Recruitment and Retention Strategies Vary By Generation — But They Have This One Thing in Common Today's workforce is one of the most generationally diverse, so human resources leaders need to understand how to recruit and retain employees based on the unique needs of each talent pool — and the commonality they all share.

With boomers staying in the workforce longer and Gen Zers increasingly foregoing traditional career paths and heading straight to work, today's offices, job sites and conference rooms are more generationally diverse than ever before. The range of experiences and points of view offered by today's labor pool is helping companies be more productive and successful than in years past, with collaboration between workers of varying ages leading to increased innovation and resilience.

However, while nearly all of today's workers show a preference for companies with clear values, their preferences and priorities on benefits, compensation and other offerings vary.

Related: 5 Ways to Achieve Better Recruitment

Bringing in boomers

Where younger workers may be more concerned with buying homes or paying off debts, baby boomers have their eyes on the prize: retirement. It makes sense; as the oldest demographic in most of today's offices, boomers are rounding out their working lives and looking forward to whatever comes next — though many of them are doing it later than their predecessors and some even feel the need to "un-retire" to ensure their financial futures.

The 2023 Paychex Pulse of HR Report, which asked HR and business leaders about their priorities for the coming 12 months, found that HR leaders are prioritizing pay equity and compensation when attempting to attract baby boomers. Respondents in the report shared that the perks most likely to motivate baby boomers included pay increases, enhanced benefits packages and flexible scheduling.

Leaders struggling to attract or retain baby boomers may also want to evaluate their retirement offerings. The Secure Act 2.0 (introduced late in 2022) offers a variety of new incentives to encourage retirement planning, and businesses may benefit from updating policies to remain competitive.

Getting Gen X

Like their boomer counterparts, Gen X workers are looking for stability and security in the workplace. However, HR leaders believe that better benefits are the most compelling perk they can offer to Gen X. The Pulse of HR Report found that businesses with fewer than 500 employees are all-in on enhancing health and wellness benefits to meet Gen X workers where they are.

Depending on the current state of a company's offerings, "enhancing" may mean a wide range of things, but employee assistance plans, childcare reimbursement and improved healthcare options were popular choices among those surveyed.

Finally, while every generation shows an interest in working for companies that emphasize their values and do meaningful work, Gen X workers are particularly interested in programs and initiatives that show the company's commitment to inclusion both in the workplace and outside of it. Designing thoughtful inclusion and community engagement programs and promoting those initiatives could be very beneficial to recruiters hoping to engage workers from this demographic.

Related: How to Keep Gen X Employees from Leaving Your Company

Marketing to millennials

HR professionals could probably fill a book with the advice they've gotten over the past decade related to engaging millennial workers — and the results of this year's Pulse of HR Report echo much of it. While communicating the company mission is important for all demographics, it appears recruiters think it is especially effective for millennials.

Perhaps because millennials are currently the most represented group in the American workforce and have been since 2018, many of the tactics Pulse of HR respondents say they'll use align with commonly accepted best practices for successful retention: prioritizing raises, offering soft-skills training, pursuing pay equity and championing inclusive environments.

That said, employers may also want to look to retirement benefits to engage millennials. Given the difficult economic situation that defined their early working years, many are only now considering how they will save for their futures. Being an early adopter of Secure Act 2.0's student loan payment matching provisions may go a long way for employers looking to bring millennials on board.

Grabbing Gen Z

As relative newcomers to the world of work, Gen Z candidates are interested in programs that make their transition into the workforce easier. While these employees are also interested in a company's mission and values, their desire to learn is taking top billing for recruiters, many of whom say training is their focus for Gen Z.

Onboarding practices are also critical to capturing Gen Z workers. With presumably many in this group beginning their work lives from home offices, employers may want to revisit their onboarding programs to ensure that they are tailored not only to fresh graduates but to the needs of remote workers and digital natives as well.

It appears employers are taking this to heart, though, as the Paychex Pulse of HR report noted that investments in technologies that support remote workers are among their top priorities for the coming year. However, employers may also want to consider investing in remote-worker-specific benefits like home-office stipends and internet cost reimbursements, as these perks can boost employee satisfaction significantly.

However, there's more to helping younger workers acclimate than training. Gen Z is not only newer to working life than their older teammates; they are also more racially diverse than any previous generation and more invested in social justice than their predecessors. As such, recruiters at larger businesses also shared that they are focusing on improved diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) to help Gen Zers of all backgrounds feel engaged and supported at work.

Related: The 5 Things Gen Z Is Looking for in a Job and Career

Common ground

With employees looking for different things at different points in their lives, making decisions about compensation, benefits and more can feel like an insurmountable obstacle. But it doesn't have to.

While the specifics may vary between these groups, the strategies and tactics explored above come down to one thing: support. Whether it's boomers' desire for competitive pay, Gen Xers' interest in benefits, millennials' preference for values-based work or Gen Zers' excitement to learn, the key is that meeting those needs shows a company's commitment to listening to and supporting its staff.

And that's the secret for today's recruiters. Engaging with employees from all generations is not about giving everyone everything; it's about showing that you're invested in meeting workers wherever they are. When viewed through this lens, the task of accommodating generational differences feels much more manageable.