Today’s workforce has become diverse in terms of age demographics which creates a rich professional environment with youthful exuberance as well as experience and maturity. Companies such as Fig Technologies can enjoy the advantages of dynamic and multi-generational as well as a diverse set of skills ( Bell, 2017) . This reports provided the benefits and demerits of having a mix of younger and older employees above 65 years to The Fig Technologies Executive Leadership Council (ELC).
Advantages
A workforce composed of millennial and veterans provides an environment with a different set of skills and talents to the table. As technologically savvy individuals, young employees will bring in high tech business mediums including online product marketing, social networking, and webcasting. On the other hand, mature employees have exemplary interpersonal skills and perform well in traditional in-person communication environment ( Bell, 2017) . These set of diverse skills enables the company to cater to the various needs of multi-general customers.
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The Fig Technologies can effectively take advantage of young professionals' understanding of technology to improve performance. This is because millennials have grown up in high tech environment and are technologically savvy and would comfortably embrace new business technologies. On the other hand, veterans are credited for having traditional business skills. This mix of skills allows the company to effectively deal and communicate with clients across all age groups ( Bell, 2017) . For example, the company can use digital communication for customers that prefer email and correspondence as well as the traditional form of business for other clients.
Mentoring and continuity is another benefit ELC will derive from having a mix of very young and old employees ( Bell, 2017) . In particular, mature employees have on job skills and experience and will mentor, teach, and share with young professionals. Having young employees will also ensure continuity of the company when the old fellow exits the company.
Disadvantages
Young professionals lack stability because unlike mature workers, they lack clear vision about their careers. Therefore, young employees are likely to switch to another opportunity than their older counterparts thus causing a huge loss to the organization. Young employees can easily cause damages to the assets due to lack of skills and experience ( Barak, Findler, & Wind, 2016) . This is contrary to mature employees who are skilled to handle company assets.
Young employees are not well versed in organizational culture and may not always comply with HR policies and rules. Furthermore, unlike their older counterparts, young professionals are unlikely to handle pressures of work. This is due to lack of experience, training, and smart way of handling some projects. They have also been criticized for being irresponsible and prone to frustrations because they lack the experience to handle management and difficult situations ( Barak, Findler, & Wind, 2016) . On the contrary, older workers are well versed with workplace behaviors and management.
Despite the merits and demerits of older and younger employees, employees are required by the law to offer fair treatment to all employees in terms of promotions, job assignments, pay, training, firing, lay off, and benefits or any other employment condition ( Barak, Findler, & Wind, 2016) . Therefore, veterans and millennial must be treated equally and fairly like the rest of employees in the organization.
Part 2: Improving Organizational Diversity
Executive Summary
This report covered key steps for improving organizational diversity in places of work. Accordingly, diversity can be improved through fair treatment of workers from different ethnicities. It also emphasizes the importance of developing an organizational culture that promotes diversity in order to harness its benefits for the company. It also reports that gender and work-life balance is necessary for increasing productivity and return for the organization as well as the satisfaction of employees. Age demographics are a significant part of the diversity that promotes continuity of the organization and adoption and use of new technologies to improve business performance. Therefore, the report recommends that ELC adopts these steps in the organizations to improve and gain the benefits of diversity.
Fair treatment of ethnicities
Fair treatment of employees from different ethical background is provided for in the law. However, despite laws, organizations must develop policies that promote fair treatment of all employees regardless of their ethnicity. These start with the recruitment of employees, compensation, promotion, and other terms of employment.
Benefits of organizational diversity
Diversity in an organization has multiple benefits for the company. First, diverse workforce comes with different approaches to issues which improves innovativeness of the company. Diversity is evident in the ELC, but the company has a role of using diversity to improve performance rather than eating conflicts. This program and assignments reveal that most companies are not reaping the benefits of diversity in their workforce.
Improving organizational culture
Today’s workforce is diverse and comprises people of different cultures, personalities, attitudes, and religious beliefs. Therefore, managers are required to cultivate an organizational culture that accommodates all cultures. This may entail leading by example by demonstrating commitment and respect to cultural diversity. The company policies must also discourage discrimination and harassment based on cultural differences to promote diversity. This steps are critical integrating diversity into the organizational culture and preventing misconceptions among the workforce.
Gender and work-life balance
This program has emphasized the significance of gender diversity work-life balance in the workplace. This is critical in improving career development of women as well as enabling them to undertake their household roles. In particular, it is unlawful for employers to discriminate employees based on gender in terms of job, promotions, and pay among others employment conditions. Furthermore, flexible work schedule is growing in importance because it allows employees to work remotely, part-time, and flexi-time based on their preferences. It is also clear that work-life balances improve return for the organizations and also satisfies the social commitment for the employee.
Age demographics
It is fundamental for employers to have a workforce of different ages in their workforce. In particular, young employers will support the use of business technologies. On the contrary, older employees have good interpersonal skills that facilitate traditional in-person communication. Overall, inter-generation workforce allows the company to attend to needs of customers from all age groups.
References
Bell, M. P. (2017). Diversity in organizations (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Barak, M. E. M., Findler, L., & Wind, L. H. (2016). Diversity, inclusion, and commitment in organizations: International empirical explorations. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management , 2 (2).
