Uses of Legal Plans by Generation
Reasons, why employees value legal plans, vary by age. For example, older employees may be more interested in assistance with powers of attorney and living wills, plus understanding assisted living/nursing home agreements, how Medicare works, and so forth. Employees who are younger may want to look ahead to estate planning and will preparation, but will also have more immediate concerns such as help with adoption processes, refinancing a home, and perhaps representation during a divorce. Your youngest employees may need help buying their first homes. And, since young adults get the most speeding tickets, they may need help with traffic court.
Understanding the psychological reasons behind your employees’ values can help you to provide what different demographics of your company’s teams need. And, when you understand what employees desire and fulfill those needs, they will naturally be more motivated and engaged in the workplace, which benefits your entire company.
Values by Stages of Life
Common sense would suggest that, as we go through the stages of life, what we value changes, and research has borne that out. Psychology Today provides an overview of one study from 2015 that analyzed how values evolve over time. As one example of the findings, you will probably value excitement more when you’re younger, and then that will likely diminish as you age.
People tend to be more interested in promotion, defined as power and success, as young adults—and then again as an older one, with a dip in the middle. That may happen, researchers speculate, during the years when child-raising takes place. Interaction with others was most important with young adults but even though the degree of importance decreased with age, older adults still value interaction. Normative values such as tradition and religion are more important to older adults, especially for women.
Here are two more examples. As people age, they become more interested in gaining knowledge, perhaps having more time to pursue this quest once retirement happens and/or children are raised. Younger adults are more concerned with health and well-being; as people age, they want to stay healthy but recognize they may experience some challenges.
Values by Generation
An article by the Society of Human Resource Management, “What Should Employers Consider When Recruiting from Different Generations?”, also examines what people value but, this time, the groups of people being discussed are delineated by generation: Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1980), and Generation Y (1980-2000).
Baby Boomers, the article shares, “greatly value loyalty, financial security, stability and a positive work ethic.” To retain these employees, it’s important to demonstrate how your company cares about their careers, along with the knowledge, impact, and contributions these Baby Boomer employees provide to your company.
Generation X employees value companies that “are stable, provide flexibility to define work arrangements (such as telecommuting) … and promote work/life balance that allows these employees to enjoy life now instead of waiting for retirement.” The article notes that benefits are perceived as attractive by this generation.
Generation Y wants to be “recognized for their individual contributions within a team. They generally look for work that is productive and meaningful—not grunt work; leading-edge, innovative technology that supports their current usage of information sharing” and more.
Family Defender™ by U.S. Legal Services
Armed with the understanding of how to understand your employees’ values and desires across demographics, you are significantly better able to retain a quality workforce. And, since employees across generations can benefit from legal services, here’s how your company can offer comprehensive group legal plans to employees of all ages, across generations.
Plan members can use network attorneys within their geographical area, so it’s like offering them an attorney on retainer, 24/7. Your employees can easily access their group legal services to get answers or initiate a claim in multiple ways: by calling, visiting our website, or using our convenient mobile app. And, this easy-to-administer voluntary benefit plan comes at no cost to your company.
Contact us online if you’re ready to start offering your employees legal plans that are ideal for all generations, or call 1-800-356-LAWS (5297) today.
