Consumers are expecting more from businesses: faster response time, expert advice and quality products. In response to customer needs, businesses need to employ a diverse work force to reflect the customers' profiles. When we think of diversity, we may think in terms of ethnicity, nationality and traditional ways of thinking. In this brief article, I challenge you to think of the generational profiles of your employees.

Often times, when I assist organizations with strategic planning, I incorporate a technique called Future Search as a way to scan the environment. The results assist an organization to reflect on certain periods of time and segments of the environment: the world, the United States, the immediate geographical area, their state, their industry and the population. From the data, the organization can begin to evaluate the past, present and future as to trends and impact on their market.

One part of the scan looks at the population. The participants represent a slice of the population. I am always fascinated by what appears in the scan based on the generational differences in the room and how many decades we might be exploring. At this time we have four generations in the workplaces: the Veterans, Boomers, Xers, and Nexters. All of these groups have very different experiences, values, motivators and ability to influence customers. Each brings a unique perspective.

As this is a short newsletter, I do not want to attempt to over generalize nor do I want to simplify the matter. Yet, if each company spent the time to conduct an environmental scan of their employees, valuable lessons could be learned and your employees could serve as the key to opening the door to understanding your customers. They reflect the generations and motivations of your customers.

Ask yourself: What could you learn from each of the generations? Who are they? How do they learn? What do they value? How do they serve your customers?

This could be a platform for leveraging your employees, who are truly your greatest asset, in 2008. Happy Holidays.

(For more information, please contact Diane L. Dunton)

In my last newsletter, I indicated that we are adding new services to our selection. The intent is to provide our clients with a more comprehensive firm to meet their management and human resource needs. We will be adding executive search and recruiting as of January 2008.

With great pleasure, I announce the addition of Jennifer Hawkes Morris who is an expert in recruiting and searches. Jennifer brings her expertise of 11 years of recruiting, staffing and human resource success to the business.

Our goal is to enhance your business strength and competitive advantage by delivering the right candidate with a demonstrated history of excellence. Our process will be managed with the highest degree ofprofessionalism, confidentiality and integrity. We look forward to speaking to you about this in the near future.