At this point in my career, I am not easily surprised. But, every once in a while I hear something that makes me say, “Are you kidding me?” I had one of these moments when reading a recent Wall Street Journal article about how ad firm, Grey Global, is addressing young worker integration challenges by creating a separate work area referred to in the piece as “the office equivalent of the kids’ table.”
Honestly, the article delivered a more effective punch to my sensibilities than Manny Pacquiao landed in the entire title fight with Floyd Mayweather.
Rather than risk “irritating their older colleagues,” the so-called millennials are grouped together where they can be more “at ease” and, apparently, are expected to gain their professional footing largely through osmosis (the only logical explanation after reading the article) … only given the opportunity to leave “base camp” when they’re promoted. Depending on the part of the country you’re from, the reaction you likely are having is either expressed as “Ugh!” or “Oy!”
To be fair, the firm in question accepted a volunteer to sit amongst the youth rabble and their “iced coffee” and “containers of fruit salad.” (Let’s pause here, and consider how similar references to groups of people and their dietary stereotypes rightly would result in charges of racism.) As I’ve noted before, research consistently shows that generations of workers share much more in common than they differ, they complement one another, and – overall – inclusion benefits organizations. Valuing and encouraging diversity even in terms of work style is part of what enables high performance in organizations.
The chasm highlighted in this particular account is defined by horrifyingly large differences like: what time people eat lunch, and whether they prefer to work at their desks or in common spaces design for people to … wait for it … work! Seriously. The “volunteer” acknowledges some of the benefits to her. What concerns me as that there is no design to actively engage the members of the largest segment of the workforce in learning what they need to in order to quickly, effectively, and comfortably become high-performing members of the team. By some stroke of mutual good fortune, apparently the newest team members get “promoted” which leads to them being moved from base camp to some far off, undoubtedly scary place. The send off is a “slow clap” – and one only can imagine how well the newly departed are able to apply their “higher threshold for interrupting senior colleagues.”
Here’s a crazy thought: have a 100-day plan for onboarding these incredibly valuable (and thus, hopefully, valued) employees. Your future, literally, depends on it. Onboarding actually begins before new employees arrive and can reflect any number of approaches – none of which should include cordoning them off from the more “evolved” workers at your company.
Here are just a few of the things that can ease and speed transitions – getting people to a higher level of performance sooner, and increasing the likelihood that they’ll stay highly engaged for the longest period of time:
• Have colleagues send congratulatory notes ahead of their arrival
• Decorate their work space
• Celebrate their arrival
• Assign a trained mentor to make sure they have a go-to resource
• Have a scripted onboarding plan that you share with them
• Schedule weekly 1:1 conversations with their manager or mentor, depending on your organizational design and philosophy – and use this time to aggressively check in with them … how are they REALLY doing? What else do they need from YOU and others.
• Establish, track, and report on 30-60-90 day milestones
• Embrace and encourage difference … finding ways to put it to effective use
Separation is NOT the answer. Sorry, folks, this is just absurd. Having fun with missed metaphors and cultural references may make for good copy, but giving into stereotypes is lazy and no way to run a business.
