How inter-generational teams are testing the limits of traditional HR practices | Ashutosh Sharma | VP and Group HR Head | BN Group

After two decades in HR, I have learned this: age diversity isn’t a problem to solve. It’s a constraint to design for. Today, interns in their early 20s work alongside leaders with three decades behind them. Companies are struggling with recruiting and engaging up to five generations for the first time: Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. The spread is wide. Preferences differ. And the one-size-fits-all HR toolkit creaks under that weight.

Where the friction really comes from
The gap shows up first in how people work, not what they know. Senior colleagues often want structure, context, and time in the room. Younger colleagues default to digital-first collaboration and quick iteration. When teams don’t agree on how to communicate, you get avoidable conflict.

I’ve seen this play out in a corporate function that mixed young analysts and seasoned managers. Email chains and ad hoc chats were wasting hours. We put a simple team charter in place. Quick questions on chat. Decisions documented in a running note. Weekly huddles for context. Monthly reviews in person. Within two months, response-time complaints dropped and handoffs got cleaner. No new software. Just explicit norms.

Flexibility is the next tension point. Many leaders still read physical presence as commitment. Many younger employees don’t. The answer isn’t to pick a side. It’s to be specific. A global captive we advised in Pune moved to three days in office for collaboration, two days remote for deep work. Technology can widen the gap. India now has about 886 million active internet users, with a rural majority. That’s massive reach, not uniform fluency. If you roll out tools as if everyone learns the same way, adoption flatlines and the gap widens across age, function, and site. A large services firm launched a new work management tool and saw uneven adoption. We switched to short, role-based clinics run by power users. Two 30-minute sessions per week for eight weeks. Adoption hit critical
mass not because the tool improved, but because the learning did.

Career expectations diverge too. Younger employees optimise for pace and visibility. Many seniors care more about scope and ownership. When your career architecture recognises only one of these logics, people vote with their feet. India’s attrition spiked around 2022 near the 20 percent mark, with IT and e-commerce much higher. Those weren’t random exits. They were signals that our systems weren’t keeping up with changing expectations.

What’s working on the ground
Start by making progress multi-path. Not everyone needs a ladder. Offer a lattice for those who want rapid skill accumulation and visible milestones, and a ladder for those who seek deeper domain and larger spans of control. In one industrial company, we introduced quarterly skill badges tied to real projects, alongside the traditional half-year promotion cycle. Younger employees got pace without title inflation. Senior employees kept structure and standards. Retention stabilised because both groups saw a future.

Managers need better scripts, not just bigger mandates. We trained managers to run a predictable 30-minute monthly 1:1: preferred feedback style, energy check, growth currency, one small stretch bet. A logistics firm using this format saw fewer escalations and a noticeable drop in surprise resignations. Consistency beats charisma.

A simple operating model for intergenerational teams
Think of this as four agreements.

1. Communication by design
Every team writes a one-page charter. What goes to chat. What goes to email. What needs a meeting. How decisions are recorded. Who decides what. Review it every quarter. Most “style” conflicts go away when the rules are visible.

2. Progress with options
Run a lattice and a ladder in parallel. Lattice equals projects, badges, and short cycles. Ladder equals scope, stewardship, and longer cycles. Publish criteria. Make movement between paths possible twice a year. People won’t all race the same race, and that’s fine.

3. Clarity on where work happens
Codify why-in-office and why-remote. Tie it to tasks, not tastes. Set anchor days for collaboration and leave deep work days alone. Share the calendar early. Ambiguity is the real attrition driver.

4. Build in quick, visible recognition for early-career colleagues
This cohort grew up with instant feedback loops, so waiting six months for a pat on the back feels like silence. Add micro-rewards: public shout-outs in sprint reviews, skills badges tied to outcomes, small spot bonuses, and early project ownership. Keep criteria transparent. Fast, fair recognition creates momentum, purpose, and stickiness without diluting standards.

5. Learning that matches how adults learn
Short, role-specific clinics. Power users as teachers. Adoption tracked for eight to ten weeks. Retire tools that don’t clear the bar. Pair senior leaders with younger mentors where it matters: AI, data storytelling, consumer behaviour. Make it goal-linked, not symbolic.

What this really means for HR
HR’s job isn’t to manufacture harmony. It’s to make tension useful. Put a Gen Z analyst, a Gen X sales lead, and a late-career compliance head on the same problem, and you’ll get better answers if the system respects how each of them works.

We also need to be honest about outcomes. Flexibility without clarity breeds cynicism. Well-being without resourcing is PR. Promotions without pathways feel arbitrary. The organisations that are getting this right pair simple rules with visible fairness. They don’t smooth out the differences. They build around them.

The Indian workforce is young, ambitious, and diverse. That diversity is not a hurdle. It’s our edge, if we design for it. The old playbook treated people like averages. The next one assumes difference and turns it into performance. That’s the operating model intergenerational teams deserve.