Most organisations already have up to five generations in the workplace. The question isn't whether multigenerational teams exist – it's whether HR, learning and development (L&D) and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) teams and managers are equipped to help people work, learn and progress well together.
We partnered with ProAge – a UK charity and social enterprise helping organisations build age-inclusive workplaces – and surveyed over 130 HR professionals, senior managers and leaders to find out what they really think about intergenerational work, and how they're managing the complexities that come with it.
The findings were discussed live in a webinar with Ann Allcock, our head of diversity, and Mike Mansfield, CEO of ProAge. You can watch the full recording below:
Intergenerational work is already part of everyday organisational life
44% of survey respondents described their workforce as having a broad mix across age groups. That makes intergenerational work a mainstream management reality – not an edge case.
But it's worth being clear about what intergenerational work actually means. It goes beyond age, covering how organisations support people throughout their whole working life, and it connects directly to workforce planning, employee experience, learning and development, recruitment, retention and manager capability. Age inclusion belongs within DEI, but it can't stay there in isolation.
The more useful question isn't "Do we have different generations in our workforce?" We already do. It's “Are we set up to make that work well?”
Employers clearly see the value of intergenerational work
Our research found strong, consistent recognition of what age-diverse teams bring:
- 88% of respondents identified a broader range of experience and perspectives as a key benefit
- 81% cited knowledge sharing and mentoring
- Seven in 10 linked multigenerational teams to succession planning and future leadership development
- Only 19% of respondents said their organisation proactively addresses communication preferences across age groups
- Four in 10 said it's only partially managed and depends on the team
- More than a third said their organisation hasn't explored the issue at all
Knowledge is never evenly distributed across an organisation. Longer-serving colleagues hold deep technical expertise, institutional memory and judgement built through experience. Earlier-career colleagues bring different skills, digital confidence and fresh ideas about how work could be done. The value comes from connecting those strengths, not treating them as separate or competing.
As one respondent put it: "Our main priority is to ensure our longstanding and experienced colleagues are able to pass down their knowledge and skills."
Age inclusion has a business case beyond internal fairness
Just over half of respondents linked age-diverse teams to better customer understanding. That matters because most organisations aren't only managing multigenerational workforces – they're serving multigenerational customers, clients and communities too. Nearly half of respondents (48%) said their customer or client base also has a broad mix across age groups.
But a fifth (22%) weren't sure whether their workforce age profile matched their customer or client age profile. That's a missing link between people strategy and business performance – one that's hard to close without the right data.
A workforce with varied life experience can strengthen empathy, service design, product development and communication. But this doesn't happen automatically. It requires organisations to understand whether they have the range of perspectives needed to connect with the people they serve.
Collaboration barriers to intergenerational work are practical, not generational
One of our more important findings is what the research doesn't show. Multigenerational teams are not defined by conflict between generations. The main barriers to effective collaboration are practical and manageable.
The top two barriers identified were differences in communication styles (64%) and differences in expectations or working preferences (63%). These are everyday issues: how quickly people expect a response, whether they prefer email or instant messaging, how feedback is given, how meetings are run, and how hybrid working is understood.
Nearly half of respondents also identified generational stereotypes or assumptions about ability as a barrier – which is a warning sign. Labelling people by generation rarely gets to the real issue. What helps more is making expectations and working preferences clear from the start.
Managers are carrying the responsibility of intergenerational work – often without enough support
Managers are central to whether intergenerational work succeeds. They're the people translating broad inclusion aims into everyday decisions about communication, flexibility, development, workload and team culture.
But our research suggests many managers are being asked to do this without enough structure. Only 23% of respondents said managers are very confident in leading age-diverse teams. Half said managers are only somewhat confident. And 24% didn't know how confident their managers are – which is a problem in itself.
Managers seem to be operating in a middle ground – broadly able to manage diverse teams, but not equipped with the tools, training or confidence to do it consistently. As one respondent noted: "This is more than a training issue – it's a leadership imperative."
The data on communication makes this concrete:
When every team invents its own approach, the employee experience becomes inconsistent and fragmented. Organisations should give managers a shared language and simple tools for agreeing team norms around communication, feedback and collaboration.
Data is part of the answer – but most organisations aren't using it yet
Without anonymised age-band data, it's hard to know whether people at different career stages are accessing learning, progressing, staying, or experiencing work differently. Two-fifths (39%) of organisations formally track or monitor workforce age diversity as part of their DEI approach. A similar proportion (38%) consider it informally but don't track it, while a fifth (17%) don't track age in their DEI metrics at all.
But age data must be used responsibly. It shouldn’t be used to make assumptions about individuals. But it can be used by HR teams and managers to understand patterns in recruitment, retention, progression, learning, engagement and absence – and have better, more informed conversations.
Three principles of good age inclusion practice
Don't manage by generation
Age may shape experience, confidence or expectations – but it doesn't determine how someone works, learns or communicates. Good age inclusion is not about assuming that younger workers want one thing and older workers another.
Make working preferences visible
A simple "preferred way of working" conversation – covering how people like to communicate, how they prefer feedback, when they do their best focused work, and what colleagues shouldn't assume about them – replaces assumptions with actual information.
Build inclusion across the full working life
Development shouldn't stop at a particular age or level of seniority. Our survey found that supporting career development at all ages was the top learning priority, selected by 58% of respondents. Managing multigenerational teams and improving communications across generations were also top of mind (selected by 49% and 47% of respondents respectively). That includes early-career support, mid-career reviews, reskilling, returner pathways, later-career development, mentoring, reverse mentoring and phased retirement planning.
Five actions you can take now to improve intergenerational work
1. Equip managers to lead age-diverse teams
Managers need practical tools, shared language and confidence – not stereotypes or guesswork. This is where the gap between intention and practice is widest, and it's exactly what our management eLearning courses are built to close.
2. Design career development for the full working life
Look beyond early-career schemes and leadership pipelines. Mid-career progression, reskilling, returner pathways, later-career contribution and mentoring roles all belong in the picture.
3. Make knowledge transfer intentional
Knowledge sharing shouldn't be left until someone resigns or retires. Plan for it through mentoring, reverse mentoring, job shadowing, structured handovers and cross-generational project work.
4. Use workforce data responsibly
Age-band data – used at aggregate level – can identify patterns in recruitment, retention, progression, learning and engagement that would otherwise stay invisible.
5. Review policies and learning through a life-stage lens
Existing policies and learning opportunities need checking against how people at different stages of working life actually use them – not a separate policy for every age group.
Intergenerational work is already here. The opportunity now is to make it more intentional, more inclusive and more effective.
Download the full survey results
The full report is free to download and includes the research findings plus practical guidance for HR teams, L&D professionals and senior leaders. You can download it here. Or, if you’re ready to see how we can help the people at your organisation thrive – whether they’re 26 or 66 – you can book a meeting with one of our experts here.