Tue, 1 Oct 2013If you categorise your workers or potential recruits by generation – it’s time for a rethink, says a leading business researcher and author.

Categorising employees in groups such as Generation X or Y, Millennial or Baby Boomer fails to recognise different life stages which cross-generational lines and are more significant in terms of an individual’s approach to work, according to Lynda Gratton, leader of the Future of Work Research Consortium.

Longer lifespans mean that for many, different career phases occur at different times than they used to in people’s lives, and traditional ways of considering career paths no longer work. For instance, pensions were originally structured on the basis that people died at age 63. Now careers must be considered with a view toward lifespans of 100 years.

“We do our workforce a disservice if we just use generational” methods to define their needs and potential roles, Gratton said. She added: “They [generations] are not the same as they were 20 years ago.”

Speaking at a Future of Work inclusion & diversity research consortium presentation in London yesterday (30 September 2013), Gratton outlined five different life stages experienced by workers:

• Explorer stage: which an individual is in discovery mode
• Run-down stage: private life becomes more important
• Combination stage: trying to find work-life balance
• Ambition stage: trying to develop one’s career by delivering results
• Continued growth stage: happy with the routine established.

A challenge for employers will be attracting individuals at the Explorer stage to join their organisations, Gratton said, because Explorers, by their nature, want to investigate and examine a variety of options before settling into either a company or career niche.

Gratton was the first speaker of the day on Monday. Click for more on the previous Future of Work event.

• For more, see the October 2013 issue of Recruiter.