How Should Firms Value Boomers?
Lina Ko March 8th, 2010
While most companies in North America are encouraging synergy among the various generations, a privately-held company in Watertown, Massachusetts, is showing the world that by valuing boomers, you can manage not only to survive throughout the Great Recession, but also thrive as well. According to the New York Times, Communispace started with only eight workers in 1999 offering online focus groups to blue-chip companies. Now, the company has 260 staff. Last year, at the height of the recession, 60 were hired.
There’s a place for boomers as well as other younger folks. While the President of the firm is 55 years old, and several of the eight pioneering members are boomers, the workplace is dominated by tech-savvy 20- and 30-somethings. There are 40 boomers, but there are also 25 who are under 25. Unlike most established companies where top layers of management are dominated by boomers, Communispace is different. Thirty-eight employees who are 40- or over report to someone younger. The company’s core jobs – the 104 community managers who oversee the online focus groups – start at $40,000 fresh from college, with the most experienced approaching six-figure salaries.
In the company’s early years, when the economy was strong, unemployment for boomers was under four percent and middle-aged people were less adept at social networking, hires skewed young. But this has changed. According to the President Diane Hessan, last year the company had 6,500 applicants for 60 positions. “We could hire 3,000 people in their 20s, but our clients don’t want to just understand younger people.” Jobs that were handled piecemeal, like proofreading, have required more experienced supervisors. Many boomers were subsequently hired for their seasoning and experience to get the growing firm to a new place.
When asked how younger supervisors oversee a team of older, more seasoned employees, a Gen-Xer said that the key is to recognize what everyone uniquely brings to the table, regardless of age. “We need to let boomers do their own thing,” she said. “Boomers need to be comfortable reporting to somebody much younger and we need to be comfortable working with a group of more experienced team members.”
Sounds like a recipe for success for other North American companies which are working on integrating boomers with other generations in the workplace.
