Leaders and managers worldwide are currently overseeing five distinct generations in the workplace—Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. They have birth dates ranging from 1928 to 2012, which is nearly 100 years’ difference!
It’s understandably challenging to oversee such generational diversity. Each generation brings unique perspectives, preferences, strengths, and weaknesses to the table, and navigating these differences is essential for any company to be productive and thrive.
In this guide, we’ll explore how you can embrace working with different generations to give your team a competitive edge.
What Is a Multigenerational Workplace?
A multigenerational workplace refers to any workforce with personnel from multiple generations. While you don’t find all five generations in the workforce at every single company, almost every company has some generational diversity.
According to current labor statistics, the workforce breakdown by generation is:
- Gen Z: 18.9%
- Millennials: 37.9%
- Gen X: 28.0%
- Baby Boomers: 14.5%
- Traditionalists: 0.7%
Having five generations in the workforce represents an unprecedented convergence, which brings with it both remarkable opportunities and unique challenges for organizations.
The Five Generations in the Workforce
Lindsay Boccardo, a nationally recognized generational keynote speaker and workforce expert who has researched multigenerational teams, shared a simple but powerful perspective on why different generations in the workplace matter, saying:
“How you show up at work—in meetings, with your team, talking with your boss—is impacted directly by the generation in which you were raised.”
Let’s take a quick look at each of the five generations in today’s workforce. Note that the ages listed for each generation below are current as of the time of this writing in 2025.
Traditionalists—Born 1928-1945
These are older individuals aged 80 or more who are either working because they want to or must. Only a handful of this generation remains in the workforce. They usually value hard work and adherence to rules.
Traditionalists, aka the “Silent Generation,” often feel that talk of work should stay at work and may avoid sharing much about their personal lives or family with coworkers. They were born well before the era of modern technology began to take hold.
Baby Boomers—Born 1946-1964
These are members of the second-oldest generation in the workforce, aged 60 to 79. They tend to seek out job security and appreciate a more formalized, structured environment than younger generations.
Half of this generation was raised in the sixties amidst the Vietnam War, and the other half was raised during the political segregation of the seventies. Partially as a result of this, Baby Boomers often distrust the government and may be highly competitive.
Gen X—Born 1965-1980
These are generally more progressive and educated individuals than older generations, aged 45 to 60. They represent the middle category of today’s workforce and tend to appreciate having the flexibility to manage their workload.
Gen X is very independent individuals and was the first to truly embrace modern technology, both for education and entertainment. They often seek interdependence between teams and value mentorship opportunities.
Millennials—Born 1981-1996
These are members of the second youngest generation in the workforce, aged 29 to 44. They tend to be more tech-savvy than older generations because most of them grew up using modern technology. They usually appreciate remote work and flexible schedules.
Millennials tend to be team-driven multitaskers, and many of them have entrepreneurial interests. They often seek out work that is meaningful with values similar to their own, prioritizing diversity, collaboration, connectedness, and change.
Gen Z—Born 1997-2012
These are members of the youngest generation in the workplace, aged 13 to 28. More of these tech natives are entering the workforce every day. They’re less likely to seek out remote work than Millennials and tend to look for face-to-face interactions.
Gen Z tends to focus on making enough money to survive and tend to seek out good benefits, fair salaries, and a healthy work-life balance. Like Millennials, they also tend to seek out organizations with values that mirror their own and prioritize diversity.
Working with Different Generations
When you’re working with five different generations in the workplace, there’s a wide range of priorities, likes, dislikes, perspectives, and personalities. When we spoke with generational diversity expert Mary Erlain on embracing a multi-generational workplace, she shared some powerful insights:
“There’s a tendency for baby boomers or traditionalists to see a younger employee and act in a parenting manner instead of as a manager with accountability, metrics, and KPIs.”
This can lead to overbearing behavior or even condescension.
The other side of this for younger people is that when they step into management roles and oversee older workers, they may feel as though they’re working with or helping a parental figure or expect these colleagues to require less help.
Navigating these types of multigenerational challenges isn’t easy, and it demands both emotional intelligence and communication ability, amongst other skills, to do so successfully.
Why Understanding Each Generation Matters
It’s essential for managers and HR personnel to understand that there are nuances and differences between each generation.
By identifying and addressing these differences, and also the subtle similarities across the generational lines, companies can reap the benefits that multigenerational workforces have to offer.
Mary Erlain suggests that employers ask themselves the following questions about each of their employees to better understand generational differences:
- How is this person motivated?
- What can I do better to cater to that?
According to current research, multigenerational teams with 25 years or more between the youngest and oldest members of the team tend to meet or exceed expectations 73% of the time.
To compare, teams that lack this diversity and have less than 10 years’ difference between their youngest and oldest members only meet or exceed expectations 35% of the time—that’s a big difference!
How to Navigate and Embrace the 5 Generations in the Workplace
It’s more important than ever that companies embrace the five different generations in the workplace. It’s a must if they want to thrive, as it allows them to benefit from unique perspectives, improve communication, and create a healthier environment for their staff.
It also helps open up opportunities for mentorships and other forms of knowledge sharing, and make sure every member of their team feels seen, heard, and valued.
Despite how challenging it can be, it’s one of those things that gets easier than you’d expect when you focus on the fundamentals, which is what we’ll cover below:
1. Understand What Your Team Needs
Learning about your team’s needs so you can fulfill them can help make people feel satisfied and fulfilled in their jobs while assisting them in strengthening their connections to each other.
Leaders must put the needs of their team above their own and work to understand what these needs are.
This ties in very closely with the need to communicate. After all, without open lines of communication, how can you identify what your team needs?
The value of this understanding is immeasurable. The needs and motivators of different departments and individuals often vary greatly, and it’s essential that they’re catered to.
One employee may be motivated by learning, while another may be motivated by verbal recognition. Tailoring management styles to fit these individual needs will help to avoid employees feeling unmotivated, not appreciated, or burnt out.
Likewise, younger generations are often motivated by technology. According to current research and surveys, a whopping 70% of Gen Z would leave their current role for better technology, compared to 52% of Gen X and 37% of Baby Boomers.
2. Make an Effort to Learn from Each Other
“Have a culture of being inquisitive,” says Mary Erlain. While managing multiple generations in the workplace isn’t without its challenges, it can help you grow as an individual and leader. But only if you make an effort.
You can tap into this by encouraging older employees to take younger employees to a company lunch, setting up mentorship programs, or implementing one-on-one meetings between multigenerational workers.
Older generations can also learn from younger generations. From their path to success to what apps they use, the opportunities to learn and grow are endless. All you have to do is ask the right questions.
When you foster a company culture in which your team is regularly learning from each other’s differences and experiences, it can be a game-changer, not just for you as an individual or leader, but also for the organization as a whole.
3. Improve Your Team’s Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize the emotional footprint of an interaction and respond accordingly. High levels of emotional intelligence put teams in excellent positions to succeed by increasing both teamwork and social relationship skills.
Developing emotional intelligence begins with self-reflection and a willingness to understand who is part of a problem and how you are involved. Team members, in particular leaders, must recognize when they are part of the problem.
This requires them to focus inwards. To do this, Mary Erlain recommends asking reflective questions such as, “What subtleties or maybe not so subtle things are employees bringing to us?”
It’s essential to consider the employee’s communication style. When a person doesn’t receive communication in a way that they are comfortable with, it can lead to a breakdown that hinders teamwork and productivity.
Mary had an excellent way of summing this up: “You’re bringing a group of people, different names, faces, and social security numbers together. There’s no way you can have some blanket, off-the-shelf kind of solution.”
Remember, each situation requires careful consideration to fit the needs of the person raising this problem.
4. Master Generational Communication Styles
Clear, open communication can help bring a workplace together. Instead of shying away when issues arise, it’s crucial to talk about them. Create an environment of open communication and problem-solving to prevent a disjointed workforce.
Lindsay Boccardo’s research shows that generational differences in communication are often rooted in developmental psychology and experiences with authority during formative years.
For example, Gen Z expects tech tools at work to match the ease of use of social media apps, while older generations may prefer more traditional communication methods. This is a typical workplace generational difference, and luckily, not a difficult one to address.
Adopting a bottom-up approach and communicating to understand where people are coming from is essential for creating bridges between people.
You can do this by having in-depth conversations with each member of the workforce to get a better understanding of who they are, how they function, and how they fit into the workforce.
By asking cultural and behavioral questions, the underlying motivations, needs, and drivers of each employee will come to light.
The Future of Generations in the Workplace
We might only have a handful of Traditionalists left in our modern workforce, but guess what? There’s a new generation on the way, and we’re not likely to see fewer than five generations in the workplace any time soon.
Generation Alpha—born between 2013 and 2025—will begin to enter the workforce before 2035. With each new generation, we’ll see new shifts and ripple effects, and leaders will need to adjust accordingly.
We need to keep breaking down traditional hierarchies and looking beyond generational stereotypes so each generation can feel accepted, embraced, and celebrated for their strengths. Psychological safety is a must for high-performance, after all.
Remember, it’s not just the team members who benefit. Greater generational diversity in a team results in a much higher rate of project success because of the wider range of perspectives and life experiences.
So, instead of shying away from potential clashes, learn to bring your team members together, help them bond, and highlight everyone’s strengths as often as possible.
Looking to Build Team Culture at Your Workplace?
Embracing the generational diversity at work and within your teams is a crucial step if you want your company culture to thrive.
Companies that harness the unique strengths of diverse generations in the workplace and create environments for everyone are the ones that will rise above their competition. The further we move into the future, the more essential this is.
At TeamBonding, we’ve been helping companies bring their teams together for over 35 years. Our catalog features over 200 team building activities to choose from, complete with plenty of options for remote and hybrid teams.
Ready to tap into your team’s true potential? Get in touch to find out how we can help.
