FMJ Facilities Management magazine providing industry-specific intelligence to FM and property professionals
THE HUMAN RESOURCES PROFESSIONAL’S VIEW
SARAH HOSKER,
HEAD OF HR OPERATIONS AT MONEYPENNY
The presence of multiple generations brings a wealth of experience, diverse perspectives, and different communication styles, creating a dynamic and rich workplace environment. This presents a fantastic opportunity for businesses, as understanding and effectively engaging with employees can create a culture of inclusion and collaboration.
We are a people business and have always believed that work should be a place our people enjoy coming to each day. We take a marketing-inspired approach to employee engagement – ensuring we understand all our people’s motivations, challenges, preferred communication styles and much more. While we look at age groups as part of our employee profiling, we avoid leaning into generational stereotypes and have a very flat plan approach focusing on what truly matters: understanding people as individuals and listening to their needs.
Understanding people comes down to knowing their values and what’s important to them. While there are discernible differences between the generations, that doesn’t mean they require different treatment. Most people want the same things, to be treated with fairness, respect, and compassion and to work where they enjoy coming to each day. The benefits are plentiful in helping to attract and retain the right people.
Beyond structured programmes, fostering a community where people naturally support one another is also essential. One very valuable activity within that is reverse mentoring. This empowers junior team members as they share their expertise, while more senior personnel learn valuable new skills and forge new relationships.
A flexible benefits scheme also helps to appeal to all generations. Someone just starting out may look for different benefits than someone 25 years into their career and focused on building their pension.
We are currently in the middle of a benefits review to ensure we’re consistently offering meaningful support to all our people. Part of this includes regular Money Matters days, during which our people can access advice from estate agents, will-writing solicitors, financial advisors, and lenders. Younger team members may seek advice about saving for a house deposit, while older team members might want to discuss their position or equity release. We use regular feedback tools and actively listen and adapt, so we know our people value benefits like this. While the generations have different motivations, they need similar help.
From sharing recommendations (cooking recipes, local walks, tradespeople, etc) on Meta’s Workplace platform to celebrating birthdays and milestones in our café or in-house pub, our culture is built on connection, having fun together, and mutual support, and we see it play out every day.
To further enhance this, we recently appointed our first Employee Experience Manager. This role ensures that we continuously view our workplace through the lens of our people, making decisions that reinforce a positive and inclusive employee experience.
The key is listening to and acting on the needs of every generation. We are fortunate to have such a diverse, rich pool of people in the UK workforce right now. As employers, we are responsible for creating an environment where everyone, regardless of age, enjoys coming to work every day and feels valued and empowered to thrive.
