There is a recurrent cry, building to a crescendo. The workers' compensation community is greying and in some instances maturing. We are seeing the exit of the last of the Silent Generation as we see the continuation of the Boomer exodus. The time draws nigh that this space will be left to the GenXers and Millenials, as they struggle to pass their wisdom and experience to a Generation Z that is no more like them than they were like us.
I have written about this before. The generational change was one of my talking points at the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Educational Conference in 2018 (seems like yesterday). I focused on it previously as Kentucky Celebrates a Centennial (May 2016). I mentioned it more recently when we focused on A New Beginning (August 2022) at the WCI. I have striven to integrate this into various discussions and presentations over the years. The generations are changing, comp is changing, and the future has come to our doorstep.
The Point webinar, starring the unflappable Bob Wilson, will present again on May 10, 2023 at 1:00 Eastern Time. Registration is open. This will focus on a challenge that we see as tripartite: recruiting, retaining, and training. There are lamentations across the workers' compensation community, in various fields, specialties, and professions. The young are not flocking to this space. I focused on this most recently in Let's Make a Change (April 2023). We are going to have to build a bridge to the young.
The next generation don't seem to think like us, work like us, or value us. What "next generation" ever did?
The guests for this program are amazingly diverse, In no particular order (respecting our elders however), I begin with Les Kertay, PhD. Dr. Kertay is a [psychologist up in Tennessee. He is as involved in trying to improve the workers' compensation community as any, and has been striving for many years. His blog is a great spot to search for insight about mental health and how our workplaces and experiences are influencing us. It is my third favorite blog. Really. I am allowed to like my own best, right? No one puts a birth date on LinkedIn, but Dr. Kertay is actually older than I am (and that is an achievement in itself). That said, I guess him to be part of the Boomer generation.
We will be joined by Brittany Parr, MBA, who is an "Organizational Development and Change Management Coach. She is part of a multinational conglomerate that likely has its share of change and evolution to endure, overcome, and build upon. She appears to me to belong to the Millenial Generation (1981 to 1996; the largest portion of the American workforce, according to Pew.
Jamie Bourg, CPCU, AIDA, AIC, AIC-M, & ARM, will also drive this conversation. She is a Vice President of People Operations with LWCC out in the land of the LSU Tigers. And, again judging by the potentially wildly inaccurate college graduation dates, she is likely a Gen X member (1965 to 1980).
And, of course, the conversation will be driven by the inimitable Bob Wilson, EIEIO. We have given up guessing his age, but we are all but certain he is not Generation Z (1997-2012). He will characteristically drive an animated conversation in which we will raise many issues, paint with a broad brush, and strive nonetheless to drill down to some focal take-homes that can help the community with this challenge of generational transition.
Questions I would like to see discussed include:
- How do we effectively deal with people that do not think like us?
- How do we accommodate the vast spectrum of perspectives?
- How can we better understand each other in forging forward?
- Is all this focus on "generations" just stereotyping?
- Is there a genuine distinction in our focus between recruiting and retaining?
- How do we build a bridge to the next generation?
- How do we get them to cross that bridge?
- How many licks would it really take to reach the center of a Tootsie-Pop?
So many questions, and so little time. We spend about an hour on each of these spontaneous conversations. We strive to get through the circumstance and noise and actually get to The Point. I am hopeful that you will join us on May 10, 2023.
