Pub. 9 2014-2015 Issue 1

www.nebankers.org 24 Extraordinary Service for Extraordinary Members. MAXIMIZE YOUR LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL Anon-profituniversity,BellevueUniversity isaccreditedbyTheHigherLearningCommissionandamemberof theNorth CentralAssociationofCollegesandSchools •www.ncahlc.org• 800-621-7440•BellevueUniversitydoesnotdiscriminate on thebasisofage,race,color,religion,sex,nationalorigin,ordisabilityin theeducationalprogramsandactivities it operates.BellevueUniversity,1000GalvinRoadSouth,Bellevue,Nebraska68005. 3948-0414 BELLEVUE.EDU 1.800.756.7920 • BankingOperationsManagement (BS) • Business Analytics (BS, MS) • Business Administration (BS, MBA) • ProjectManagement (BS, MPM) • Finance - Strategic Leadershipof Value andRisk (MS) LEARNMORE Take your career to the next level with a degree in: to think about how the wide span in employee ages, combined with technological advances in the workplace, are going to affect their business plans. It isn’t just about competing in the marketplace. It’s also about attracting, and keeping, the best employees. With the Great Recession now behind us, and the jobs market improv- ing, employers are finding that the people who are looking for jobs can afford to be a little pickier than was advisable just two or three years ago. Jobs may still be hard to find for many people, but others are looking more closely at their potential employers. They want a job that fits. The following facts are a given: If you have several generations in the workforce, each one of those generations will have some cultural differences from the others. Someonewho remembers being delightedwith that first microwave oven and who still isn’t so sure about texting is not going to have the same attitude as someone who has grown up taking the Internet for granted and who considers unlimited texting to be a necessity, not an innovation. In 2010, one out of five employees was retirement age or older. By 2025, experts predict that one-fourth of all employ- ees will be retirement age. Some 60 percent of all businesses are now reporting that they have problems with intergenerational conflict. Since companies with conflict tend to be companies where employ- ees disengage and don’t do their best work, it is a good idea to learn how to turn differences to your advantage. How do you help employees who have not grown up with technology to function as effectively as possible? You can’t just decide to limit your employee base to young people. It wouldn’t be legal, for one thing. In the past, age discrimination has been a hard thing for employees to prove, with many companies getting away with discriminatory be- havior, but as more and more people age, you can be sure the lawyers and lawmakers will perk up and take a bigger interest in the matter. You can limit your exposure to age discrimination claims just by making sure you aren’t, in fact, discriminating. This is a case of the right behavior also being the smart behavior. Another thing to consider is a simple truth: wisdom really does come from experience. Some employees may be difficult or impossible to replace. When you are running a business, it isn’t smart to always go for the cheapest employees. Some- times you need more than what an inexperienced person can be expected to give you. But if you need experience, you will  Multigenerational — continued from page 23