Our latest employee engagement research (The State of Employee Engagement 2008) indicates that younger employees are more likely to be disengaged. However, we did not find evidence that the generational differences are more than skin deep. I think people make too much of the generational values gaps.

Engagement levels were higher for respondents in positions of power. Not that surprising. It’s easier to be engaged when you have more control over your job conditions. In addition, our complementary career development research indicates that younger employees often don’t know what they want — but they know they want something bigger and better. So it’s natural that they’re less engaged… you can’t find what you’re looking for if you don’t really know what you want. And finally, there is the practical situation that every batch of twentysomethings faces in the workplace: They tend to be low folks on the totem pole. As they are just starting out, they tend to have lower salaries and financial obligations like car loans, student loans, new apartments, etc. They are often struggling with Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs more so than older employees.

Thanks so much for the comments. Yes, I understand that not everyone fits perfectly in the mold for each generation. That is why the data collection done for your particuliar employee population is important to see what the differences and simillarities are. Yes, we do have quiite a bit of data regarding differences in engagement with many of our clients by generation. We have been slicing our engagement data over the last 3 years using age as a demnographic. We have found significant differnces in engagement levels between generations. We test it each time for each client. So, yes we do have empirical eveidence of this., Many times the areas of difference are in the supervision, job satisfactipn and benefits and comp areas. We are doing a major study right now looking at engagement, generations, turnover, and performance. We are looking at a predicitive model to help us predict workforce movement within these generational groups.

Have you come across empirical evidence of this ? I never did. Actually I did a little testing of my own, and age groups we all almost similar concerning engagement.

Theories should be tested before giving advice.