Recognize differences
Ernst & Young recognized that there were differences creeping up in the firm, and Portnoy says you have to recognize first what those are in your work force, so start with some diagnostic questions of people.
The most basic starting point is simply, “What generation do you fall in?” Then from there, you can dig deeper.
“How do you prioritize things?” she says. “For example, which way of working would be your preference? Do you check your messages by e-mail, do you check them by voice mail? What kinds of technology might you use? How do you interact with others?
“Different generations might view seniority in one way versus another generation might view it in a different way. They were interested in different ways of how do you like to work in teams, and some generations, perhaps, work more hierarchical and others work more collaboratively.”
By putting together multiple data points on how employees work and interact, Ernst & Young discovered what the workplace of the future would look like, and it was different and somewhat unexpected.
“It was clear that one size doesn’t fit all by generations, and that’s what makes it such an interesting time seeing how much diversity there is, and it’s not easy to put people into buckets and plan the future based on that,” Portnoy says. “The surprise here was that you can’t define a whole generation one way, and if anything is really true about today’s generation, [it] is that there are traits of all sorts of generations that preceded them, and they have the freedom to choose how they want to work. They are empowered to really say, ‘I have lots of different needs and priorities.’ They may work differently to satisfy whatever their personal professional lives dictate.”
In addition to recognizing the differences herself, she also works to have her employees and potential employees see them, as well. For example, you may be tempted to take all of your young employees to a campus recruiting event, but she takes a different approach.
“We bring a range of professionals to those campuses so they can see, at different points in time, what it looks like,” she says.
Doing this helps demonstrate the firm’s commitment to and recognition of generational diversity.
“By introducing prospective candidates to a wide variety, it really embodies our core values — we can talk about it and demonstrate it at the same time,” Portnoy says. “I think that’s what’s key. As companies use that perspective to really be showing the real examples that work and live within the company, that’s the most effective way to do that.”
