MANAGING THE NEWWORK PLACE REALITY
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Copyright © 2017 by Valerie M. Grubb. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Grubb, Valerie M., author.
Title: Clash of the generations : managing the new workplace reality / Valerie M. Grubb.
Description: Hoboken : Wiley, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016030971| ISBN 9781119212348 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119212461 (Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9781119212478 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Diversity in the workplace-Management. | Conflict of generations in the workplace-Management. | Intergenerational relations. | Older people—Employment. | Youth—Employment. | BISAC: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Human Resources & Personnel Management.
Classification: LCC HF5549.5.C75 G78 2016 | DDC 331.3-dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016030971
Cover design: Wiley
Note: Page references in italics refer to a table.
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Based in Silicon Valley, Chegg has tested numerous strategies both to retain employees and to improve the working relationship between generations. Rosensweig refers to Silicon Valley as “the canary in the coal mine” when it comes to companies having to think about a multigenerational workforce and being on the cutting edge of providing corporate perks. He describes the region as a very expensive suburb with little nightlife or culture—which is why younger employees, particularly those without families, choose to live in nearby, vibrant San Francisco.
The company's history of diversity in other areas has allowed it to be vigilant about generational differences. There's a good mix of employees born in the United States and abroad, 44 percent of the staff is female, and its approach toward ethnic diversity is also broadening. Rosensweig explains, “We are trying to be more representative, because the students that we serve are more representative of America versus what corporate America generally looked like. So it's been in our best interest.”
Chegg developed its programs both by listening to employees and by examining behavior. When the company's annual satisfaction survey revealed that a large percentage of the staff had student loans and HR noted that not many Millennials were signing up for the 401(k) program, for example, the company conceptualized ways of helping employees with their financial aid debt. Recruiters noted that many job candidates asked if working out of the Santa Clara office was necessary, which prompted management to rethink both its policies and its office space. “We brainstormed with our benefits people,” says Rosensweig. “We said, ‘What kind of things do we do that can support the lifestyles that these folks want to live?’”
Recognizing that each generation had its own individual needs and desires, Chegg reworked its benefits packages. For example, in addition to the traditional 401(k) program that has been offered for years, Chegg offers to match an employee's student loan payments, because Millennials prefer to get rid of debt rather than accumulate savings. The 401(k) program, however, is still offered, as the senior employees still expect it.
Having a variety of medical programs has also proven popular. “We even offer pet insurance,” says Rosensweig, because the younger portion of the workforce doesn't have kids but many do have pets. For the older slice of employees, Chegg offers options such as emergency caregivers for those with kids or even older parents.
Flexible work schedules—both for Millennials who expect it and for older employees who need to, say, pick up their kids after school—have also been introduced to make working at Chegg more appealing to both prospective and current staff. Many employees jump back on their computers at home once they've finished shuttling the kids around. And because the company has proven loyal to its employees, the employees have reciprocated by not taking advantage of such flexibility. “We just care about the productivity,” said Rosensweig, who is quite happy with how productive his employees remain while still being able to balance their personal lives.
Rosensweig relates a story of how he asked a summer intern where she was going when he spotted her leaving the office at 2:30 in the afternoon. She answered that she was headed to Starbucks to finish up her work because she found the office too distracting. Her response was a revelation to him in how much has changed with how and where today's employees (of all ages) prefer to work.
Now that technology allows for remote working, even the older generations have availed themselves of the conveniences. “If I can FaceTime my daughter in Copenhagen every day,” says Rosensweig, “why can't I FaceTime an employee if I need them?” And that's exactly what Chegg employees have begun doing, allowing everyone on staff a more flexible work routine that appeals to all ages and takes advantage of new innovations. “Not everybody's going to behave the same way,” admits Rosensweig, “and as management, you try not to expect them to. We like to say that we have multiple cultures but one set of values, and if we all live by the same values, then it's okay to have multiple [working] cultures and work styles.”
Scheduling plays a big role in work style. Chegg management noted that even though employees with families didn't want to take part in after‐work bonding activities, the younger staffers showed more interest in doing so. The annual company picnic is no longer planned for a weekend, Rosensweig says, because although when he first entered the workforce he was obligated to attend such company events, “this generation doesn't think that way.” Older generations have changed their personal lifestyles as well; family obligations often make weekend events impossible. So while Millennials were the ones who prompted management to give more thought as to when the annual event was held, the move to during work hours appealed to everyone.
“We try to balance things,” says Rosensweig. “What can we do during the workday, and what can we schedule for after hours? We recognize that people of different generations have different responsibilities during and after work.” Thus the company tries to mix up the timing of events so that everyone has the chance to participate in team‐building activities. “We're just more cognizant of it [than we were before],” says Rosensweig, “and we try different things. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we don't, but we generally get good karma credit for having tried.”
Rosensweig also discusses the differences between the generations' company loyalty. “When I moved here from New York, where I was with my previous company for 15 years, I was stunned by the rate of turnover: the average employee stays 2.3 years at a company out here.” He believes Silicon Valley's progressive, employee‐friendly culture has contributed to this turnover, but that generational differences have as well. Younger employees are ready to jump‐start the job search after only a couple of years, whereas the older generation stays far longer because of the need for security, desire to maintain benefits, and hope that company loyalty will pay off in terms of promotions.
Younger employees' capricious views toward job attachment make it harder for older employees to invest in somebody who may seek new opportunities in a relatively short amount of time. “That was never the way we older generations grew up,” says Rosensweig, who also says this has probably been the biggest multigenerational challenge for Chegg. Managers just don't want to invest time in an employee only to find that they've trained for a competitor. The combined programs and policies that Chegg has implemented in the past few years have improved Millennial turnover rate by 40 percent.
After years of hearing job candidates bemoan the commute from San Francisco to Santa Clara, Chegg opened up a San Francisco office and began offering transportation (with air conditioning and Wi‐Fi, of course) between the two locations. Company‐provided bicycles in Santa Clara allow employees to easily get from the train station to the office.
Such changes in the physical work environment have appealed not only to Millennials but to the older workforce, who appreciate convenience and the occasional change in scenery just as much as their younger counterparts.
Millennials' desire for constant and immediate feedback prompted Chegg to ditch its old system of annual reviews. Rosensweig cites the oft‐repeated belief that the younger generation wants to move up the corporate ladder as quickly as possible and expects to be vice president practically the day after graduation. Veteran employees resented what they saw as Millennials' sense of entitlement.
“If you create the right kind of values and culture and you set the expectations right, you eliminate those as issues,” Rosensweig says. “If you don't set the expectations up front, it's not unreasonable for people who are making major contributions in their first year to wonder why they're not in the same meeting with somebody else.”
Chegg achieved the goal of setting expectations and providing more frequent reviews through a system called Fast Feedback, which allows managers to communicate both the positive and the negative in a timely and effective manner. At the end of a project, Rosensweig says, a manager can tell an employee, “‘You did a phenomenal job with this, or next time you address this, maybe we should think about doing it this way.’ Fast Feedback has been extremely helpful in communication between the generations because it eliminates the mystery between them.”
While Rosensweig didn't have exact numbers on the cost to implement Fast Feedback, he said that “the return was much greater than any financial cost” in that it satisfied employees in every sector of the age spectrum.
Chegg continually reviews its offerings for younger employees to see what could entice them either to move closer to the Santa Clara office or to make the long commute from San Francisco. One idea was to offer events that appealed to that age group, such as cultural walks through the city and a summer intern “Olympics.” Such activities, says Rosensweig, demonstrate Chegg's efforts to offer opportunities for forging new relationships to employees who don't yet “have families or children and who are looking to build bonds and connect to other people.”
“We're in the education business,” explains Rosensweig. “The college class of 2020 is sort of a really interesting watermark, because they were born the same year that Google was born. They've never known a day without the Internet, Netflix, or iPhones.” That means that in order to attract their target employees—recent college graduates who best understand what students want—Chegg has to be forward‐thinking and “create environments that are more in line with [Millennials'] modernized expectations.” These expectations include the assumption that everything work related—from documents to HR forms—should be on demand, easy to use, customizable, and mobile accessible, thus making it easier for employees to choose when and where to get their work done.
Customization played a big role in one of the more popular perks common to Silicon Valley: the free lunch. Whereas Chegg used to offer one option to all employees—Mexican one day, Chinese the next—it now allows individuals to order from a variety of restaurants and different cuisines, each and every workday. This not only appeals to Millennials, who were the instigators behind the change, but also to employees with specialized dietary needs or desires, such as vegetarians, diabetics, or simply those who choose to eat healthy. “It's stuff like that,” says Rosensweig, “that we would never have thought of just five years ago.”
By implementing new HR offerings and evolving the work culture, Chegg has decreased its turnover rate of Millennials by 40 percent in the past four years. All the new policies and programs have not only increased employee satisfaction but have also made a marked difference in intergenerational communication. “What we've seen is the older generation mentoring about how to be productive, what it means to meet deadlines, and how to be part of a team,” says Rosensweig. “And the Millennials have helped us all learn how to be part of a team remotely.” It also gives Millennials the constant acknowledgment they desire and the more senior employees a solid way to communicate and record that acknowledgment.