Harnessing the multigenerational workforce: Communication style preferences of Generations X, Y, and Baby Boomers

A local health department (LHD) engages in numerous activities to create and maintain healthy environments and communities. The disparate and urgent nature of these activities demands accurate and rapid communication among LHD employees. In 2013, the majority of LHDs expanded services in key areas despite shrinking budgets. Being asked to “do more with less” further emphasizes the need for LHD administrators to focus on optimizing communication within their agencies and attend to the communication challenges presented by a multigenerational workforce. Communication styles and preferences of employees vary according to age with Generation Y favoring texts and instant messages compared to Generation X and Baby Boomers’ predilection for email and phone calls. The purpose of this study was to better understand the texting habits and communication preferences of these three generational cohorts. A survey was sent to undergraduates at a medium-size university in the Midwest. The respondent (n=942) data was analyzed according to generational cohort. Members of Generation Y sent more texts per day, were more likely to “feel terrible” when they could not send texts for 24 hours, and were more likely to ignore requests from friends and family to stop texting compared to Generation X and Baby Boomers.  Members of Generation X and Baby Boomers were more likely to find texting unacceptable. These findings are important for public health administrators as they review job candidate pools or replace retiring workers.  Administrators can also use these findings to determine how best to communicate with community stakeholders during public health emergencies.