And the impact on how we work will be significant as the recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study The Future of Work highlighted, with 40 per cent of people surveyed already believing traditional employment arrangements won't exist in the future.
The next generation of workers don't respond to the same triggers for aspiration and performance; they don't care for hierarchy, they aren't asking for a job-for-life and they have higher expectations around flexibility. At the same time older workers are staying in the workforce longer and female participation will continue to rise.
At Westpac we have seen the average age of our employees increase from 40 to 43 over the past five years; however the proportions across the age brackets is flattening as employees stay here longer. This brings rise to issues around career responsibilities and how work is structured to support other priorities in people's lives and their ability, let alone desire, to work to the same highly pressured, highly structured conditions we traditionally know.
Though it is easy to intuitively feel there is a positive outcome in having more generations available to select talent from, the challenge lies in the company providing a value proposition that works well for people from all five generations.
This means doing things differently. The future of successful and productive workplaces revolves around diversity and flexibility. Increasing diversity is an accepted truth and many organisations are improving their openness and inclusiveness to welcome talent from all walks of life.
For many years the goal of growing employee engagement has been to increase the level of "discretionary effort" given; we currently believe this drives a higher level of productivity. The traditional drivers of engagement have been clear and accessible career development, fair pay, belief in the organisation's vision and the performance of the person's direct manager.
These drivers remain relevant; however, new imperatives have emerged including the ability to work where and when it best suits with the best technology, the ability to work more cross-functionally and collaboratively, the recognition that balance and wellbeing are important and work is flexible with performance measurement based on results and behaviours, not hours done.
We may look at the younger generation and think they are less loyal, more demanding and harder to manage. In fact, younger people are loyal but to different things than older generations. Long-term job security and a steady stepping through the hierarchy were important to baby boomers but are not of interest to either Gen Y or the new workforce of millennials.
What matters more to younger employees is a sense of purpose in the organisation. They want to be proud of where they work as they are more socially aware and responsive (PwC survey has 61 per cent wanting to work for an organisation with a powerful social conscience *).
Yes they are impatient and demand recognition but they're growing up in a highly networked world of instant gratification. They are also more focused on driving their own development and want very much to self-direct this and seek collaborative working and networking, more so than formal class-based development.
They want to move fast but are less concerned with moving up. They would rather move around and learn as much as possible. They see work as what they do, not where they go.
Most of the organisational development focus of companies needs to be shifted and reset, especially how we develop our managers to lead this new multi-generational workforce.
Management is becoming an old-school practice. Tomorrow's workforce requires less "management" and more "leadership" -- people who are able to understand and value the differences in their employees, not just their obvious demographic and background differences, but their differences in motivation drivers and aspiration.
If I look at my own team today I know my people have many and varied reasons for how they approach their work and for what's important to them. It's my job as a people leader to be able to mould that group of individuals into a cohesive and productive team. I can only do this if I know each person well enough to understand their individual drivers and am flexible in meeting their needs for work pattern and learning style.
Organisations that are leading in this space are listening to their people. They are introducing flexible work practices that allow different work patterns, agile work approaches that enable people to collaborate, network or work remotely more easily, and ensuring that their people policies respect and value all generations.
The commercial winners in this situation will have varied, diverse workforces combining the enthusiasm and innovation of young digital natives with the wonderful experience, patience and skills of people with many years invested in their careers.
Su Duffey is Westpac's general manager of human resources.</strong>
* PwC's 2014 The Future of Work study had 10,000 respondents
