Creating culture fit for Gen X, Gen Z, millennials and boomers

With four disparate generations in the modern workforce, benefits and culture have become an even bigger head-scratcher than usual for employers. Is it possible to meet a wide array of needs — and make every generation of workers happy? 

To put it simply: yes. A 2021 Gallup survey of all generations found that every one ranked "an organization that cares about employees' well-being" in the top three criteria they're seeking from a job. For Gen Z and millennials, it was their top desire. 

"Well-being is a trend that goes beyond the idea of mental health," says Kate Moher, Marsh McLennan Agency's national employee health and benefits practice leader. "It's culture, it's inclusion, it's financial wellness — it's overall well-being."

But for employers, figuring out how those pieces add up to wellness for all can be tricky. Thinking beyond traditional offerings is necessary, and for many companies, will require an ideological shift in what employer-provided support means. 

Read more: How to recruit Gen Z talent, and why you should

"Most employers think about their workforce in terms of compensation and benefits," says Ali Payne, president of Ethos, a Holmes Murphy company that helps organizations improve culture. "But we believe that it should really be about the employee experience, and understanding what your employees need and want when they come to work for you." 

Payne notes that most employers can tell her the average age of their employees, and what percentage of their staff is male versus female — but not much else. Which leads to the biggest challenge she sees clients struggling with in creating a culture that supports wellness: communication. Particularly for younger workers, they don't want to be told to do something and expected to blindly follow. They want to understand the why, and the big-picture purpose behind the company's decision-making process. 

Payne points to the much debated return to office as an example. Mandating a return may not thrill younger workers who've become accustomed to the flexibility of remote work, but explaining the reasoning behind it — that it's an effort to foster culture within the organization, impact the local economy and businesses surrounding the office, and is about connection more than the bottom line — is more likely to garner buy-in.

Read more: Gen Z on Gen Z: What your young employees really think of the future of work

In Marsh McLennan Agency's report, "purpose" emerged as an additional workplace trait employees are craving: two-thirds of employees have reported reflecting on their own purpose post-COVID, and 14% of organizations with a commitment to environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals report higher employee satisfaction. 

In her own life, Moher's 32-year-old daughter and 34-year-old son have reinforced these trends, especially among younger workers. 

"Sitting around the family table, you have these conversations, and I don't miss the opportunity to ask them about their purpose," Moher says. "And when they talk about what purpose means to them, [their responses] tie into not just the research that we did around work, but the world in which we live. It's a different framework from what I grew up in, or what my parents grew up in, in terms of how we view the world."

The differences among generations are not insignificant. Boomers value loyalty while Gen Z and millennials prioritize individuality and personalization. Younger generations lean on text communications for speed and brevity, while older demographics often prefer face-to-face interactions or phone calls. As these groups intermingle, pushback is inevitable. 

Read more: What Gen Z really wants from the workplace

"We have baby boomers reporting to millennials and millennials reporting to baby boomers, and we have done very little training to help people understand the dynamics that happen between those two groups," Payne says. "If you have Gen Z workers enter your organization, they will learn about your business from your baby boomer employees — but those baby boomer employees can also learn from Gen Z, who can help them better embrace technology and efficiency. But creating that knowledge transfer is not something most organizations know how to do." 

Payne and her team spend most of their time with clients working not to change how their talent manages or how they prefer to work, but to get everyone on the same page through communication, and work to find the best way forward for the organization. Rather than see generational differences as conflicts, she sees them as potential complements. 

"The goal isn't to, say, get boomers to exit the organization — the goal is instead to get the boomer to share their knowledge," she says. "The goal as an organization is to improve on what we're trying to do, bring people with decades of knowledge to the table along with people with new ideas."