Many enterprises now invest their time and resources on the younger generation who have more potential to cultivate, more space to develop, and more exposure to the latest technologies. They react quickly to market trends and use innovations to grow business. However, how should enterprises manage and motivate Generation X employees?
What is Generation X?
Generation X (or Gen X), born in the mid-1960s and the early-1980s, are mostly senior members in enterprises with a high sense of loyalty and belonging to the enterprise. More importantly, they are qualified to work in management in their organization because of their rich professional skills and management experience. Although some of them are just staffs, they are very familiar with the company’s structure and operation process that can inform new hires about the company’s principles and help them feel welcome in a new workplace.
What is Generation Y?
Generation Y(or Gen Y), also known as the Millennium Generation, would be the main labor force in Hong Kong. At present, Gen Yers accounts for about 40% of the total workers. As Gen Yers gradually start to work, employers hold different opinions about them. Many employers see them as energetic and innovative, but it is also considered impulsive and self-centered. Compared with Gen X, Gen Y is born in a better living environment with everyone’s love as a single child in the family, lacking independence and self-care ability. Children can do whatever they want and choose their favorite job. Resignation and job switching are also very common because they do not want to do the same works for a long time only for a stable income.
But the advantages of Gen Yers are that they are well educated, innovated, and are more receptive to new things and challenges. Compared with the external incentives such as salary and bonus, they emphasize more on self-promotion, sense of achievement and future development planning. They are also more willing to help others to achieve self-actualization in their works, which is of help for business development. Surveys show that nearly 60% of the respondents of Gen Y need support from their supervisors to boost their motivation, and hope to adapt to the new place faster.
Does Financial Incentive Work for Gen X?
Gen X has been in a mature and stable stage in the workplace. Most of them have been in the company for many years. Although Gen X talents have high loyalty to the company, we cannot ignore to retain and motivate them. Here are five points that might be the main reasons to influence their enthusiasm and morale.
- Lack of clear career planning
- Boredom comes down to lack of challenge
- Lack of concentration on work because of family, children, etc.
- Lack of fast-learning ability to keep up with the changing market
- Unfair treatment
Don’t Gen X employees care about wages? In fact, wages are still one of the necessary ways to retain employees, but not for older Gen Xers because the salary cannot fulfill their satisfaction at work. Employers can give them an amount of raise within a reasonable range based on their performance, or establish a transparent merit raise system to avoid making employees feel the unfair treatment.
Unlike financial incentives, Gen Xers pursue more intrinsic incentives, which are the higher-level needs in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, such as social needs or esteem and self-actualization. As employers and HRs, they can provide different support and incentive plans according to employees’ various needs to cultivate their passion at work.
