In addition to dealing with the demands of trying to run a business profitably and serving clients or customers well, owners and managers across all types of companies are wrestling with the issue of a global labour shortage. Birth rates are declining worldwide, the population in many countries is ageing and people are retiring earlier ? just three reasons why the international competition for labour, and especially skilled so-called 'knowledge workers', is increasing. This situation impacts not only the recruitment of employees but also how effectively a company can retain them, issues that many businesses in Bermuda are struggling with on a daily basis.

And according to Dr. Linda Duxbury, an expert in the field of management sciences who has conducted extensive studies on work-life balance issues and organisational development, global demographic changes will have a profound impact on how organisations will need to manage people now and for the future.

"Human resource management will become a critical success factor as companies will have to focus on recruitment, retention of employees of all ages, succession planning, work-life balance and career development," said Dr. Duxbury, who was recently in Bermuda as the guest speaker at the Employee Assistance Programme's (EAP) annual general meeting. "People tend to think about diversity in terms of gender or race whenever it comes up in the workplace, but generational differences are certainly as important and bring another set of management issues."

Dr. Duxbury is a professor at the Sprott School of Business, Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, where she teaches fourth year undergraduate, Masters and PhD courses in Managing Change, as well as the Masters course in Organisational Behaviour. She earned Bachelors and Masters degrees in Chemical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Management Sciences from the University of Waterloo. Within the past decade she has completed major studies on balancing work and family in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors in Canada, with her most recent study involving 32,800 Canadian employees.

She said in her presentation to the EAP that employers are in unusual circumstances currently because there are four generations in the workforce at the same time ? the veterans, baby boomers, Generation X and what she called the 'Nexus' generation ? spanning age ranges from near retirement, middle age, thirties and twentysomethings respectively. But she said generations are not just defined by age, rather that "people are defined by the watershed events and conditions that they were exposed to as they grew up; these common influences shape their attitudes which in turn influences what motivates them."

Therefore from a management perspective Dr. Duxbury said that the issue of recruitment cannot be separated from retention, and managers need to understand key generational differences in order to both attract and keep good employees.

"We're in the tightest labour market since the '50s and there are way more good jobs than people to fill them ? Bermuda has had that situation for quite a while. It's more of a challenge to keep them than it is to get them a lot of the time, especially the younger workers.

"So today we need to understand what employees want from a job, what employees want from their boss and what they'll do if their organisation or their boss doesn't 'deliver'.

"For example, the older 'veterans' generation, who grew up in a time of great upheaval with the Great Depression or the last World War typically are cautious, understand self-sacrifice are deferent to authority and their work values include loyalty, persistence, and wisdom and experience over technical knowledge," said Dr. Duxbury. "The much younger Nexus group on the other hand were born and grew up in the information age in a more diverse society and very adaptable to change. They're more entrepreneurial in terms of their work values, constantly seeking challenge and variety as well as continuous skills development and a fun, communal workplace. They don't have the same sense of loyalty and in fact distrust authority."

The different experiences and perspectives of each generational group means that their career goals and expectations are markedly different.

"While the older workers have typically stuck to one path and want to leave a legacy from their career the younger group actually wants to have parallel careers," Dr. Duxbury explained. "Younger workers today value time and freedom; without flexible work arrangements an employer won't keep them for very long."

She stresses again that the issue is not always just about age but about what stage of life the employee is experiencing and how flexible working arrangements can motivate good employees and accommodate their needs in order for the organisation to keep them.

"Diversity in the workforce now also means people with young children, people looking to take study leave for professional development, people with older parents to look after, people re-entering the workforce after taking some kind of break," she said. "A one-size-fits-all approach to working practices, especially with respect to reward and recognition, will not work anymore."

This point is driven by key differences across generations in terms of how employees want to be rewarded and recognised. Dr. Duxbury said that while everyone wants to get paid for what they do, veterans tend to seek satisfaction from a job well done, baby boomers want the status that goes with hierarchical job titles and a corner office, Generation Xers want freedom and -tion Xers want freedom and security and the youngest group of workers want work that has meaning for them.

"You must pay people fairly and competitively for them to stay with you, but while money is a basic need, it's not a motivator," she said. "It's possible to put too much emphasis on pay and intrinsic rewards; today we need a more holistic approach to recognising and rewarding employees."

Speaking to subsequent to her presentation she agreed that the employment market in Bermuda is very salary-driven.

"Yes, I was told about that and frankly it's not the best strategy for Bermuda to use long-term, especially as recruitment is hugely expensive. It simply makes the competition with respect to salaries in the market even higher," she said. "And when you recruit on that basis you don't keep them; you'll have them for two or three years at the most then they'll move on."

She said that flexible benefits and rewards are becoming key in today's working environment, referring to them collectively as "retention bundles".

"They include career development and remuneration strategies, but also work-life balance components that are so important to today's worker," she said. "These are things like a lifestyle strategy, that encompasses flexible work arrangements, and job flexibility strategies that include things like teleworking or job sharing. There are also other retention-focused strategies such as the high roller strategy which gives the employee international travel or share offers, and body and mind strategies such as gym memberships or life insurance." She said that in Canada, which like Bermuda has a very low birth rate, companies leading the way with best practice in this respect had introduced innovative policies to retain employees across generations. "They've introduced things like a menu of benefits that employees can pick from according to their needs at at given time," she said. "So every year as part of the appraisal process or contract renewal for example, depending on what they need they can pick from a list that includes everything from educational leave to extra holiday, dare care for their children, cafeteria benefits, at home nursing care for an elderly parent, orthodontic care. You can see that wherever you might be in your life, some of these benefits may be more relevant than others." Even as the issue of work-life balance is becoming more relevant to workers across all age groups with the ever-increasing demands of the workplace, managers should also be sensitive to how different generations seek or want to achieve balance. "There are differences even in this regard," said Dr. Duxbury. "Veterans want help with shifting the balance between their career and their wider lives to work effectively while they prepare to retire; baby boomers struggle with finding any kind of balance; the Generation X group crave balance right now as they begin to take on other responsibilities or lifestyle needs outside work; and the younger worker feels that work isn't everything and wants the flexibility to balance work with a range of other activities."

Dr. Duxbury said that by taking a flexible approach managers can take advantage of these differences in needs for balance while also addressing specific generational career goals, in order to retain valuable, productive employees. For example veterans can be used as recruiters, mentors and trainers while management introduces phased retirement programmes. Baby boomers can be given projects that allow them to showcase their skills and knowledge while at the same time being given time for regular feedback on their performance and the opportunity to provide input to the organisation. Managers can work on producing policies that facilitate balancing career development of Generation Xers with lifestyle issues. And for the younger worker, multi-tasking multi-skilled career paths can be developed within flexible scheduling practices.

While clearly advocating flexibility in workplace practices and a recognition by management of more employees seeking greater balance between work and their personal lives, Dr. Duxbury also stressed the importance of emotional rewards, which cuts across all generations. "The key to emotional reward is respect," she said. "Give them responsibility, show them you trust them, give them a say in things that matter to them and listen to them."

And she said that finding and keeping talent in the workplace, and enhancing your image as a good employer to attract good people, simply comes down to finding the people who have the right value fit for the organisation.

"In today's market, fit in terms of values is more important than fit with respect to technical skills," she explained. "You can train someone and give them the technical skills but you can't change who they are. The key is to treat your employees well; they make your reputation in the labour market."