In the last 40 years the workplace has gone through a real evolution. So how far along the evolutionary trail would you say your organisation or industry is?
We have seen the emergence of various policies, procedures, rules and regulations designed to make workplaces more inclusive. The latest phase in this workplace evolution is the emergence of the generation friendly workplace - a place where people of all generations feel included and can contribute to the organisation's success.
I've identified 5 phases of this workplace evolution. Here's a snap-shot of them. See if you can recognise your organisation in the following descriptions:
Phase I: Gender friendly
In the beginning most workplaces were male dominated - with few exceptions. If women did work, they were in low-level roles with little influence. Even as recently as the 1970s, the law allowed employers to pay women less than men for doing the same job and made married or pregnant women resign, because they were seen as taking jobs away from breadwinning men.
Times were changing as more women needed to work or simply wanted to have a range of more satisfying career options. It was time for the gender friendly workplace. There have been many benefits of a female influence at work, including new leadership and communication methods that we now take for granted. Now-a-days when we discover that an industry doesn't welcome women into its ranks, we are shocked and disturbed by it.
Phase II: Culture friendly
Instead of asking people of other cultures to conform, we began embracing their differences and seeing what we could learn from them. Instead of a predominantly British or American way of viewing work, we started to see European and even Asian influences in our practices.
Many employers celebrated this change as they saw the introduction of new techniques and different work ethics increasing their productivity and profitability. Today, it is unusual to not find people of diverse cultural backgrounds in every field. So much so, that we rarely even comment on it, we just expect it and only notice it when it's absent.
Phase III: Disability friendly
Employers soon realised that people with disabilities were an untapped employment pool and that with a few changes to work practices and office layouts they could easily accommodate someone with a disability. In fact, in some cases a person with a disability had an advantage over an able bodied employee.
For example, many people who have lost the use of one sense find their other senses are more attuned, so a blind telephone operator can have great skills in picking up on the subtle voice changes of a caller.
Phase IV: Family friendly
Organisations were finally realising that people have personal lives and that if they could provide an environment where parents could fulfil their family commitments without feeling guilty, that they would create for themselves a more loyal, dedicated and engaged workforce.
Whilst family friendly policies are a great leap forward in thinking, they don't always take into account the non-traditional family arrangements that many people now have. And what about the growing number of single people who want time to pursue non-family interests, such as community service or sport? It has become clear that there needs to be another phase in the evolution to truly cater for the full range of diversity at work.
Phase V: Generation friendly
This is a workplace where people of all ages can work together making the best of their skills and talents. It will be the organisation that is flexible enough to take into account the needs of different generations as they move through, what some researchers call, the life cycle, which is now seen as independent from the generational groupings and takes into account the various phases that people go through in their career.
Age will no longer be the deciding factor in who gets what job. We are already seeing this, with mature age apprentices and fast track programs for young graduates with management potential. I'd like to see it become the rule rather than the exception and I believe we are getting there.
One outcome of the generation friendly workplace will be that the idea of having a manager who is younger than you will become the norm, as those people with technical skills choose to stay in roles they do best, rather than being forced into management because of their maturity.
This will allow other, perhaps younger, people with leadership skills to assume these roles and do what they do best.
What about you?
If you have already taken the first 4 steps and can demonstrate this to your decision makers, it will be far easier to get them to take the 5th and final step of becoming a generation friendly workplace.