The Guru Nation Blog

With so many generations in workforce, the cry is for more education and continued learning. Whether a Gen Y or a Baby Boomer, men and women at every generational level want to be fed by programs that expand their thinking and their ability to increase their performance.

We now have four generations in the workforce, and companies should pay heed!

According to Tammy Erickson, co-author of Workforce Crisis, companies are offering too few learning opportunities. If the generations in today’s workforce can’t receive proper training and expanded learning, then the employer will pay the price in lost capability, performance, and engagement.

In Workforce Crisis, Ms. Erickson advises that companies can become “Learning Organizations” for all the generations in the workforce. A learning organization is one that is talented at creating, acquiring, transferring and interpreting knowledge. Then, with intention, the company has to modify its behavior to reflect that new knowledge. To do this effectively, an organization has to promote and reward skill development and respect differences between individuals.

It doesn’t stop there!

A strong learning organization feeds its generations in the workforce by encouraging risk taking and asking for timely feedback. Knowledge is openly shared.To meet the needs of the generations in the workforce, here are basic questions to ask in order to begin the process:

What does the organization need to learn more about?
What do we need to know more about our customers?
How can we use what we learn to improve performance?
What must we decide faster?
How can we revise our business processes and re-orient our technology infrastructure?