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From Boomers to Gen Xers: Communicating across generations
August 2007 | Volume 5 Issue 8
The workforce is poised to undergo drastic changes in the next few years. As the Baby Boomer generation prepares to retire, new generations brought up on the Internet emerge to take their place. How can communicators ensure that their messages reach every generation? The articles in this issue examine the different communication needs of each generation and provide tips on how to construct marketing messages and employee benefit campaigns that will appeal to everyone—from Traditionals to Baby Boomers to Millennials.
Natasha Nicholson
Executive Editor |
Features
GENERATIONAL MARKETING
by Cam Marston
There has been a lot of buzz lately about the dynamic created by having four generations in the workforce at once. Dozens of experts, myself included, have spent hours with businesses worldwide to help management better understand how to connect with employees by learning how a generational perspective can color the world and affect business relationships.
RETIREMENT
by Diane Gallagher, ABC
As the Baby Boomer generation, 80 million strong in the U.S. alone, prepares for retirement in the next few years, benefit communication has come to the forefront of employee communication.
Given that Americans are personally responsible for their retirement and are using employer-sponsored benefits to achieve their goals, benefit communicators have a terrific opportunity to effect change for millions of people. Communicators can play a pivotal role in helping their organizations offer the most effective retirement benefit program to help employees from every generation achieve their financial goals.
COMMUNICATING TO THE GENERATIONS
by Jennifer J. Deal
When you see a gray-haired, three-piece-suited executive talking to a twentysomething with multiple body piercings, it may seem that the generation gap in the workplace is bigger than ever. But people of all ages essentially want the same things—even if they look or behave differently. A recent study conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership discovered that many of the assumptions made about each generation were exaggerated or untrue. Instead, the so-called generation gap is, in large part, the result of miscommunication and misunderstanding.
by Kathy Condon
In my office is a large box full of articles pertaining to the complex issue of intergenerational communication. Since my life's work is exploring communication and how it affects the workplace, part of my job is to diligently research and design ways to communicate these issues to you, the reader. In this article I've provided some basic profiles of the generations working in the U.S. today and what communicators' concerns for the future should be.
Columns
Time for Inspiration
by Suzanne Salvo
Summertime! For most people this means a much-needed break from their usual routine. Work slows down, days are longer and twilight lingers. The slow pace and warmth tempt us outdoors and out of our usual work-a-day thoughts. We take time to watch the setting of the sun, and our minds and hearts are renewed and refreshed. We are inspired by nature's awesome beauty. We want to remember this moment, this feeling. We yearn to capture it and draw inspiration from it at a future time. But how? Why by photographing it, of course.
What's the Bottom Line on the Bottom Line?
by Dave Gardner
When I produced IABC's 35th anniversary video/DVD, "Evolution 35," I incorporated interviews with several legends of our profession. The common theme that emerged: Business communication had evolved to play a more influential role in managing the enterprise. Thirty-five years ago, business communicators were editing the "house organ," and were considered to be carrying on warm, fuzzy communication activities with no measurable return on investment. Today, the best of our breed have become adept at making the business case for communication.
- "'Treat Yourself to Forest Financial Health Week' Campaign," JPMorgan Retirement Plan Services for Forest Laboratories Inc.
- "Guarantees for the If in Life," MetLife
- "ProgressLife," Progress Energy; LSC Communications
- "Orientation to EnCana—Canada," EnCana Corporation
Related Resources provides additional articles and resources for understanding this month's topic of communicating across generations. You can also find some of these links alongside each corresponding feature article for quick reference. Links include:
- "Managing Across the Generation Gap," by Karen E. Klein
- "(Not) My Generation: CEOs and the Gen-X challenge," by Mike Shove
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