Page 79 - Retaining Top Employees

McKeown04.qxd 4/13/02 8:12 AM Page 67

Know Your Demographics 67

Common in Boomer-domi-
The IBM Way
nated organizations are The culture of IBM
offices rather than cubi- (International Business
cles, a standardized (or at Machines) in the late ’60s and early
least minimal) dress code, ’70s exemplifies the Boomer work
assistants or secretaries to environment—white shirt,dark suit,
help with administrative blue tie,and every step seemingly dic-
tated by company policy.Today such a
tasks, allocated parking
highly regulated work environment
spaces, nameplates on
seems antiquated,even slightly repres-
doors and desks, and reg-
sive,but it epitomizes the essence of
ulated break and lunch the more authority-based,institutional
policies. Boomer top Boomer mindset.
employees will expect their
status and authority to be demonstrable and expect to receive a
structured improvement in both as a result of high performance.

Work Content
The most distinctive difference between Boomer and Gen X atti-
tudes toward work content is time span. A Boomer-based
organization will often think and plan quite happily in annual or
even five-year cycles. In fact, for many Boomers the concept of
a work assignment defaults to that of a project—a structured,
planned series of activities, with allocated resources and
responsibilities.
Boomers expect and thrive in environments where the work
content is well planned, with clear goals and objectives and
clear associated outcomes and rewards. To many Boomers,
work assignments that seem thrown together on the fly,
unstructured, unclear, or ambiguous and tasks that come in
short bursts, unconnected, with little strategic overview, smack
of superficiality or incompetence.
Growth Opportunities
For a Boomer, growth and developmental opportunities are
something to be earned—rewards, in a sense, for work done “in
the trenches.” Prevalent among Boomers is a utilitarian sense of
“getting the primary job done first” before indulging in the more