Experience AND Youth
By Mary Lloyd
Assuming you must choose between hiring experience-to keep your organization's performance stable and effective--and hiring youth-to identify and create the next generation of products and services--is like assuming you can only use salt or pepper. You need both.
A lot of what we do these days is presented in terms of "either…or." Either you are a Democrat or a Republican. Either you are a conservative or a liberal. Either you forge ahead with little thought for tradition or you rest on the time-honored goods and services that have always been needed. We are limiting ourselves and our organizations to the use of that one conjunction-"or."
As a part of speech, the conjunction is used to connect two parts of a sentence. "Or" considers alternatives in opposition to each other-one not both (or all) is established with that small word.
The conjunction "and" combines alternatives. Period. We need to think more in terms of "and" in hiring strategies, team development, and how we conduct business overall.
"And" is more effective. You acquire a broader, deeper range of talent, insight, perspective, and competence by hiring from the full age spectrum. You need entry-level new hires and experienced workers in similar positions whenever you can afford it.
But "or" is easier so that's what happens way too often. Often that need for "or" is based on an inaccurate assumption-that it's difficult to manage an "intergenerational workforce." Whoever started this baloney about needing to walk on eggshells to get older workers and younger workers to pull together must have had a lot to gain from our "incompetence."
To get a team or a company with a broad range of experience to perform like superstars, you need one thing-good leadership. When you can motivate a team about what they are trying to get done, they don't notice who's how old. When you highlight the benefit of having so much variety of skill and talent and facilitate everyone's access so the whole team can use it all, performance becomes downright amazing.
Limiting yourself to just younger workers is an oversimplified alternative. The "reasons" seem intelligent. "They cost less." "They will be around longer." "There will be less disagreement if everyone is at or near the same age." But none of those reasons hold water.
Workers with less experience cost less in what you can measure. You have no idea how effective a deeper team would be until you put one together with a strong leader and see what happens. Yes, you can see savings in payroll dollars for hiring in the low end of your salary range. What you can't see is the increased effectiveness that you are foregoing and the mentoring that you don't have to groom those new hires to perform better in the long haul.
The idea that younger workers will be around longer is wrong. Older workers are more stable. Right now, hiring older workers who have more experience than you can afford is actually possible. That's like finding an original work of art by as master in a bin of knock offs. Older workers who have been in the job hunt for a long time will probably be even more loyal than older workers in general over the next decades. But somehow, we've come to the conclusion that older means "defective." On-the-job experience is more like fine wine than potato salad. It doesn't go bad; it gets better with age.
Assuming there will be less disagreement if you have all younger workers is way off base. Younger people have more drama in their lives because they haven't learned what's important and what's not yet. Research also confirms that older workers have better work habits, less absenteeism, and are more focused on safety. They get the work done without a lot of supervision. As they work beside younger workers, they model all those things and modeling is one of the very best ways to learn. You won't need as much formal training or have to be as intense with supervisory oversight if you have older and younger employees working together.
There is, of course, one huge caveat in all this. You need good leadership. Having leaders who know what you are trying to get done, who are passionate about that-and about getting the team they're responsible for to that same level of enthusiasm-will get you a lot farther than limiting your workforce so that "people get along." People never get along unless they are all on fire with getting the same thing accomplished together.
Hire experience and youth. And hire good leaders.
