The Costs of Not Bridging the Gap Between Generations

It is now commonplace to hear stories of Boomer and GenX managers having difficulty managing Millennials in the workplace. Most managers look at it as having to deal with differences in attitudes and experience that can lead to frustration and resentment at its worst. The truth is that the actual monetary costs of not bridging this gap between generations can be tremendous. The inability for generations to relate well with one another leads to the following issues:[wcm_restrict]

Communication
When millennial age workers don’t trust their managers they are not likely to openly communicate with them, especially if they feel threatened. Instead of letting their managers know there is a problem with completing a task, or they see a problem ahead that the manager doesn’t see they will tend to keep it to themselves for fear of retribution, or even worse, because they don’t really want to support that manager. The costs are substantial. You find out about mistakes too late to fix them and spend money redoing or correcting problems that could have been avoided in the first place.

Second, you could have avoided a problem altogether had you known it was coming. Now you will spend your time, part of your staff’s time, and additional cost if it delays delivery of a product or service causing a hit to your cash flow.If you add up the cost of your time based on your salary, the cost of your staff’s time, and the delay in customer delivery; it is a substantial amount of money per hour. If this lack of communication becomes accepted as part of your culture you are wasting a significant amount of money and time on a yearly basis.

Performance Issues
When an employee is afraid or resentful they are prone to hiding any lack of ability they may have. Their performance erodes, and unless it’s blatantly obvious you have to figure out what they don’t know, and how to fill in for them or train them to do it. Now you’re paying for their mistakes as well as your time in trying to figure out what’s wrong. There is an additional cost in the poor performance of one employee affecting the entire output of a team or department. Add up all of those hours, it’s a scary number.

Missed Opportunity
When people don’t trust whom they’re reporting too or feel like they want to support them they are not going to be giving you their best ideas for solving problems or developing new products or services. That can easily become a missed opportunity. They might have come up with a solution to problem that could have been solved months ago, saving both frustration, time and money.

Turnover
In a job seekers market unfulfilled employees will leave the company. The cost of replacement is real dollars in terms of down time, recruiting, and then training time.

Being proactive in addressing the differences in generations in a positive way, and creating a clear path for communication, career development and building trust. will increase efficiency productivity and profitability. Companies like IBM have even developed groups made up of Millennial age IBM employees called Millennial Corps utilizing their unique point of view to test new products and make stronger connections across the company’s thousands of employees. Companies like IBM understand the importance of proactively bridging the gap between generations.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]

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About the Author

Marc Robertson, MBA, is the founder and president of NewSkills USA and has more than 25 years of experience in the media, entertainment, and technology industries. He is the author of Working with Millennials: Using Emotional Intelligence and Strategic Compassion to Motivate the Next Generation of Leaders (Praeger, February 29, 2016).