There are huge changes coming to the labour market as the baby-boom generation moves to retirement age. A labour force shortage looms as the size of the working population drops, and the attitudes of young people entering the workforce is considerably different than it was even a few years ago. 

This month in REM’s annual forecast issue, we look ahead to see how some real estate brokers and agents are dealing with succession issues for their company. First, here’s a look at the situation that all small business owners now face, and some of the key generational differences that owners must address if their businesses are to survive.
 
By Jim Adair
 
During the next 25 years, for every two people who are leaving the workforce to retire, only one person will be entering the workforce to start a career. Linda Duxbury, a professor at the Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, calls these young people the “you’ve got to be kidding me” group. As in, you’ve got to be kidding if you expect them to take on the workloads that you’ve been dealing with for years.
 
“For about 40 years, Canada was in a buyers’ market for labour,” says Duxbury. “Small business thrived and didn’t have to worry” about finding employees. But now demographics are catching up to the labour force and it has become a sellers’ market. “I worry about the ability of boomer (age 42 to 61) and veteran (age 62 and up) small business owners to attract labour,” says Duxbury. “I would be surprised if thinking about succession isn’t keeping them up at night.”
 
Unlike the boomer and veteran generations who embraced hard work and long hours in order to make money, the younger generations are more interested in a work-life balance, Duxbury says. It’s not because they are selfish or lazy – it’s because they’ve seen what happened to much of the older generation, as time at work increased and home life and health often suffered. Divorce rates soared and many driven boomers literary worked themselves to death.
 
To attract young people to work for you, and keep them with your company, you must offer a more than just a good salary. “Young people want coaching and mentoring. They think that technology is taking away from face to face” training, says Duxbury. After seeing companies go through downsizing in bad times, younger workers are less trusting of their employers and more focused on individual goals than company aspirations. “Nobody cares about job security because they don’t believe it.”
 
They also want to have some fun, so generous vacations and other perks are increasingly important, she says.
 
In sales jobs, there are “huge generational differences” says Duxbury. Younger generations “are good at sales because they can see the individual results, but they are also more easily satisfied.”
 
Duxbury was invited to speak to a group of writers at a recent media event sponsored by HP Canada. The company recently commissioned a survey to study generational differences between Canadian small business owners’ attitudes towards technology.
 
It found that when it comes to learning how to use technology, 46 per cent of entrepreneurs under the age of 30 (Gen Y) are most likely to “just try to figure it out themselves.” Owners aged 62 years and over (veterans) prefer to read a manual or talk to friends or family; only 26 per cent of this group say they learn how to use new technology on their own.
 
Baby boomers and veterans are more likely to insist that it is a priority to spend their technology budget on desktops or PCs and printers or copiers, rather than wireless technology. The survey says Boomers prefer traditional devices such as fixed computers as opposed to laptop computers. Boomers (84 per cent) say that fixed computers are critical to their business compared to just 65 per cent of Gen Y respondents. Instead, Gen Y entrepreneurs (55 per cent) say laptops are critical to their business while only 46 per cent of those aged 43 and older agree.
 
In technology budgets, the priority given to mobility decreases with the age of the respondent. For instance, 32 per cent of Gen Y says that mobile technology is a priority in terms of how they spend their technology budget. In comparison, 18 per cent of Gen X, 10 per cent of boomers and only eight per cent of veterans give priority to mobile technology, says the survey.
 
Gen Y (75 per cent) is more likely than Gen X (72 per cent) or boomers (68 per cent) to say that the technology’s footprint (size) is an important consideration when buying technology products. Brand is more important to veterans (64 per cent) than it is to boomers (60 per cent), Gen X (57 per cent) or Gen Y (55 per cent).
 
When it comes to deciding which technologies to purchase, Gen X does their homework before buying. The survey says that 41 per cent of Gen X conduct research online and read online reviews. Similarly, 39 per cent of Gen X says they use the Internet to find online marketing tools that help them develop their own marketing materials. Only 25 per cent of veterans use the Internet to find online marketing resources to help them develop their own marketing.