Making work fit real lives: what employers can learn from a multigenerational workforce

Different life stages bring different workforce needs. Employers that recognise those differences can support retention, development and knowledge transfer more effectively, while building a multigenerational workforce that is better equipped to adapt over time.

Key takeaways

• A multigenerational workforce brings together employees whose career needs and constraints can vary significantly across different stages of working life.

• Early-career workers may need clearer guidance and development, while mid-career employees can face growing caregiving responsibilities and experienced workers may encounter age-related barriers.

• Swiss labour-market data shows clear differences in job mobility and working patterns by age, underlining the value of workforce strategies that respond to real circumstances rather than stereotypes

• Employers can support a multigenerational workforce through flexible working, continuous development, structured knowledge exchange and better-equipped managers.

• A more age-inclusive approach can help organisations retain experience, develop emerging talent and strengthen workforce resilience.

A multigenerational workforce brings together employees at very different stages of working life, from those entering the labour market to mid-career professionals balancing work and care. For employers, the challenge is not to manage these groups as fixed generations, but to understand how needs, expectations and constraints can change across a working life.

Gi Group Holding’s “More than Work” report explores this through three themes: Nurture, Care and Heritage. Together, they show why employers need to think beyond age labels and create working environments that support development, flexibility and contribution at different life stages.

Why a multigenerational workforce needs more than a one-size-fits-all approach

A multigenerational workforce cannot be managed effectively through a single set of assumptions about what employees need. After all, people’s priorities and constraints can shift significantly depending on their stage of life.

The “More than Work” report highlights three particularly important realities: from younger workers to mid-career employees, to experienced professionals.

For employers, this means that age diversity in the workplace should be approached through individual needs rather than generational stereotypes. Flexible working, development opportunities and career support are likely to matter differently at distinct stages, but none of them should be reserved for one age group alone.

Different generations in the workplace face different career realities

The ambitions may be the same, but the circumstances surrounding these three generations can vary considerably. The report groups these differences around three life-stage realities.

Early-career workers need guidance as well as opportunity

For younger workers, access to jobs is only part of the challenge. Gi Group Holding’s 2025 Global Candidate Survey found that younger workers under 25 years old also face pressures:

Mid-career employees may be balancing work and care

Caregiving becomes a significant part of working life, particularly for employees supporting children, older relatives or both. “More than Work” argues that these responsibilities are increasingly a workforce issue because they can affect employees’ ability to remain engaged and progress at work.

Longer careers make experienced workers increasingly important

As working lives extend, employers have more reason to invest in experienced workers rather than assume development is mainly for younger employees. The report warns that age-based assumptions can themselves limit training and progression opportunities for senior workers.

Over 40% of senior workers report a lack of professional development paths, and 44% cite limited progression opportunities due to age-based assumptions and stereotypes

What age diversity in the workplace looks like in Switzerland

Age diversity is already visible in how people participate in Switzerland’s labour market. Federal Statistical Office (FSO) data shows clear differences in mobility and working patterns across age groups, reinforcing the idea that a multigenerational workplace includes employees with very different career circumstances.

In 2025, 21.7% of employed people aged 15-24 changed jobs, compared with just 5.9% of those aged 55-64. Workers aged 25-39 also had a relatively high job-change rate of 18.7%.

These figures do not tell what individual workers want, but they do show that employment behaviour changes substantially across working life. At the same time, flexibility is already an important feature of the Swiss labour market: 46.3% of employees had flexible working hours in 2025, according to the FSO.

Managing a multigenerational workforce: four practical priorities for employers

Managing a multigenerational workforce effectively means responding to different life and career needs without turning age groups into stereotypes. The “More than Work” report points to four practical priorities: flexibility, development, knowledge, exchange, and better-equipped managers.

1. Build flexibility around real needs

Flexibility matters because employees may need different forms of support at different stages of life. The report highlights options such as flexible scheduling, part-time work, job sharing, and temporary role reassignment for employees with caregiving responsibilities.

“The truth is that there are people who are more curious and people who are less curious, and that individual tendency – rather than age – is what dictates how adaptable they are.”

Emanuela Notari, Longevity Strategy & Age-Inclusion Expert

2. Create development opportunities throughout working life

Learning should not be concentrated at the beginning of a career. “More than Work” recommends continuous training across career stages and encourages employers to help employees understand how their roles and skills may need to evolve over time.

Early-career workers may need clearer guidance and structured development. At the same time, experienced workers may need opportunities to update technical/workplace skills and continue progressing.  

3. Make knowledge exchange part of team design

Age-diverse teams do not automatically share knowledge effectively. Structured mentoring, shadowing and handovers can help experienced employees transfer expertise while creating opportunities for younger colleagues to contribute new perspectives and ways of working.

Mentoring should be treated as a skill that needs structure, feedback and clear expectations. That is one of the key pillars to improve intergenerational synergy within the company.

4. Use multigenerational workforce training to equip managers

Managers play a central role in making age-inclusive policies work in practice. Training can help them respond to different life circumstances, recognise age-related bias and manage flexibility, development and collaboration more consistently across teams.

Good management means recognising when career-stage needs differ without reducing employees to labels such as “young”, “mid-career”, or “older”.

A multigenerational workplace can also strengthen workforce resilience

A multigenerational workplace can strengthen workforce resilience by helping employers draw on a broader mix of skills, experience and perspectives. Thus, supporting people across different career stages can help organisations retain experience and develop emerging talent.

The value lies less in age itself, than in creating conditions where employees can continue contributing as their career circumstances evolve.

For employers reviewing how their workforce strategy responds to these different needs, Gi Group can support temporary and permanent staffing requirements and provide market-informed recruitment guidance across several specialist areas.

Speak with Gi Group about building a workforce that reflects the needs and realities of a multigenerational workforce.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

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