In an exclusive interview for ExecuNet members at the 2011 World Business Forum, where ExecuNet exclusively reported, workforce management expert Tammy Erickson assesses how the economy has shaped the organizational experiences of multiple generations of employees and what it means for business productivity and performance.

The smartest companies, says Erickson, have been focused on workforce engagement in a challenging business environment because they understand how employees have been stretched — and stressed — and why they must remain engaged to preserve vital customer relationships and market share.

The fear that Baby Boomers will stay on in their current roles and clog the management pipeline, she says, is a valid and oft-cited concern by younger workers that won't become a problem if companies find flexible ways for Boomers to contribute real, lasting value by sharing their institutional knowledge.

Flexibility, Erickson says, will be the key for organizations to calibrate the contributions of each of the distinct generations that make up today's workforce and motivate them to maximize their work for the enterprise.

Joseph Daniel McCool
Joseph Daniel McCool is senior contributing editor with ExecuNet and principal of management recruiting/succession advisory firm The McCool Group. He is also the author of Deciding Who Leads: How Executive Recruiters Drive, Direct & Disrupt the Global Search for Leadership Talent, recognized widely as "one of the best business books of 2008," and its Brazilian Portuguese translation, Escolhendo Líderes, published in June 2010.

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