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CNLA News brief
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June - July 2007
Retaining happy and productive employees… By: Agnes Zawartka, Member Services Do you have trouble retaining good employees? Is your turnover rate high? If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to at least one of the above questions, you are experiencing one of the human resources issues challenging the whole green industry. There are some answers to your questions. It might be just the age gap between the generations that have to work together and not quite know how… Based on David Foot’s philosophy on demographics, if you are an employer/the owner of the company you probably are a Baby Boomer, born between 1946-1964, very ‘me’ individual, who has set work ethics, measures labour in hours not necessarily productivity, and finds building relationships based on the loyalty of his employees essential to success. In order to position your company with happy and productive employees who provide exceptional service to your customers, work hard to sell your products and services, you need to know how to bring the best in them to work for your advantage.
To manage your employees successfully who are probably Generation X (born between 1965-1978) and Gen Y (born between 1979-1988), you need to know that they want open communication rather than position, or a title. Also, Xers and Gen Y want to see you as an individual they can learn from, respect and admire and they look up to you for a strong leadership. As their employer, you need to know that they like positive reinforcement, value control of their time, and search for jobs that provide them with personal fulfillment and help them achieve their personal goals. The X-ers and Gen Y are easily managed if you can find common grounds to meet and understand what drives them on the path to success. Gen X and Y as your employees are loyal to you as a person, they do not attach loyalty to the company or the industry. As a Baby Boomer you might want
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to take that into consideration when looking at your turnover costs (i.e. cost of training, education etc.). Knowing that the productivity and retention of your workforce is simply based on your understanding of the employees, your attitude and your work philosophy, it is going to make your life much easier if you know how to effectively hire and retain staff. Also, it is very beneficial to team up Baby Boomers with X-ers and Gen Y, because as seen, the older employees have considerable amount of knowledge and skill, as younger employees have the latest computer skills and capacity to learn quickly. The sooner the employers and employees will realize the potential to combine the two together, the earlier you can yield benefits and have a competitive advantage with a happy and productive workforce. New formula for success= competence and expertise that comes with age + youthfulness and ability to learn. David K. Foot (2005). Boom, Bust and Echo in the Workplace.Retrived July 9, 2007 from http://www.davidfoot.com/vital_en.html Patrice Peltier (2007). When Woodstock hires Wikipedia: Can There Be Harmony in the Workplace? The Landscape Contractor, Volume 48, Number 6, pg. 15.
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