Sara Daw argues that L&D must look beyond traditional full-time employment to unlock the value of a multigenerational workforce. By embracing fractional, flexible and blended working models, organisations can retain experienced talent, strengthen mentoring and succession planning, and gain the fresh insights needed to build greater resilience for the future.
How do L&D professionals plan for the future of work? Focus may logically fall on developing the younger workforce to ensure business longevity. But today’s workplaces are already multigenerational, and by 2050, we’ll have more workers living longer, often well into their 80s.
Different generations all have their own ways of wanting and needing to work
It is the accumulated experience, knowledge and value of this ageing workforce that businesses must harness for future success. But there’s a problem. The different generations all have their own ways of wanting and needing to work, which the traditional full-time, 9-5 employment model can no longer accommodate.
Many older workers are “discarded”, and precious talent wasted, when roles are only designed as full-time or without flexibility. Until we redesign how work is structured, we’ll keep leaving capable, experienced people on the sidelines at exactly the moment we need them most.
Why does flexibility matter so much?
Having job flexibility isn’t just important for the younger generation of workers who want to choose their hours and have the option to work remotely. It is also becoming a priority for older, experienced leaders; people with caring responsibilities; and those who don’t want, or can’t do, full-time.
Those in senior leadership roles, for instance, may be searching for more purpose and meaning in and at work, with freedom, variety and control being top of their agendas. Feeling overworked and disillusioned with the unrealistic demands of their corporate roles, they seek a more flexible alternative.
Or those workers who are performing the ultimate juggling act, managing peak complexity with children, mortgages, management roles, and elderly parents. They desire impact in their roles, but work-life balance is a must, and the rigidity of 9-5 no longer cuts it.
Simply put, traditional employment is no longer fit-for-purpose for everyone, and businesses risk switching off huge parts of the workforce just because they don’t fit into the full-time box.
From full-time to fractional
Redesigning the workforce ecosystem to accommodate the requirements of an ageing workforce means that businesses must discard their payroll preferences. Talent development doesn’t necessitate workers being employed full-time. Rather, businesses should embrace an access economy, team-based approach.
This means that workforces are blended, consisting of full-time workers alongside consultants, contractors, job-sharers, gig workers, part-time employees, and fractional leaders. This redesign offers younger and older talent alike the freedom to choose how they work, when they work, and who they work with.
It’s a common misconception that to be loyal, engaged and motivated, workers must be employed. Yet with access to job flexibility, a blended, fractional workforce frequently demonstrates deep commitment, focus and drive – without having to be on the payroll.
The L&D benefits of a blended workforce
The development of talent is vital for business longevity. Companies must keep on top of trends and constantly upskill to ensure their workforce’s resilience into the future. By redesigning the ecosystem to incorporate fractional, part-time and flexible working arrangements, businesses open their doors to a wealth of L&D benefits:
- On-the-pulse insights
Fractional professionals who work with a portfolio of clients on a pay-as-you-go basis gain access to a breadth of fresh business insights. These “rotators” who move between contexts and companies can spot patterns earlier and transfer learning more quickly into the organisations they work with. They build accumulated knowledge of what’s working, what’s not, and what’s emerging. This all allows for cross-organisational exposure that can supercharge the development of a business’ talent pool.
- Access to proven expertise and mentorship
The older workforce can offer a wealth of experience and a whole career’s worth of institutional knowledge. These seasoned veterans possess an invaluable bank of insights that they can pass on to the next generation of workers through mentorship, training and coaching. Through fractional, advisory roles, they can act as sound boards and help talent navigate career paths alongside changing business needs.
- Streamlined succession planning
Nurturing the next generation of leaders is a crucial focus for L&D teams. Having access to a fractional workforce means that organisations can capitalise on a wider pool of leadership experience to strengthen their succession planning. Older, fractional leaders who have swapped the corporate world for a portfolio career can contribute objectivity, outside knowledge, and best practice to ensure succession gets the focus it needs.
Flexibility into the future
The future of work is no longer full-time – it’s blended. Nor is the focus on the younger workforce, but on effectively engaging multigenerational talent. This is not to say that traditional full-time employment should be discarded, just that organisations must recognise the L&D limitations of a purely employee-only workforce.
By embracing the option of flexibility for all workers, businesses access diversity of thought and experience beyond their in-house talent pool. Ultimately, this allows L&D professionals to keep on top of the constant change of today’s workplace, strengthening their adaptability and resilience into the future.
Sara Daw is Group CEO of The CFO Centre and The Liberti Group, and the author of Strategy and Leadership as Service – How the Access Economy Meets the C-Suite
