
• Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964
• Gen X, born between 1965 and 1980
• Gen Y, born between 1981 and 1999
• Gen 2020, born after 1999

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.

Recently, a  friend who happens to be a Gen X’er sent me an article regarding Gen Y’s. Knowing that these are the two generations which get along the least I eagerly read the article.Turns out while the issue stated in the article is attributed to only Gen Y’s we at FutureDecisions know from personal experience  that while the problem stated may be most prevalent amongst Y’s it is also an issue with X’ers and Baby Boomers as well! My Gen X friend is very insightful and no doubt knew this when she forwarded the article to me…. even if she has no love for Y’ers!

According to a recent article in the WSJ several companies in Silicon Valley have instituted a concept being referred to as “topless meetings”, no it is not what you may think.

Many companies, in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, are experiencing an increasingly vexing problem during work related meetings. Specifically, many in the younger generation are logging onto Facebook, checking email or utilizing their IPhone to surf the web during meetings. It is easy to imagine that this can be quite disruptive to those conducting the meetings and the other participants!

So, they have implemented “topless meetings” which means that laptops, IPhones etc. are banned from meetings. As you know we at FutureDecisions conduct workshops and consultation regarding the generations in the workplace so naturally we have our own opinion on the subject. From our standpoint it appears that this action is a bit of a band-aid for an underlying problem, that is, boring meetings! If it is so difficult to keep participants attention then one should start to examine the meetings themselves, are they crisp and to the point or better yet, are they  even necessary?

Finally, is logging into Facebook or surfing the web on your IPhone any different than doodling, something we in the “older” generations have been doing for a very long time as we have sat through endless boring meetings…

Here is an interesting tidbit of information that our friend and colleague Kit Stookey of Practical Matters recently brought to our attention!

According the U.S. Census Bureau by 2050 the population of those 65 and older will have tripled (that is 1 in 6 people)!!! The news for the US is even more dire, 1 in 5 people will be 65 or over by 2030!

The country with the highest aging population, China where almost two-thirds of the population will be 65 or over by 2050.

Given these numbers it should give one pause, who will take care of all these individuals, will the infrastructure be in place, who will be around to work? The questions go on and on and no one seems to have answers.

Here is some recent data we came across here at FutureDecisions that dramatically demonstrates the aging workforce.

Labor Force Above the Age of 40

   Year                                                 Percent
1980 ——————————–38.6%
1990 ——————————–40.1%
2000 ——————————-48.2%
2010 ——————————–51.4%