Posted on : 2023-01-06 03:46:38
Article : Good evening, Friday Management TASK 224-With different generations, different views and preferences in the workforce the companies can use this as a strength, thus ensuring high employee engagement.
AFA General insurance employs a workforce comprising largely of Millennials (53%), Gen X 40%; Baby Boomers 6% while Gen Z make up the smallest group (1%). Thus, recognising the generational differences and needs, the company turned to customising and innovating its policies to help its employees achieve work-life integration.
This insurance company has implemented some key initiatives like -A compressed working schedule arrangement (CWSA), FWAs (Flexible work arrangements) increased parental allocation, and a diverse and inclusive environment. These initiatives can be executed in the following terms and styles.
First, the CWSA (also known as alternative Fridays) gives employees the option to take two Mondays or Fridays off work each month, by working an extra 45 minutes for nine consecutive days.
Second, under the FWA scheme, employees can choose from staggered working hours, flexible lunch hours, an Employee Social Responsibility Leave (for volunteering causes), and diversified leave for celebrations, examinations, compassionate reasons, and more.
Third, to cater to varied parental needs, parents with new-borns are offered a four-month maternity leave scheme, as well as one month of paternity leave. On top of all that, the company makes it a point to organise various engagement activities around diversity, family values, health and wellness, such as International Women's Day, Corporate Responsibility Week, and Family Day.
Given that different generations may be receptive to different forms of communications, company’s Chief people officer say that they believe in reaching out to their multigenerational workforce through their preferred channels – hence, they have multiple communication platforms and openness is key in the company. They have open working spaces and fun meeting rooms to encourage discussions, an open-door concept with their C-Suite, Workplace (internal social platform), as well as a relaxing common area, or better known as the chill out area, for their people to relax and mingle. The biggest challenge is in being creative in the HR practices to create more value for each generation's employees keeping aside ROIs.
The team has also faced situations where a particular initiative received different reactions. For example, when the CWSA was first rolled out, it was very well-received by the Millennials, but was not as popular among Gen X and the Baby Boomers, who preferred shorter working hours each day. To address this, the team introduced staggered working hours for the segments who preferred to work shorter working hours in a day.
Given the above, it is believed that listening to the people is key to promoting a balance between each generation’s needs and wants. The key to the solution is not to go for assumptions but to validate the hypothesis for result orientation. We would discuss this in our Monday Management Solution post with few more examples. Post your comments on our comments box. Our Management solution for this TASK 224 will be posted on 9th Jan 2023.
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