Holding Onto Experienced Employees Longer

A diverse workforce is a happy workforce. Or at least that’s what studies say in general. However, there can be problems and generation gaps become evident if they aren’t clearly managed. The problem you face if you don’t keep up with technology is you can truly fall behind in terms of efficiency like a company that refuses to use email for example. On the other hand, if you jump right into technology without properly empowering your older employees, you can literally watch your experience either sit idle or walk right out the door. The last thing you want to do is see a mass exodus of efficiency and talent from your workplace, so you need to find a way to bring both sides together. The good news is that certain types of technology such as video conferencing have truly blended both worlds in the workplace.

As a Resource 1 consulting summary piece states, the baby boomer generation needs face to face contact. It’s not that they hate technology or communicating electronically, it’s just who they are and how they were raised. You need to remember that the majority of their life and arguably half of their working  career they was spent without the internet, and day to day operations meant talking to someone three feet from you, not three time zones from you. The good news is with video conferencing software in the workplace you can have your older employees still able to connect with all of the key people on their agenda as though it was still the good old days.

By having the resource of an older employee from the baby boomer generation who is full of knowledge and experience be able to be reached with a few clicks of the button, you have your own customer service and help team all rolled up into one. And, as long as they are able to see someone else face to face in the monitor in front of them, they will embrace this style of business and choose to use it over email and the telephone!

While any company is happy when one of their own is able to retire and walk out the door for the last time, no one truly wants to see all of that knowledge and experience leave. The truth is more baby boomers want to continue working past the traditional “retirement age” than have ever before. And whether that is for financial gain, enjoyment, or just because they are used to it, an aging workforce that won’t retire at the traditional age is an asset for you and your organization because you can hold onto that experience for that much longer!

The key to having employees stay longer is making it easier for them. Whether it is health problems that slow them down, the need to be there for family and loved ones, or even the fact that a morning and afternoon commute just adds too much time, you can truly ease the burden by having your older workforce work from video conferencing. Without having to spend an hour on the road each way you effectively decrease their work day. You also let them have the flexibility to be home whenever they need to. And even if coming into the office and working a full nine to five isn’t cutting it anymore, by video conferencing an organization can see the desired flexibility that the millennials want start to benefit the baby boomers who can’t plug in for eight, nine, ten hours in a row or longer.

As one of the top video conferencing companies around, Blue Jeans realizes how easy it can be to capture the advantages of conference calls with older employees. This is truly a generation that not only likes technology, but they want to use it more. They see the benefits of being able to stay connected to the internet where they can always find pictures of their grandkids, and they also know how simple it is to go to Google and search information instantly. When you consider this is a generation that grew up on typewriters and rotary phones, it might make sense why some things don’t come naturally to them. However, it doesn’t mean for a single minute that they don’t want to embrace technology; they just need to be given the chance to learn it first.  

While any organization has to have a long term plan of continuing to bring in new employees and youthful talent to better help with efficiency, no one wants to wave experienced talent goodbye. By tapping into the top resources today, there’s a chance that you can retain your employees longer and have them transition into retirement over a period of years (if they even want to leave at all) instead of giving them a handshake and watching them empty out their desks. By embracing technology and pairing smart systems with your experienced employees, you can have a more efficient operation while getting more from your employees (and making it easier on them) for a long time.