Harvard Business Publishing

Matt Jastram raised an important question in a post several months ago that I've been looking forward to discussing further: "I wonder how to integrate the multiple generations in the workforce with the signature experience of each company? Are companies in an identity crisis trying to strive to make numerous modifications for the up and coming workforce?" (See "Ouch! The Painful Divide between Generation X and the Boomers.") Matt is referring to an article that Lynda Gratton and I wrote for HBR, "What It Means to Work Here," on the importance of signature experiences to employee engagement. A signature experience is a visible, distinctive element of an organization's overall employee experience. It serves as a powerful and constant symbol of the organization's culture, values, and heritage and, because it is idiosyncratic, is tricky for competitors to imitate.

The importance of signature experiences emerged from our research on employee engagement and ties closely to our discussions over the month about an individual's Life's Lures (assess your life's lures by completing this assessment). Strong signatures signal the extent to which the employee experience within a company is likely to match the job seeker's Lure.

To answer Matt's question: the generational assumptions about how the world works and the archetypes that define the type of work environment we each prefer are two different constructs. You can think of them like a matrix -- that is, within each generation, you are likely to have people who prefer each of the six Lures. It turns out that just because you view the world as a place in which you need to compete for your spot (as the Boomers tend to) or a place in which you need to take care of yourself (as the X'ers do), it doesn't mean that you can't be quite different in your relative preference for ambiguity, structure, teamwork, flexibility, or any of the other characteristics that define the Lures.

Every company does need to create a workplace that understands and is sensitive to the assumptions that underlie all four generations. An organization does not -- and, in fact, almost certainly cannot, appeal to all six Lure archetypes (although different divisions or departments within a large company may vary). The good news is that focusing on several Lures, while downplaying others, in no way diminishes your ability to have a diverse workforce -- the Lures cut across age, race, ethnicity, and gender.

The key is to build on the realistic strengths of your company's employee experience and not worry about doing what every other company is doing. When we looked at companies with highly engaged employees, we were initially surprised to find that they were each doing very different things. Even more surprisingly, the more we looked, the more we realized that the variations were not noise in the system; they were, in fact, the critical element of the companies' ability to achieve high levels of employee engagement! The most excellent organizations were very . . . well, "odd" -- they emphasized and proudly touted practices that were different from a "typical" company's practices or even those that were commonly regarded as "best practice."

Our research shows that organizations with highly engaged employees know what they can offer in the way of an employee experience and don't worry about trying to be all things to all people. They understand what their current and future employees care about. They are adept at expressing what makes them unique vividly, through actual practices and events -- that is, through experiences, not through slogans on the wall or laminated values cards on every desk.

And here's the trick: As a consequence, these companies attract and retain people who really like what they have to offer, people who "fit" and therefore have a high likelihood of being engaged by and committed to the environment they find.

How clearly does your company communicate what the employee experience is like to candidates? Are you attracting people who are pre-disposed to like what you can offer?

Read all of Tammy Erickson's Across the Ages posts.

MORE ON WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENT:
Workplace Design: A New Managerial Imperative (CMR Article)
Harvard Business Review on Bringing Your Whole Self to Work (HBR Paperback)
Creating and Testing Workplace Strategy (CMR Article)