"Generational Archaeology"

My mind was still buzzing with the Tom Brokaw generational speech I wrote about here, when I saw Karen Beaman's post about multi-generational talentforce. While you can argue about her generational classifications, it occurred to me an archaeologist would be fascinated to find the layers of generations in companies as people in the West work longer, and younger employees find more opportunities as companies "onshore" more. You can see the huge differences (not just related to party affiliation) of Obama and McCain - and they are only 27 years apart. In some companies, the gap between oldest and youngest employees can be 50 years.

While there are clear HR management challenges in managing these layers it affects several other disciplines. We also have IT, product design, marketing opportunities and challenges - as the younger crowd comes with different expectations of devices and user interfaces, where as the aging base has its own unique technology needs. 

It could also affect global competitiveness in the next couple of decades. The US is uniquely positioned to take advantage of a broad spectrum of generations. In comparison, India and China have a much younger workforce, but not as much depth in middle and top management talent. On the other hand countries like Germany and Japan have more of a challenge filling the younger roles as their low birth rates and relatively closed immigration policies conspire.