The multi-generational workforce and data-driven wellbeing initiatives are the two major factors employers need to take into consideration within the modern workplace. In light of World Wellbeing Week last month, businesses are being encouraged to engage in important conversations about creating the best environments for their people.
Leaders in workplace wellbeing gathered in Belfast last month for Calibro Workspace’s latest ‘Inspired Session’ to discuss the multi-generational workforce and more. The panel event at The Vantage in Belfast was co-hosted by Lena by Inspire, a social enterprise that offers mental health support for both companies and individuals through wellbeing interventions like training, counselling and mediation. Panellists at the event included leaders from Lena by Inspire, NI Water and Work Transformers.
Today, there are five different generations in the workplace that employers need to consider when it comes to wellbeing strategy. This begs the question – how do you successfully support a multi-generational team?
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Supporting employees across different life stages
“Life stages and transitions should be central to how we approach wellbeing,” said Alex Bunting, Group Director of Therapeutic Services at Lena by Inspire. “We can see it with younger people coming out of university - they’re more values-based with how they see their careers. When I started my first job 30 years ago, I thought I was going to be there for a lifetime. Now that’s not something young people think about when mapping out their lives. Younger generations care more about who they work with and the values they’re buying into.”
Bunting explained that hierarchical structures no longer hold the same weight as in previous decades, but engagement and happiness in the workforce do. He explained the importance of implementing servant leadership principles, and suggested reviewing retention levels and using wellbeing audits to understand how best to support employees and implement wellbeing strategies accordingly.
Panellists agreed there are also much higher expectations now placed on middle managers, who are faced with the challenge of dealing with policies that aren’t changing as quickly as the organisation itself.
Alison Sweeney, Culture & Engagement Manager at NI Water, added:
“Working at a company with an age range spanning from 16-73 means you have to know how to listen to people. There is also a unique challenge for government organisations needing to present a business case for wellbeing initiatives, and proving the return-on-investment,” she said.
Alison gave the example of NI Water’s reverse mentoring scheme, through which young apprentices build relationships with older staff and vice versa.
“Through this programme, one of our older employees was teaching a young apprentice how to cook. It was lovely to see. We’ve also started mixing age groups for training, which has helped in changing the culture and developing soft skills like empathy, active listening and foresight across the organisation.”
Data-driven change
For employers, effective listening can come in many different forms. One of these is the use of data to inform wellbeing strategy.
Sam Sahni, Workplace Strategy Director at Work Transformers, said:
“In the same way that blood tests indicate next steps in the course of health treatment, employee data can and should be used to create workplaces that actually work for your staff.”
Sam shared how he encourages his employees to map out their availability in a central shared document. Each employee highlights certain hours of the day as green, amber or red, depending on their availability:
“This exercise enables staff to schedule important work by aligning the greens and ambers, leading to increased productivity and stronger relationships among the team,” he said.
“Our Gen Z colleagues, for example, are much more active between 8am and 5pm, but difficult to reach outside of this. In contrast, our Millennial and Gen X staff, some of whom are parents, find their most productive hours are between 4pm and 6pm, when they’ve collected their kids from school and have some time to focus without distraction.”
Sam emphasised that predictive modelling will be the future of workplaces, giving clients in Bournemouth as an example – the company used swipe card data from people coming in and out of doors to remodel their spaces, reducing the number of unused rooms and improving workflow.
Personalisation and employee wellbeing
“Wellbeing surveys won’t always suit your workforce, but by listening to your employees you can usually find a way that works for them,” said Alex Bunting.
Sam Sahni suggested focusing on what problem are you trying to solve, and by using data to understand your workforce, incorporating a degree of personalisation to the workspace:
“Working from home offers maximum personalisation around ergonomics, temperature, food choices and clothing, we should be striving for the same in the office.
“I don’t believe in off the shelf solutions,” Sam continued. “take a client of ours – they created five variations of a focus room for staff with neurodivergent needs, and their production cycle is much faster as a result.”
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Recognition of individual contributions to business culture can also be demonstrated through initiatives like Calibro’s ‘Living the Values’ champion of the month, a system by which employees can nominate peers who are living out the company values by using an anonymous QR code.
“Wellbeing is at the core of everything we do at Calibro,” said Ronnie Crawford, Managing Director. “We’re proud to facilitate the Inspired series as part of our partnership with Lena – it's all about encouraging important conversations between businesses on how we can create cultures that work for people, and how we can use design to compliment other vital business functions, whether that’s HR or Operations.”
If you are interested in attending future Inspired Sessions, please register your interest here.
Sync NI's Summer 2025 magazine celebrates women in tech across Ireland as we continue to encourage more women to enter the thriving sector and address the current gender imbalance. Read the Summer 2025 Sync NI Magazine online for free here.
