Key Takeaways:
- Older workers are sticking around, even as huge numbers of Millennials join the workforce.
- Age-diverse businesses often generate more innovative solutions and achieve greater success than more monolithic companies.
- How you approach mentoring, communication styles and even your own assumptions about people will have a big impact on your team.
There’s a good chance that running your company these days means managing employees who range in age from their 60s (or older) to their 20s.
That’s because today’s workplace is, in general, more age diverse than it’s ever been. It’s not uncommon for businesses to find themselves with Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials and Gen Zers working together.
In many ways, that’s a good thing—as companies can potentially see significant benefits by employing people from across the age spectrum. That said, organizing, overseeing and motivating an age-diverse team presents numerous challenges that must be navigated for those benefits to be realized.
With that in mind, here’s a closer look at some ways entrepreneurs can harness the potential power of a multigenerational workforce and use it to generate superior results.
What’s driving the trend?
The multigenerational company trend is being driven by several factors. Baby Boomers and other older workers are remaining in the workforce longer than previous generations. Sometimes that’s by choice. For example, people may keep working into their 70s and beyond because they want to stay mentally and physically engaged with the world. Given that people today tend to live longer than their parents and grandparents, the drive to stay active and “sharp” is strong among many older workers.
That said, some older workers keep at it out of necessity—earning money they need to fund current and future expenses. Although many older employees left their jobs during the pandemic—the so-called great resignation—a lot of them returned to the workforce when they realized what their retirement years might look like without some sort of steady income.
At the other end of the spectrum, more than one in three American labor force participants (35%) are Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996, generally)—making them the largest generation in the U.S. labor force, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. Millennials are also the largest generation group in the U.S., with an estimated population of 72 million. On top of that, Gen Zers (those born after 1996) are now of working age.
In the middle, of course, is the group of roughly 65 million Gen Xers who are in their prime working years. Add it all up, and it’s easy to see how the combination of a slew of young workers and a big cohort of older workers who aren’t in a hurry to leave means you might be looking at a roster of talent in your business that stretches across the decades like never before.
Benefits of a multigenerational workforce
The really good news about these developments is that a multigenerational workforce comes with a wide array of potential benefits that can mean great things for your business.
Consider some of the major advantages that a multigenerational team can bring to the table:
- Greater innovation. The vast majority of businesses—85% in one study conducted by Forbes Insights—say that a diverse workforce is crucial to driving greater innovation.
- Better team collaboration. Companies across industries that were highly rated in terms of diversity had 57% better collaboration among their teams than did lower-diversity businesses, according to the EY Center for Board Matters. Rather than butting heads, it appears that diverse teams become adept at hearing each other out and working together.
- Greater market share. The Harvard Business Review noted that high-diversity companies reported being 45% more likely to increase their market share in their respective industries. This is likely because of the enhanced level of innovative thinking that, as the research noted above shows, often occurs among diverse teams.
In addition, another study from Walden University found that front-line managers of diverse teams reported better productivity and effectiveness.
Such results stem from the unique makeup of diverse teams. For example, diverse teams are more likely to examine challenges, problems and opportunities from multiple angles and perspectives because of the simple fact that such teams have members who think in different ways from each other. They’ll question each other’s takes on the issues and (hopefully) combine the best ideas from each cohort to develop a plan that a group of like-minded thinkers might not see.
Also, diverse teams often have a wider range of skill sets and specialized expertise. Millennials may be extremely proficient with emerging technology that streamlines certain operations, while Baby Boomers might have extensive experience with face-to-face client service and support. A multigenerational team therefore can possess a fuller range of tools and techniques to achieve top results.
Multigenerational challenges
That said, let’s be clear: Simply having an age-diverse workforce does not mean those types of outcomes are guaranteed, or even likely. Teams of people from different generations commonly experience greater friction and less initial agreement than do monolithic groups.
These are a few of the biggest multigen-related challenges these days:
- Low levels of trust between generations. Generation gaps aren’t new, of course, but by some measures the gaps between different age groups are looking more like canyons. Example: More than half of workers (52%) in one study by research and consulting firm Frank N. Magid Associates said they’re least likely to get along with someone from another generation—with 55% of Millennials, 51% of Gen X and 49% of Baby Boomers feeling that way. In contrast, an average of just 30% said they were least likely to get along with someone from a different racial background, while just 19% said they were least likely to get along with the opposite sex.
- Conflicting expectations of what “work” means. One reason for this inability to get along may stem from how very differently the generations view what is and isn’t appropriate in the workplace. The tattoos and extreme casual wardrobe of Millennials and Gen Yers may be seen as disrespectful by Boomers, for example, while older workers who are used to “giving 110%” may be put off by the work-life balance that younger generations have come to expect.
- Perceived inability to bridge generational workplace gaps. On top of viewing each other with suspicion, your multigen workforce might not trust that you can bring them together. Just 6% of workers in one study by Deloitte strongly agreed that their leaders are equipped to lead a multigenerational workforce effectively.
Action steps to consider
Clearly, having several generations in your company isn’t enough. Entrepreneurs and leaders need to take deliberate action to unite generations and pursue the benefits that multigen companies have the potential to achieve.
Some action steps to consider include these:
- Examine your assumptions about various demographic groups. Everyone knows that younger workers are nimbler and more flexible than older ones who are set in their ways, right? Not so fast. Consider, for example, a Deloitte study showing that more than half of workers below age 30 reported difficulty adapting to a pandemic-related workplace change. In contrast, just 33% of workers aged 60-plus had such difficulty. Before you try to lead multiple age groups, check your assumptions at the door and view the cohorts and the individuals in your company with fresh eyes.
- Understand what age groups want and don’t want, professionally. A one-size-fits-all management approach is likely to fail in a multigen organization. Do your homework. Understand the overall preferences of various demographic groups as well as the preferences of specific members of those groups whom you employ. The two findings could be different. For example, your Gen X staffers will probably share many traits while also exhibiting individual characteristics that don’t fit perfectly in the “Gen X box.” Only by learning what workers of various ages want and don’t want can you manage effectively.
- Facilitate multiple communication styles. Different generations tend to communicate in different ways. Be flexible by recognizing and accommodating the fact that some employees will communicate best through an instant messaging program while others do best by picking up the phone or meeting in person. That said, to ensure communication doesn’t become a free-for-all, consider formalizing a plan for which types of communication tools and approaches should be used for various topics (such as IMs for brief updates among people already engaged in a project, but face-to-face meetups for new collaborations).
- Adopt a modern approach to mentoring and ongoing learning. Traditionally, the old (or most experienced) always mentored the young (or inexperienced). In an age-diverse company, however, employees of different ages will tend to be particularly strong in various skill sets that can be shared. A classic example is Millennials being particularly tech-savvy, which gives them the ability to “up mentor” older workers who may be less comfortable with software and applications. To make that happen, however, you need to set the tone across the organization that mutual mentoring is valued, expected and rewarded.
Conclusion
You may choose to build a multigenerational workforce, or you may simply find yourself with one by default. Regardless, you need to create an environment in which different demographic groups—with very different views in some important areas—can come together, collaborate and help you move your business closer to its goals. Getting prepared now for a future that may include Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials and Gen Yers can potentially set your company up for years of success.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT: This article was published by the VFO Inner Circle, a global financial concierge group working with affluent individuals and families and is distributed with its permission. Copyright 2025 by AES Nation, LLC.
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