GiftCard Partners Blog

The NPD Group and the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center at the Wharton School of Business at University of Pennsylvania have collaborated on a study to determine generational differences in buying behaviors from Baby Boomers to their Millennial children. Here are three key trends they discovered.

According to a new poll of 617 full-time workers by
Flex+Strategy Group and Work+Life Fit, about half of all U.S. workers take part in some kind of wellness initiative, while about a third of all workers participate in some kind of employer-sponsored initiative. So if half of employees are doing some kind of exercise, and a third are doing it with work, what’s everyone else up to?

Employers are constantly looking to find ways to promote employee loyalty in a professional climate of job hoppers and career changers. Employers try everything from nap pods to unlimited vacation to
beer in the kitchen. But what do employees really need in order to feel dedicated to an employer? The answer, real purpose. To feel important and connected to organizational goals and to be provided with opportunities to learn and grow outweigh any perk an employer could provide. In short, invest in employees and they will invest in you.

When typing the word “motivation” into Amazon’s bookstore you’ll discover there are over 100,000 books related to motivation: The Motivation Manifesto, 77 Ways to Get Motivated, Drive: The Surprise Truth About What Motivates Us; the list goes on and on.

But all that helpful advice must be taken with a grain of salt now that managers are motivating a multi-generational workforce. Three generations now make up today’s workforce.

Look around the office and you’ll see Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, and who could forget all those Millennials. According to Pew Research Center’s 2015 study, U.S. Labor Force by Generation, Baby Boomers make up 44.6 million, Generation Xers make up 52.7 million, and Millennials make up 53.5 million of the U.S. labor force.

So why is this so important? Because each generation is motivated by different values, work styles, communication tactics, job responsibilities, and rewards.

Gift cards are becoming an increasingly popular choice for motivating Millennials (we recently wrote about their preference for e-gifting) and according to a report from the NPD Group and UPenn's Wharton School, gift cards are quite popular with the 18 to 34-year-old crowd. The report studies consumer behavior in the retail industry and how the landscape is changing with new technology. The study looked at retail trends across the generations: Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials.