Rethinking your approach to multigenerational comms

When the world and the way we work changed a few years back, communicators quickly learned that segmented messages and approaches to different generations was no longer a nice-to-have strategy, but an absolutely necessary one. Employees of different ages have different schedules, commitments and personal priorities that affected their work-life balance. As a result, they could not (and still should not) be communicated with in the same way.

During Ragan’s Future of Communications Conference in Austin, IMF Deputy Division Chief of Internal Communications Karla Chaman and FleishmanHillard SVP and Partner Kathryn Chappell shared their tips for engaging every employee across generational communication preferences and other invisible boundaries.

Here’s what we learned.

Younger generations have distinct preferences

Chappell, a self-professed “data gal”, reminded the audience that there are five generations in the workplace for the first time.

Amid all these groups, newer generations are reshaping the idea that work should be free of political talk. Eighty-two percent of all workers are comfortable working with others who have different political views, but only 72% of Gen Z workers are comfortable with it.

Meanwhile, Gen Z employees are ambitious, broke and values-driven: