In New Zealand’s Western Bay of Plenty’s District Council in 2010, the utilities team was made up of baby boomers and generation X. Fast forward to 2017, and now 25% of their staff are millennials.

Instrumental in the change of guard was Utilities Manager Kelvin Hill, who saw there was a shortage of experienced staff around and decided to put the time and effort into training young graduates on how a council operation runs.

This blending of three distinct and very different age groups is not without its challenges, but in a presentation to be given at the IPWEA International Public Works Conference in Perth in August, Hill and one of his young cohorts will represent both sides of the generation divide and discuss how they’ve devised a method that benefits all age groups – as well as the business – moving forward. 

“We’ll give some real life examples of what we've done in our business,” says Hill, who explains that a common source of conflict comes down to the different perspectives of “enthusiastic millennials who want to initiate something and believe they can do it overnight” and baby boomers who are sometimes reluctant to embrace new technologies.

“Someone wanted to implement a new computer software program, but half my staff here are old paper-based people, so you've got to go through a process to take them on that journey," he says. 

Hill explains that he sees an effective manager’s role as bridging the gap between the two.

“I use the term join the dots,” he says. “The millennials have got the ideas, we want to get it from point A to point B, allow me to facilitate how that happens. So for example, introducing something like a new app or program that might save my staff half their day rather than doing it manually, so it’s pointing that out to them and saying, ‘Look, if you've got all this spare time, you can do all these other things.’ That's how it seems to work quite well.”

Hill adds that by involving all members of staff in the facilitation, they all feel their contribution is valued and even if they don’t get exactly what they originally wanted, they’ve been part of the process of achieving a happy solution.

“I think councils need to have the type of manager who understands how a millennial thinks and operates and can then use that to properly extract some desired outcomes from the process,” he says, adding that baby boomers contributions and acquired wisdom should also be highly valued.

“I've got a 72-year-old on my team here who's still ably involved 40 hours a week and has an incredible amount of knowledge in certain areas, so he's mentoring some of the younger staff. So it’s finding where the synergies are.”

Hill says his successful model is now encouraging others to follow his lead.

“What it's done here has been a catalyst for other operations within our council,” he says. “They’ve now started bringing more young people into their various segments such as planning and policy, so it's had a really positive gain.”

To find out more about how Hill and the Western Bay Council are bridging the generation gap, don’t miss their presentation at the IPWEA International Public Works Conference, held at the Perth Exhibition and Conference Centre from August 20-23.