Webinar Highlights Generational Differences
TRSA recently held a webinar titled “Best Practices to Train & Manage a Changing Workforce.” The webinar was led by Marc Fischer, InspiRE, Eldersburg, MD, a business that provides real estate management and consulting services with a focus on thought leadership, innovation, hard work and the pursuit of excellence, according to the company's website.
The presentation began with Fischer discussing the importance of presenting a topic in a way that others will truly understand and learn the material. An effective way of doing this is through active learning. Fischer said it’s important to get everyone involved rather than having them just sit and listen. He noted that it’s important to repeat important topics over and over again so that the message will stick with the student.
Fischer continued on with the presentation by talking about the generational differences in the workplace. He highlighted the importance of compromise between the various generations, with a particular focus on the following three generations:
- The Baby Boomers (1945-1960), careers are defined by employees
- Generation X (1961- 1980), loyal to their professions, not to their employers
- Generation Y (1981- 1995), work “with” organizations
He explained that the Baby Boomer Generation and Generation X need to listen to the ideas of the Generation Y members that are entering the workforce. Generation X have new perspectives and fresh ideas to bring to the workplace. Fischer labeled them as entrepreneurs and creative thinkers.
Since there are so few people in Generation X, Generation Y is very quickly going to become the new management team. In return, the people from Generation Y need to listen and take what the people from previous generations say into account. These older generations know what works, from experience.
The rest of the webinar on June 24 laid out the particular differences between each generation in further detail and touched on diversity in the workplace, followed by a short Q&A.
The next webinar presentation will be “Effective Inventory Control for Maintenance/Engineering Departments” on July 15 at 2 p.m. ET. The webinar will be presented by MMI Task Force Members Charles Hawkins (Chair), supervisor of technical support, Pellerin Milnor Corp; and Bob Corfield, CEO, Laundry Design Group LLC. If you would like to register for this webinar, click here.