Understanding and Meeting the Needs of Different Generations in the Workforce with Amy Letke of Marsh McLennan Agency

[00:00:00] Well, and it's interesting, you know, over time we've seen that so, you know, the employer

[00:00:06] provides the baseline of education when the employee experience, if you think about that

[00:00:12] for just a minute.

[00:00:13] So an employee joins an organization.

[00:00:16] It's the organization's responsibility to talk with those new team members about policies,

[00:00:21] procedures, behaviors, expectations.

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[00:01:00] So we're going to be talking to her about the findings, some of the things she learned, some of the things that they continue to learn as they do these things.

[00:01:07] So Amy, hello, how are you?

[00:01:10] Hi, William, I'm great.

[00:01:11] Nice to see you today.

[00:01:12] You are great.

[00:01:14] Done.

[00:01:15] Full stop.

[00:01:16] Look at the end of recording right there.

[00:01:18] Shortest podcast ever.

[00:01:20] So take a seat.

[00:01:22] First of all, introduce yourself for the audience so that they understand who you are, your background, etc.

[00:01:28] Great. Thanks, William.

[00:01:29] So my name is Amy Letke.

[00:01:31] I am the National HR Consulting Practice Leader for Marshmallow Client and Agency.

[00:01:36] And my role here is to educate our clients and prospects and team members, colleagues across the country on HR Consulting Services.

[00:01:48] And Marshmallow Client and Agency provides about a core HR consulting services that we share with our clients equally.

[00:01:58] And prior to MMA, I've had a history of being in human resources for pretty much my entire career.

[00:02:05] It kind of chose me versus me choosing it, which, you know, sometimes happens, right?

[00:02:12] That's a reoccurring theme.

[00:02:15] What we go to school for, what our dreams are may not always be the same.

[00:02:20] Once they get you in, keep pulling you back in.

[00:02:25] Now, do you remember a time, I think when that was with Walmart this 100 years ago, but HR was called personnel?

[00:02:33] Oh yeah.

[00:02:34] Do you remember these days?

[00:02:36] You know, I really do.

[00:02:38] It was in one of my first roles.

[00:02:40] I was in the personnel department, but the funny thing was this is really funny.

[00:02:45] That was the time where the Society for Human Resource Management, that's her professional association, they actually changed their name.

[00:02:55] They did.

[00:02:56] They did.

[00:02:57] I think it was ASPA, the American Society for Personnel Administrators or something like that.

[00:03:02] And then it became the Society for Human Resource Management.

[00:03:06] Everything, the world suddenly stopped on personnel and went to HR or Human Resources Management.

[00:03:13] We've seen a couple iterations to this too because at one point it was human capital.

[00:03:18] People were chief human resource officers.

[00:03:21] There's chief people officers or people operations.

[00:03:25] It's like Animal Farm.

[00:03:27] The words keep changing.

[00:03:29] Yes.

[00:03:31] The job is a little bit different.

[00:03:34] So you've got a wonderful background.

[00:03:36] Take us into this report.

[00:03:38] I'm always running on love reports, love studies like this because this is kind of an easy way for our audience to kind of gather some intel.

[00:03:47] And then they can always go download the report and then go deeper into it, etc.

[00:03:52] So let's take a look at the findings.

[00:03:54] Tell us a little bit about it.

[00:03:56] I think it's an amazing report of information.

[00:03:59] And I was just in Washington, DC this last week presenting at the front date, from day one conference.

[00:04:06] And we were talking about what are the trends that we're seeing in the workplace in the future.

[00:04:13] And as I took a look at this report, I think there were some aha moments for me even with my own staff because I have about 25 team members on my team today.

[00:04:25] With four generations, right?

[00:04:29] Boomer is all the way to Xers.

[00:04:32] And what I think is so impactful about this report is the insight that it can provide for employers in terms of getting to know your employees.

[00:04:44] And the trends that we're seeing, it's there are similarities across the generations.

[00:04:50] And the one biggest similarity that did not surprise me is the desire for flexibility.

[00:04:56] You know, boomers need it, millennials need it, you know, or Xers need it, you know, everyone in between is looking for certain levels of flexibility,

[00:05:06] whether it's from when I start my work to when I end my work to how I choose to manage my work day.

[00:05:15] And so some of that, I thought was really interesting information that that's kind of one trade across the generations that really stood out as significant.

[00:05:27] And then as I as I really reflect on generations, just kind of what generations really have very specific usage and needs and just kind of the information we received about the millennial generations where there needs for mental wellness and support because that particular

[00:05:52] generation tends to have more anxiety related issues, more needs for wellness, more desire for wellness and wellness benefits and trends.

[00:06:04] So let me ask you a quick question about that because I've seen something similar.

[00:06:09] And I wonder if it's just they're more aware or if I'm an X, so I'll just throw my right is to solve sort of out there.

[00:06:18] Maybe our generation just suppress that stuff.

[00:06:22] You know, in a bad way, not a good way.

[00:06:26] And so I just wonder your take on, are they just more self aware.

[00:06:31] Or do you think the previous generations just basically, you know, you put your head down you did your work and then you didn't you didn't express those things.

[00:06:38] I mean, maybe you suppressed them actively.

[00:06:41] Like, what's what do you think?

[00:06:44] But it's such a good question. I did ponder that as I was, you know, preparing for this talk.

[00:06:50] And I think, you know, the boomers generation, you know, people even coming in, you know, the end of the boomers, which is one of those folks.

[00:07:00] I think we just had to push through there. We're trailblazers on a lot of things.

[00:07:06] Right. Oh yeah, well, especially, yeah.

[00:07:10] Even women's issues.

[00:07:12] Yeah, a lot of a lot of things happened. And I think, you know, there was a presenter. You know, I think about people who were early adopters talking about generations and it's, you know, Morris Massey.

[00:07:25] Remember Dr. Morris Massey. He talked about what you are now is from where you were when or something to that degree.

[00:07:33] And so I do think that the generations have significant impacts and the millennials just had a different upbringing. We all have had different upbringings based upon our generations, our parents, our values.

[00:07:45] And I do think that they've been exposed to things and, you know, now that none of the other generations have had to deal with.

[00:07:54] But now it's very much acceptable for us to raise our hand and say, you know, I need some help. I've got some struggles.

[00:08:04] You know, there's so much healthier.

[00:08:06] I mean, to be able to, especially when you're doing mental health, people feel open enough now where they can talk about the things that they need or the anxiety, the problems that they have and the things that are going on.

[00:08:20] I grew up in that era where she just, you know, rub some dirt on it and do a couple laps around the track. Walk it off.

[00:08:31] Walk it off.

[00:08:32] I sure have a combat fracture, but all right, I'll just go walk it off.

[00:08:35] Well, you know, if you think about it, you know, when we grew up, you know, there wasn't therapy. There wasn't family therapy.

[00:08:42] I mean, if you went to therapy, if like you were like something was really, really bad now that stigma has completely shifted to being something that is a very, very good thing.

[00:08:55] So if you think about just how our own trends about how we see wellness, it has shifted significantly over the years. Right?

[00:09:05] Right. Very good way.

[00:09:07] Yes.

[00:09:08] Yeah.

[00:09:09] Yeah. And I like, so I was looking through the report and for those that are listening will drop it in the notes somewhere.

[00:09:17] In the report, you have a chart of all the generations and it's broken out by different categories.

[00:09:25] Run us through some of those differences there. But I want to think that chart is just fantastically laid out. Very easy to understand.

[00:09:32] Well, it's interesting, you know, we have a lot of different data points and what I hear from clients quite a bit is that once there has been a remote or hybrid opportunity people,

[00:09:46] want to embrace that and getting people to come back to the office is tricky. And I was just talking with a panelist at this from day one conference who was saying, you know, that employers that are doing it right are saying,

[00:10:02] okay, we're going to have an event at the office. There's some specific reason for you to come back versus, okay, we just want you to show up because we're paying rent.

[00:10:12] We want to see you in all those zoom calls at home, but you know, we're going to just make sure just to check the box. Right. So don't don't do those kinds of things.

[00:10:21] It's interesting what we're seeing happen and how we have to change our behaviors employers because of, you know, the circumstances we've just lived through right.

[00:10:31] Very interesting.

[00:10:34] What are the, what are the findings struck you from the report?

[00:10:41] Well, I think there's there's a lot of nuggets of information here. And when I think about a lot of the clients that we work with, I think this is very representative of what we're seeing across our mid market client base.

[00:11:00] I also find it very interesting that we can take this information and, and while it is very interesting, I believe to help serve as a guide for an employer.

[00:11:14] It also is an opportunity for the employer to say, wow, these are some national and international findings by generation by employed benefit needs.

[00:11:26] And we really need to dig in and find out what's going on with their own workforce so that if our workforce is mirroring this information.

[00:11:36] I think it creates a very strategic advantage for an employer to be able to even create a more strong workplace and become an even greater employer of choice.

[00:11:49] So this kind of information I think is very powerful for employers that are looking to really better understand not only what's going on with employees across a wide variety of generations.

[00:12:02] But to be able to get more intimate with their own employees and say, hey, we've got this information now are really curious.

[00:12:09] Is this relevant to you? What are your needs because what we saw here was just basic employee benefits is not going to cut it any longer.

[00:12:18] We saw that here in the lift right now. It's about how do we customize these offerings so that we're really getting to what our teams and what our colleagues are wanting to have and being able to provide for that.

[00:12:33] What's the best way to get that data from employees? Like, you know, it used to be when we do maybe in September, we'd gather do a survey and gather data and then go out to the market and kind of look to, we prune some things.

[00:12:49] So whatever benefits weren't being used, we kind of pull those back things that were being used a lot.

[00:12:56] We probably double down on some of those things, but that was kind of a once a year type of mentality, which I know things have changed since then.

[00:13:05] But like, what's when you guide clients to this process? What's your best advice on, you know, getting the employees and finding out from them either validating or maybe even getting some ideas from them on things that they should add to their benefits array.

[00:13:23] Well, this is an overarching theme that we're seeing is being empathetic and compassionate to employees and employers are winning when they show empathy and they're meeting the needs of their employees finding out what they are.

[00:13:39] And meeting their needs.

[00:13:41] So what I recommend to employers is to find ways where they are interacting with their employees. They're actively listening, asking questions, understanding what their needs are.

[00:13:56] It can be as simple as an employee engagement survey that covers needs, benefits, flexibility. It covers a wide variety of issues that an employer would want to know about being able to meet those needs of their employees to training supervisors for how to talk to their team members.

[00:14:20] You know, it's not enough just to take a supervisory position as a promotion. It comes with a tremendous amount of responsibility and we're seeing employers reinvesting in those leaders so that they know how to talk to their team members and they know how to be more empathetic and compassionate and being able to accommodate the needs that employees are having.

[00:14:46] Quick question around now because I'm first of all glad you went there.

[00:14:50] But also, and this is dated so please update the audience is training as it relates to what benefits they have.

[00:15:00] You know what I'm saying, like this has been a long standing bit for benefits managers and people in the total reward space in general that they have great benefits.

[00:15:11] Their employee base doesn't know exactly what they have or how to use it etc. So when you're talking about the training for managers to be empathetic and how to be a great manager and be empathetic etc.

[00:15:24] That triggered me to then think, well, how do we train them on like the benefits that are there that they can take advantage of?

[00:15:33] You know, that's such a good question. And I think one of the things that I encourage human resources leaders and professionals to do is constantly look at how we are educating and reeducating our workforce.

[00:15:48] And we have to market to our employees. You know, I've always felt like the HR department should be the biggest cheerleader for the organization explaining the benefits, making sure people understand things in very simple terms and engaging the family is a great way to do that too.

[00:16:06] So that including them some of these opportunities and sending mailers to home, whether it's newsletters or total compensation statements at the end of the year so that the family is to see, oh wow, these are all these benefits.

[00:16:21] And oh, maybe we should be participating in some of these activities. But it is constant. It's a challenge for the HR teams when they have so much on their plate.

[00:16:32] But to find effective ways to market to employees about the value proposition, the investment the employer is making I think is absolutely crucial.

[00:16:44] Yeah, there's nothing worse. Ryan's been to this bit. There's nothing worse than getting it going through an exit interview.

[00:16:53] And finding that one of the reasons that the person quit was because of some benefit, something that wasn't there. And it was there.

[00:17:02] Like we know we have really terrible vision insurance, etc. blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and that's one of the reasons contribute to be leaving. It's like our vision insurance.

[00:17:11] It's fantastic. It's like it's kind of like plan like it's, you know, but they didn't but they didn't know that. And again, I did this bit at a thing was a world at work years ago where I'm like, a benefit isn't a benefit if they don't know it's a benefit.

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[00:17:39] Right. It's not communicated properly.

[00:17:42] Yeah, if you've got a as you read through the report and you go through the findings, what is that one key area of the report? What's that one key finding that you just found and made you think, wow, well, I think that there's, you know, there's different benefits that employees are desiring that vary by generation.

[00:18:04] So I think when I read the report, what was really enlightening for me was just to see some of my maybe some of my own perceptions about what some of my needs are. It's like, wow, this is validated for my generation and to see that we have an opportunity as employers to meet our employees based upon their generational and family needs.

[00:18:31] And people really want a good benefit package and it makes such a big difference. And I can see that even from our talent acquisition team or recruiting team within consulting, you know, people do leave companies if the packages aren't there.

[00:18:51] And you know, there are their companies that are recruiting away really good team members for maybe, you know, they're just better marketers right. They tell a really good story. So I think as an employer, we have a distinct advantage if we can understand what our demographics are for our teams and not every employee.

[00:19:14] Right. Not every employer has all four generations, but if they do, this is a huge opportunity to say, wow, things are different based upon your generation and how can we be able to meet what your needs are. So I think it's just, you know, for me that was really exciting to see all of the charts and representations and what those different needs are by generation.

[00:19:40] Well, the business case to the CFO can it should be this is a recruitment strategy or retention strategy. It's not just providing benefits because we have to provide benefits or even we feel like we have to provide benefits.

[00:19:54] No, we're providing benefits because it's just a savvy way to recruit and retain great talent. And now the game becomes as you as you've already said, it becomes a game of personalization. What does this particular employee group need from us? And how do we personalize it to them and then how do we over communicated or communicated so often to where they know what they have.

[00:20:20] It's, you know, this is what's really interesting to me as well. In addition to this, this very point, William is that 78% of employees now feel that their employer is responsible for helping them become net better off.

[00:20:39] 78% that's up from 67% before the pandemic and employees are looking for whole person health benefits. So physical health, mental health, social and financial. Yeah.

[00:20:57] So I found that really interesting as I was thinking, wow, you know, these are great conversations to have with our employees even taking this report and having some discussions with employees about wow, this is a report we got.

[00:21:12] What do you think about this? You know, it's just, I think it's such a great conversation starter to get things moving.

[00:21:20] I think that number goes up next year.

[00:21:24] I think it continues to go up. Yeah, absolutely. And I think when we've had this conversation, the loyalty or the relationship between the employee and the employer has changed dramatically through all of the generations.

[00:21:38] And what we once had, what our grandparents and our grandparents, grandparents once had with their employer no longer exist. And so we're on the open market all of the time because we're going to go from employer to employer if that benefit is that much better.

[00:21:57] And it could just be a little better, but it's enough to make you consider having conversations and meeting that switch. And I think the whole person.

[00:22:07] I don't know if it's just the benefits. I think it's the communication from the C suite about caring about the whole person.

[00:22:14] So yeah, you've got to back that up with benefits that they do that of course. So it can't just be words because if it's just words, it's not going to end well.

[00:22:23] But I mean, right? I think this we don't have the retirement and the pension. So the whole health, you know, person health is taking place.

[00:22:32] It doesn't see that as a great opportunity. They're missing the point like that's not a bad number. That's a number that's a great number because that means that's what they desire.

[00:22:42] Well, now we know what they desire. Okay. Well, now we just need to build a plan and a communication strategy around what they desire.

[00:22:49] And we can keep our talent. We have a chance of keeping our talent.

[00:22:53] Hell, I'd rather know.

[00:22:55] Yeah, I think if these numbers are right, I haven't seen them, but I would love to see the correlation of length of time of service in a company as it relates to how well these benefits are being communicated and given to the employees.

[00:23:16] Well, and it's interesting. You know, over time we've seen that so, you know, the employer provides the baseline of education when the employee experience for if you think about that for just a minute.

[00:23:29] So an employee joins an organization. It's the it's the organization's responsibility to talk with those new team members about policies, procedures, behaviors, expectations.

[00:23:41] And generations ago with, okay, it's all based on the family. What does that family provide is those values, policies, procedures, but now because we have so many backgrounds, so many different demographics, so many different types of people in the workforce from from a variety of backgrounds.

[00:23:58] Now it's the responsibility of the employer and what I think is really interesting is employees expect the employer to help them grow as a person. So that growth isn't coming from networks and family and other places.

[00:24:14] It's an expectation that my employer is going to be the one to really help me with my growth. So that's really significant and interesting, I think.

[00:24:24] Which we see that in the skills market to Amy, and what's tracking is right next to that is my personal development, my corporate development and things that I'll be able to do and change, etc.

[00:24:38] So making their skills better and more appropriate to what they want to do next.

[00:24:44] That tracks with everything that all the conversations we're having around skills and upskilling and all that stuff. So it's, it kind of makes sense that they would also want a more well rounded kind of approach to, I say wellness.

[00:25:00] But just looking at being a better person, they want to be a better person both skills wise, but they also want all those support systems in place around, you know, as you said, the financial wellness, your health wellness, etc.

[00:25:14] So that tracked for me.

[00:25:18] Right. It's like a lot of that. I mean, I mean, I think common sense to a lot of people though the amount of hours that we spend at work versus a two household or two parent working household.

[00:25:32] Parents come home five, six, six, thirty seven o'clock at night.

[00:25:36] You have two hours with your family before the kids have to get ready for bed, do their homework, go to sleep. You're more time with your employer and so I think the expectation is shifting or has shifted and will continue to shift.

[00:25:50] You know, something else that I plan to kind of dive into a little bit more about this. If you, if you as you review the report, there's a staggering number here that I think we should be mindful of and that is that 65% of full time employees at large companies

[00:26:08] have struggled with at least one unmet basic need.

[00:26:13] 65%.

[00:26:16] Two thirds. Wow.

[00:26:20] And define for the audience kind of unmet need meaning what?

[00:26:24] Well, I think, you know, we take a look at, you know, on basic needs, you know, food, home shelter, you know, Maslow.

[00:26:33] And, you know, we, there's more information in the report about that. But when I think about that, that's just staggering that we still have in these large companies and employees that have something significant happening in their home life that is going to require some attention.

[00:26:52] And that's something that an employer has a huge opportunity to be able to, you know, target in and be able to help at employee groups that's having this kind of issues. So something that I actually hadn't expected to see in the report.

[00:27:10] I was surprised at that number and I thought, wow, that's.

[00:27:13] That's a big number. Yeah.

[00:27:16] It's a number two because if the executives know that they can potentially do something about it, if benefits leaders knew that they could potentially don't. But if they don't know.

[00:27:28] And it's not being communicated or they're not surveying and they're not finding out like you said very early on, it's like, you got to get to know your employees.

[00:27:35] And it's that that's not a one and done. That's a kind of a relentless pursuit of understanding what their desires and needs are. This is an unmet need.

[00:27:44] And two thirds, again, two thirds of your workforce is a big number.

[00:27:50] Exactly.

[00:27:51] Anything else shock you in the report or not in our report but in the findings.

[00:28:00] So anything else.

[00:28:01] I find this very interesting and very valuable information for employers to be able to understand, you know, what the differences are by generations in the workforce.

[00:28:14] The mental health conditions and prevalence is at ADHD depression anxiety by generation or millennials, you know, or the highest in those utilizations of those services.

[00:28:27] And what their needs are in those particular areas. And, you know, so just I find it incredibly interesting and informative information for employers to be able to have these data points to be able to go back and again starts in conversations start talking to employees.

[00:28:47] And I think the biggest thing that we need to really think about here is, you know, that care and compassion for the employee to understand that we've got four different generations that have very different needs.

[00:28:59] And now's an opportunity for us to be able as employers to be able to get to know our employees at a different level and find out what kind of needs are going on that that as an employer.

[00:29:12] And so we can fill that void. We can really make a difference in someone's life.

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[00:29:31] One last question for me, Ryan. I'm sure you had something you've been with a ton of different great benefits leaders.

[00:29:41] What's the traits that you see in those leaders that you here's what here's what William if you wanted to make up a great benefits leader. Here's what they look like.

[00:29:50] This is what they here's your behaviors. Here's other approach. This is kind of this is what makes a great benefits leader.

[00:29:57] Well, that's a really great question. I'm not sure I have all the answer on that, but I can tell you, I think that, you know, the, the role of the benefits leader has evolved over time and they really need to be able to talk strategy.

[00:30:11] You know, understand the strategy of the benefits, the financial impact and also being able to be that chameleon to translate that strategy and the financial to the employee base and be able to understand that.

[00:30:26] The employee base needs and what's going on at the C suite and how do we, we get them talking and create some winning strategies and programs overall.

[00:30:36] And I think the benefits leaders, they have challenges because you know now we are in a time where you've got the four generations here in the workplace.

[00:30:47] And you've got to meet the needs of the company as well as that of the employees. So it's a very important and critical role to be able to understand not only the strategy, but the details and the communication of these programs and ways that people can really understand and embrace.

[00:31:07] So I think the benefits leaders today and tomorrow are going to be people that executives are going to be leaning on for their insights into these matters as well as the employee base to be looking to those folks to help provide programs that really meet the needs of the organization as a whole.

[00:31:29] And Amy, along those lines, I think my final question here is going to be how does an employer know that they actually have a problem that they need to address in the employee base?

[00:31:40] Is it just a talent issue where people are just exiting the company at alarming rates? Is it chatter through listening? How do they know this?

[00:31:47] I like to say that. My final question but mine's also, no, no, you gave one final question.

[00:31:54] That's the exact definition of final.

[00:31:58] It's where Ryan's saying, where do they know where they have a problem? What it just triggered for me is how do they know they're doing it well?

[00:32:05] So both sides, thanks Ryan, because that was actually, I'd love to take on both sides of that.

[00:32:13] Well then I have a final question. How do you know they're doing mediocre?

[00:32:17] Well, this is a poor approach, right? She's like I'm never coming back.

[00:32:26] You know, it's a great question and you know, I had to get my crystal ball out for some of this if you will.

[00:32:33] But I do think there are metrics within our HR teams that historically pay attention to turnover clearly as one of them.

[00:32:43] There's utilization of benefits, you know, what benefits are people using?

[00:32:48] You know, certain employers are able to receive certain, you know, more great data points about benefits.

[00:32:54] But I do think this is an ongoing communication opportunity and it takes time and it takes getting to know team members and investing in getting feedback.

[00:33:05] I know our organization surveys colleagues frequently, at least once a quarter we're getting communication sometimes more frequently than that about what's our opinion about something.

[00:33:19] What do we value? What's most important? And I do think, you know, in larger organizations that has to come in the form of surveys and then relying on managers to be able to connect individually with teams.

[00:33:32] But I do think training and education of leaders is critical. I do think, you know, making sure that there's ongoing outreach to employees and, you know, watching turnover and other key HR department metrics along with some utilization data points.

[00:33:48] There's a lot of different data points that the organization can look at to see what they think would be significant.

[00:33:58] And again, and certainly we've got some, you know, experts on our team that can help with designing and developing that as well. So having good trust of resources to determine those metrics I think is important.

[00:34:09] This has been perfect. Amy, thank you so much. I know you're super busy but thank you for coming on the show and taking us through the report. Absolutely appreciate it.

[00:34:18] My pleasure. I appreciate the time. It's great to get to know the two of you and thanks for having me.