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Managing aging workers in a Millenial environment

Posted on July 1st, 2011 Read time: 1 minutes

Today's workforce is becoming older, as the age of retirement continues to rise. As a result, human resources departments are increasingly interviewing and hiring Baby Boomers, for these workers are highly-skilled and bring a wealth of experience.

However, biases towards older workers can still exist in any company's HR administration – whether because younger supervisors are uncomfortable managing older employees, or simply don't know how to motivate and connect with this generation.

This is a problem that can be easily solved in the workplace, though. Inc. magazine suggests supervisors bring older employees to meetings to leverage their years of experience and help facilitate a "knowledge transfer" from one generation to the next.

HR services can get involved too, by getting to know older workers on a personal level. This will help them balance Baby Boomers' needs with those of Millenials.

"Be sure that you have not tucked yourself away among all of the necessary 'HR administrivia,'" Julie Mann, CEO and president of JMann Consulting Group, writes for Lansing Business Monthly. "Walk the floor, talk to your workforce and know them as humans, not a number."

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