Why it’s Wise to Engage the Sage in Your Workplace

When you hear the word sage, what comes to mind: a wizened leader with long, flowing hair and a staff? Jerry Garcia in a psychedelic shirt and sandals, blissfully strumming his guitar? Or perhaps a velvet-leafed herb that works well in stuffing?

Maybe it’s the guy sitting in the office next to you.

Based on an SMS Research Advisors survey commissioned by Padilla, a sage is an employee who has been at your company for 11 or more years. While that sage might have several characteristics in common with his colleagues who are tenured (8-10 years), sophomore (4-7 years) or newbie (3 years or less), there likely are motivational differences as well.

It pays to understand those differences and use them to engage your sage employees. The financial benefits of having a highly engaged workforce are well documented. And while it’s widely known that employees of different ages want different things in the workplace, employees at different career stages want different things, too.

So what engages sages? Well, I can tell you – since I’ve been at Padilla for nearly 17 (yikes!) years, I am one. Here’s some advice for engaging the sages in your workplace based on our Engage by Stage research.

Now that you know what motivates us, what concerns sages? Well, our greatest challenges at this stage are saving for retirement (52%) and funding the life priorities we’ve identified (44%), whether that is buying a house, saving for our children’s college or travelling the world. While we don’t need a lot of praise for our work, we do appreciate programs and tools that help us increase salary and savings.

At the end of the day, we sages want to put our knowledge and experience to use, and keep learning ourselves, so we can help the company reach its goals. We’re proud of our organization and of our contributions to it – that’s why we’ve chosen to stay.

How are you engaging the sages in your workplace?

Related Posts: Engaging Tenured Employees Past the Seven-Year Itch The Sophomore: Why Engaging at This Stage Could Be Most Critical Lessons from the Grand Poobah of PR at Ben & Jerry’s The Workplace Word: 8 Trends and Takeaways from 2019 The Newbie’s Perspective: Three Workplace Motivators Three Insights from the Research Side of Engaging Employees