Healthcare Workforce: Managing & Motivating Multi-Generational Teams

This essay provides an overview of the different generations currently in the healthcare workforce, including Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y, and Generation Z, highlighting their unique characteristics, values, and communication styles. It discusses the challenges and tensions that arise from these generational differences, particularly in the context of the healthcare industry, and emphasizes the importance of managing this diversity to avoid a dysfunctional organization and ensure patient safety. The essay then proposes strategies for healthcare management to promote harmony in the workplace, retain skilled employees from all generations, and attract new talent. These strategies include clear communication, fostering a culture of collaboration, acknowledging employee contributions, and offering opportunities for professional development, as well as adapting medical education programs and embracing emerging healthcare occupations to attract new skilled employees in the evolving healthcare landscape. The aim is to enable healthcare organizations to effectively leverage the strengths of each generation to improve patient satisfaction and ensure smooth functioning of the hospital.

Assessment 2

Introduction
Workforce dynamics is changing quite rapidly owing to the generational diversity. Priorities of
each generation differ from one another and these priorities set them apart. Not only they have
the priorities differed but also the way of communication, their attitude towards job, approach
towards work and the manner in which they interact with the co-workers differ. All of these
differences affect the culture of an organization and also organizational performance. This
difference in thinking and working style between generations can be viewed in almost every
industry, such as banking and finance sector or health care sector. There are some common
features as well which unifies all the generations and these common points can be leveraged so
as to develop strong teams, which are critical for the development of future health care models
(Costanz, Badger, Fraser, Severt, & Gade, 2012).
Thus, this essay evaluates the expectations of different generations working in the health care
industry and the strategies which must be put in place to promote harmony in the workplace,
retention of skilled workers from all generations and attracting new employees to the
organization irrespective of the generation they belong to.
Discussion
Types of Generations
There are five different types of generations that currently comprise of the workforce in health
care industry namely, Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y and
Generation Z. The characteristics of each generation are as follows:
Traditionalists- This generation of people are those who grew up during the war period and post
war period. This period of time is marked with struggle related to finance as their parents had to

struggle to meet the day to day needs. Because they grew up in an era of financial struggle, they
value job security more than the other generations. Since, the majority of them have served in the
military, they prefer top-down chain of command (Zemke, Raines, & Filipczak, 2013).
The people belonging to this group of generation bring strong working experience and wisdom to
an organization. This characteristic makes them important for the organizations. With a strong
work ethic which is often called as ‘command and control’ this generation brings discipline in an
organization. They respect hierarchical structure and follow all the rules with determination. In
order to capture the strengths of traditionalists, the management of the hospitals must set their
roles and responsibilities clearly. However, this group prefers communication in the written form
and they are not comfortable in using technology as a means of communication.
Baby Boomers- The people belonging to this group of generation possess strong work ethics and
their communication skills are also strong. However, because of the 2008 recession, the
retirement funds of these people were badly affected and resulted in a loss of around 25 percent.
Hence, this generation needs to work a greater number of years to recover this loss (Gibney,
2017).
This group possesses a strong sense of work ethics and is mature emotionally. Communication
skills of the people belonging to this group are quite superior. Their main qualities include
commitment towards work, dedication and loyalty towards their profession. They communicate
effectively in informal settings as well as in group meetings (Taylor, 2016).
Generation X- This generation is fiercely independent because they grew up in a family
environment where both the parents were working and they often found themselves taking care
of their siblings or alone. However, during their time of creating wealth, the 2008 recession hit
badly which led to a lower net worth.

This generation prefers working for those employers who offer an increased intellectual
stimulation. This generation seeks new and challenging projects, which would help them in
acquiring new skills and ensure career advancement. They mainly value freedom as well as
flexibility at workplace (Buchbinder & Shanks, 2016).
Generation Y or Millennials- This generation is brought up during the era of internet. They
grew up with an influence of social media in their lives. They have their priorities set and know
what is important for them. This generation is quite diverse and tolerant and has utmost regards
for honesty. They work only when they feel a sense of purpose. However, there is a lack of
loyalty in this generation (Breuing, 2017).
This generation is quite tech-savvy. For the major part of their lives, they have used personal
computers and internet to research and get more information. They also use social media quite
regularly and they believe in instant gratification. They work for promotions in every fixed span
of time irrespective of their performance (Goldseker & Moody, 2017).
Generation Z- This generation are true representatives of digital technology. They have been in
touch of mobile systems and social media and this generation is the most proficient with the
latest technology and gadgets and has resources to collect information faster than any other
generation (Francis & Hoefel, 2018). This generation is dependent on technology which makes
them less focused than the other generation. However, they can perform multiple tasks
simultaneously and are more entrepreneurial and have a global connect. Also they are driven by
the quality of work and not by money.
The working style, their styles of communication and basic human drivers vary from each other.
It is quite essential for the management of the hospitals and health care system to identify the
attributes unique to each of the generations. If the diverse workforce is not managed

appropriately,then the health care system will become a dysfunctional organization,which would
ultimately affect the patients. Hence, it is important to identify the difference in their strengths
and weaknesses to effectively manage the health care workforce.
Comparison and Contrast between different Generations
Managing multi-generational employees have been a major issue in the health care sector.
Although, no industry can have employees solely belonging to one type of generation, but this
difference affects the health care industry the most. However, having multi-generational helps an
industry grow because each generation has its own strengths and weakness. The management of
the hospitals is required to understand and adopt the differences in working styles of different
generations so that people of all generations work in perfect harmony. Each generation has
different attitude and have to be motivated in a different manner (Capella Edu, 2017).
According to the American Hospital Association, out of the total traditionalists, 95% are retired,
baby boomers are trying to delay their retirement plans, generation X is advancing their careers,
millennials are entering the workforce and generation Z are planning the course of their careers
(American Hospital Association, Committee on Performance Improvement, 2014). According to
a survey, more than half of the employers across the health care sector are facing tensions
between workers from different generations. It also indicates that most of the older generations
do not consider the younger generation able enough to handle major issues at work. On the other
hand, the new generations think the older employees are slow and authoritative (WHO
Commission on Social Determinants of Health, 2008).
According to Stevanin, Palese, and Valentina Bressan (2018), differences between the working
styles of different generations affect performance of nurses, occupational well-being and patient
safety. As per the research, the employees under Baby Boomers are difficult to be retained as

compared to Generation Y, which is more cohesive (Stevanin, Palese, & Valentina Bressan,
2018).
According to Buchbinder and Shanks, the ways of motivating employees of different generations
is different. They observe that whatever is preferred as an ideal course of action to one
generation might not be ideal for another generation of employees. Hence, managing the
workforce becomes difficult. For example, the Generation X is more inclined towards extrinsic
awards than baby boomers. In other words, intrinsic rewards matter less to every forthcoming
generation when compared with previous generation (Buchbinder & Shanks, 2016). Thus,
management must frame strategies accordingly.
From the above discussion, it is clear that despite the common point among all generations
working is providing medical aid to patients but, the working styles differ from each other.
Hence strategies to manage such differences are essential for the health care industry.
Strategies in Motivating and Managing Multi-generational Workforce
There are three important areas where the management of diverse and multi-generational
workforce must focus upon:
 Promoting harmony at the workplace
 Retaining skilled employees from all generations
 Attracting new skilled employees
The strategies suggested are as under:
Promoting Harmony at Workplace- With the rapid advancements in technology, the
operations of various business organizations and industries have undergone many changes,
which have also affected the human resources employed by them. One such industry is the
healthcare industry. As per the reports, the health care industry by the next decade is going to

face an acute shortage of health care specialists because of the growing age of the existing health
care professionals. This increasing age of existing healthcare professionals is bound to create
some differences between them and new generation healthcare professionals. The quality of care
can also be affected because of such age differences. This is because the old aged patients will
then have to be treated by newly hired professionals whose working methods are different from
older generations. Hence, there is a need of focusing on putting in some efforts to tackle the
differences between various generations of health professionals.
Harmony at the workplace could be brought about by ensuring that all the communication
between the employees of different generations is clear and crisp. Developing a culture where
each and every employee is willing to work with other and help them in overcoming any critical
issue must be ensured. This can be achieved by holding informal meetings regularly (Burke,
Cooper, & Antoniou, 2015).
Retain skilled employees from all generations- Leveraging the differences and strengths
between the generations will provide the health care system and the hospitals an edge over the
others as, the health care sector moves from volume -based environment to a value-based health
care system. Hence, for the leaders of health care system, it is essential to develop productive
teams comprising of multi-generational members so that the transition from volume-based to
value-based system can be achieved. Each generation possess different expectations and beliefs,
which help in developing a robust organizational culture. Therefore, there is a need to develop
such strategies which would help in engaging different generations to achieve maximum patient
satisfaction and smooth functioning of the hospital (Radford & Chapman, 2015).
As per Buchbinder and Shanks, 2016 skilled employees can be retained by acknowledging their
work and rewarding their best performances. Another manner is making them believe that this is

their own hospitals and celebrating their important life events can instill in them a sense of
belongingness to the working place (Buchbinder & Shanks, 2016). Furthermore, motivating
employees by giving them some leisure time and outstation trips would help in rejuvenating their
stressful work schedule, which would bring their minds at peace. This is a useful retention
strategy for all generation employees (Alliance for Clinical Education, 2017).
Attracting new skilled employees- Strategies such as acceleration of medical education
programs; including emerging occupations in health care sector to the hospital and providing
scope of getting involved in allied career in the health care sector can be used to attract new
skilled employees in the health care industry.
These strategies are explained as under:
Acceleration of medical education programs- The education programs that are offered by the
universities providing health care education must be designed in such a manner that it
incorporates all the latest medical techniques. The hospitals can work in collaboration with these
educational institutes to identify young talent. This can be done by increasing the size of the
universities and developing new education programs for accelerating clinical professions.
Emerging occupations in the health care sector- Since the health care sector has now moved from
a volume-based system to a value-based system, many new health care occupations such as
community health workers, providing home-based medical services and chronic illness coaches
have emerged. These new occupations that have emerged in the health care sector would not
only support independent living but shall also improve patient health. These new occupations
help in avoiding unnecessary hospitalization, which in turn increases access to hospitals for
critical patients easy and also reduces cost. Hospitals can start providing these services which

would help in attracting skilled employees who wish to provide services in such environment
(American Hospital Association, Committee on Performance Improvement, 2014).
Expansion of allied career in the health-care sector- In the last decade, the health care sector has
evolved into a multi-disciplinary model. Many new disciplines and fields have emerged such as
providing rehabilitation services and maintenance of facilities in the health care sector, which
support the main function of taking care of the patients. Such facilities if provided by the hospital
would increase the number of patients which in turn would increase its visibility. This visibility
will help in attracting new talent to the hospital because it will provide them with many
opportunities to grow and develop (American Hospital Association, Committee on Performance
Improvement, 2014).
The above mentioned strategies can be effective only when they are supported by each and every
health care professional. However, owing to differences in generations and their thinking, this
task becomes difficult. Thus, understanding the different types of generations and the differences
in their working style is essential.
In order to attract new employees from Generation Y and Z, following strategies can be
employed:
 Using technology- Since Generation Y and Z are 100% tech-savvy generation
incorporating machines having latest technology can be used to attract them to working
in the hospital.
 Work Life Balance- These generations require flexibility in their work timings. Hence,
managing the human resources in a manner that gives them this flexibility would help in
attracting them to the hospital.

 Entrepreneurial Spirit- Since they want to be more individualistic, therefore giving them
some sort of independence would help attracting new generation employees (Clipper,
2013).
However, the older generations are more inclined towards attaining esteemed needs and self-
actualization needs in the Maslow’s need hierarchy theory (Borkowski, 2016). Such employees
can be attracted by giving them major posts in the hospitals and acknowledging their previous
work (Leavitt, 2014).
Reasons for having a Multi-Generational Workforce
In the present day world, it is essential for the health care organizations to increase efficiency,
boost productivity and reduce costs and this can be achieved by leveraging the multi-
generational diversity in the hospitals (Wong, Gardiner, Lang, & Coulon, 2008). Although, their
values and working styles are different but the belief of providing the patients best medical aid is
same among all the professionals irrespective of the generation. Multi-generational ensures the
following:
 Increasing the efficiency of the hospital.
 Different generations have different experiences which can be used in providing best
possible care to the patients.
 If experienced professionals are present in the hospital itself, then the need to call experts
from other places reduces, which in turn reduces cost to the patient as well as hospital.
 New generation employees bring their comfort with technology to the hospital and since
the health care sector has advanced technologically, it becomes easy to understand the
manner of using such technology.

 Intergenerational communication leads to better knowledge transfer (Modern Health
Care, 2016).
Conclusion and Recommendations
Having multi-generational diversity in a hospital would help in increasing efficiency. However,
the differences between various generations might affect the operations of the hospitals. The
following differences must be resolved to leverage the best characteristics from each generation:
(American Hospital Association, Committee on Performance Improvement, 2014)

These differences can be resolved by framing some strategies. But in order to frame better
strategies the characteristics of each generation must be identified. Some generations get
motivated to work by extrinsic rewards and some by intrinsic rewards. Therefore, management
of the hospitals must carefully craft strategies and implement them in a manner that they are able
to promote harmony within the hospital, retain the employees who are skilled and efficient and
attract new skilled employees from all the generations.
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