By: Beth Schaefer Director, Institute for Professional Development
I believe mentoring can help Minnesota build a competent workforce for all generations of workers by satisfying the workplace needs and personality traits that every generation has.
As an example, I am a Gen Xer. According to experts, that makes me independent, innovative, and a strong communicator. While at work, I am likely to seek problem-solving opportunities and enjoy working with competent colleagues; because of this, mentoring provides a clear outlet for me to meet my Gen Xer needs.
The Y’s (aka Millennials) are tech-savvy, collaborative, and focused on the greater good; they want meaningful work. Mentoring fits their traits and provides the meaningful work they seek.
Baby Boomers, along with being optimistic and hard-working, enjoy mentoring. The opportunity to mentor others is often listed in their workplace needs, so a connection to mentoring is obvious for them.
So, all the generations agree (on this one thing, anyway), that we should find more ways to mentor in the workplace.
Being a part of the Village is more than just giving, it is receiving. A new generation of workers is entering the workplace, and as much as we can teach them – there is a lot we have to learn.
Gen-Zers have plenty of skills to contribute. Just some of their noticeable workplace traits are:
- digitally fluent (and who could not use that during a pandemic)
- practical (and who could not use that during a pandemic), and
- flourish in diverse workplace settings (and who could not use that – always).
They will be seeking culturally competent employers. Is your workplace culturally ready to recruit and onboard this next generation of valuable workers?
Consider mentoring as a rewarding step to build the cultural competency of all the valuable generations in your workplace.
Generation traits and needs from Hobsons Associates.