The Role of Human Resource Managers in Recruiting the Different Task Potency Regarding Their Age in Business

Introduction

Human resource management is the discipline of controlling the employees in an organization. It is as a formal system that manages people within a firm who make up the human resource in any company. As such, the role of a human resource manager is to recruit employees, compensate or provide them with the job benefits, and designing their work. In essence, human resource is aimed at maximizing the employee’s performance; thus, they recruit and train the firm’s workers. The human resource manager has to hire the right people at the convenient time to handle the respective job. Furthermore, human resource management encompasses the provision of a communication channel, dispute resolution mechanism within a business, and performance evaluation. The human resource managers formulate the policies that affect their staff as well as the regulations that ensure that they are retained. Hence, the discipline gives direction to the workers, maintain their welfare, and make sure the work environment is healthy and safe. A company is composed of three categories of employees: the traditionalists, baby boomers, generation X, and the millennials. Hiring a diverse age population for your workforce allows for different work ethics that can produce a more well-rounded organization. In this regard, this paper is an analysis of the roles of the human resource managers in recruiting this different task potency regarding their age in business.

Traditionalists

The most senior generation also called the traditionalists are the employees who were born before 1946. They grew up during World War II and the Great Economic Depression. In this regard, they have behaviors that are inclined to the experiences during the World War II and the Great Economic Depression and are the richest group in comparison to the other generations. During their time, the men were the ones who went out to work while the women remained at home to raise the kids. This generation is composed of the most significant lobbyist association. Due to their old age, they have a tendency which they want their impact to be felt and endeavor for financial prosperity and security. They possess an attitude which they do not want to waste anything and are conformers, conservative, and have old-style family beliefs (“Leading the Four Generations at Work,” 2018). Traditionalist also mandates for quality, simplicity, and want comfort. Notably, they are patriotic, patient, and team players hence at work, they are loyal to their employers and anticipate for the same in return. Also, they adore flexible arrangements so that it can help them to work with their respective schedule. In essence, they believe that raises, as well as promotions, should be as a result of job tenure; hence they work towards achieving the success of the organization thereby improving its performance. They work on time and preserve the work ethics in a bid to enhance the firm’s productivity. Traditionalists do not like drawing attention to what they do and have an understanding of the decency of sacrifice for the mutual significance hence are beneficial in ensuring the organization realizes its goals and objectives. However, traditionalists have some limitations. For instance, they believe that the junior employees should just be seen but not to be heard in making decisions a firm. As such, they may be rigid to change within the organization due to their conservative nature.

Baby Boomers

The Baby Boomers are the staff members who were born between 1946 and 1964. They experienced the Cold War and Civil Rights Movements. They constitute the biggest generation. The Baby Boomers are also characterized by their perception in which they believe that rules ought to be obeyed unless those regulations are contrary to what they want and think, then they should just be broken (Pritchard & Whiting, 2014). They are experimental, social cause oriented, free-spirited, and individualistic. However, Baby Boomers can be pessimistic, distrust the state, and are cynical. In essence, they want services and products that can portray their success. This generation believes that ethics is measured by the hours that an employee works and that teamwork is vital to the firm’s success. Just like the traditionalists, Baby Boomers also expect loyalty from their employers (Harber, 2011). They promote relationship building but place less significance on productivity. As compared to other generations, they are workaholics and are more committed to their jobs, are good mentors to their fellow employees as well as their juniors (”Leading the Four Generations at Work,” 2018). Conversely, they portray various disadvantages. For instance, due to their preference for discipline and structure, they may be rigid to change. Also, Baby Boomers are competitive nature hence only work well with rewards and motivation so that they can achieve more but if they are not recognized, they perform poorly in the firm. Baby Boomers have least tech shrewdness hence cannot keep up with organizational development.

Generation X

On the other hand, Generation X also called busters are those who were born between 1965 and 1980. They are known as slackers and can develop and identify quickly with the technology. They are characterized by their quest for psychological security, independence, entrepreneurial spirit, and informality (”Leading the Four Generations at Work,” 2018). This generation is also self-reliant, can multi-task, respect family time hence do not believe in the saying that friends equate to a family. They tend rejecting rules. Generation X also anticipate for ongoing as well as immediate feedback thereby responding to other employees in an organization and do not trust institutions (”Four generations in the workplace,” 2017). They like friendly and casual work surrounding, control of personal time, involvement, freedom in addition to flexibility, and value a place they can learn. The organization benefits from them since they generate a significant amount of revenue in the business. They promote open communication in an organization irrespective of tenure, title or position. This generation is known for carrying out tasks in an organization smarter but not harder. Hence, they need loyalty from their fellow employees but not a company. Nonetheless, this generation does things quickly thus cannot spend more time in perfectly accomplishing a task. Also, they cannot decide if they do not agree with the management. A small percentage of this generation are contented with the senior management in a firm.

Millennials

The Millennials also called Generation Y were born between 1981 and 1994. They grew up during the internet, technology, cell phones, and computer era. Generation Y are the second largest group. They are optimistic, patriotic, impatient, entrepreneurial, determined but clueless, and very informal (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010). Millennials also are individualistic but group-oriented, so casual, little attention span, busy, and admire as well as acknowledge some specialists (”Leading the Four Generations at Work,” 2018). They tend to emulate their peers yet with an exclusive twist, are more radically and culturally tolerant. Similarly, they are economically savvy, oriented to achievements, accept change, and need immediate gratification. They are advantageous to the firm since they look for fellow counterparts who can assist in achieving goals, opt for an open communication as well as constructive reinforcement from their superiors. They promote organization’s social responsibility and ethics hence ensuring the organization conforms to the relevant authorities (”Four generations in the workplace,” 2017). However, since they are more independent as compared to the other generations, they do not promote teamwork yet this is an excellent approach to ensuring the organization becomes productive. They are also characterized by their impatient nature hence cannot stay in an organization for a long time in a bid to develop their leadership skills. As such, they can leave the company within two years of their recruitment.

Conclusion

In summation, employing a diverse age population for your workforce allows for different work ethics that can produce a more well-rounded organization since they bring several features to the firm. For instance, traditionalists are patriotic, patient, and team players. Also, they adore flexible schedules, work on time and preserve the work ethics in a bid to improve the firm’s productivity. They do not like drawing attention on what they do and have an understanding of the decency of sacrifice for the mutual significance hence are beneficial in ensuring the organization realizes its goals and objectives (”Four generations in the workplace,” 2017). Conversely, Baby Boomers are experimental, social cause oriented, free-spirited, and individualistic. Notably, this generation believes that ethics is measured by the hours that an employee works and that teamwork is vital to the firm’s success. Baby Boomers also expect loyalty like the traditionalist from their employers (Wiedmer, 2015). They endorse relationship building, are workaholic and are more committed to their jobs, are good mentors to their fellow employees as well as their juniors.

On the other hand, Generation X are self-reliant, can multi-task, and anticipate for ongoing as well as immediate feedback thereby responding to other employees in an organization. They like friendly and casual work surrounding and value learning in an organization. Generation X spawn a significant amount of income in the business and promote open communication. They are known for carrying out tasks in an organization smarter but not harder thus they need loyalty from their fellow employees. Millennials emulate their peers yet with an exclusive twist, are more radically and culturally tolerant. Similarly, they are economically savvy, oriented to achievements, accept change, and need immediate gratification. They are advantageous to the firm since they look for fellow counterparts who can assist in achieving goals, opt for an open communication as well as constructive reinforcement from their superiors. They promote organization’s social responsibility and ethics; hence ensuring the organization conforms to the relevant authorities.

References

Four generations in the workplace - NAEPSDP. (2017). Naepsdp.wildapricot.org. Retrieved 5 April 2018, from https://naepsdp.wildapricot.org/resources/Pictures/Millennials%20in%20the%20workplace%202017.pdf

Harber, J. (2011). Generations in the Workplace: Similarities and Differences. Dc.etsu.edu. Retrieved 5 April 2018, from https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2446&context=etd

Leading the Four Generations at Work. (2018). Amanet.org. Retrieved 5 April 2018, from http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/leading-the-four-generations-at-work.aspx

Myers, K., & Sadaghiani, K. (2010). Millennials in the Workplace: A Communication Perspective on Millennials’ Organizational Relationships and Performance. Retrieved 5 April 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2868990/

Pritchard, K., & Whiting, R. (2014). Baby boomers and the lost generation: On the discursive construction of generations at work. Organization Studies, 35(11), 1605-1626.

Wiedmer, T. (2015). Generations do differ: Best practices in leading traditionalists, boomers, and generations X, Y, and Z. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 82(1), 51.