“Why should I cater to Gen Y? I don’t want to alienate the rest of our employees by giving this group special treatment.”

I hear it all the time. Nearly every time I speak, someone will chime in with this question. And I don’t blame them really. It’s a legitimate question. But in my opinion, it’s a bad assumption.

Why would I be upset that you are going above and beyond to meet the needs or requests of my fellow employees? I want my co-workers to be happy with their jobs. Of course, I’ll expect that you go above and beyond to make me happy as well. But, what’s wrong with that?

The secret is to forget about trying to make everyone equal at your company, and figure out how to make every group feel special. Whether it’s a particular demographic, a gender, a religious group, a generation or even a personality type, your organization should go beyond the paycheck and put in the extra time to find out what each small or large group wants, and give it to them.

Do something to make a particular group or individual feel special

The other day, I spoke with Susie Gorsline, the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Au Bon Pain, and she told me how they are making a particular group feel special.

Au Bon Pain is hosting their Annual International Company meeting this week. They have managers and executives from 29 countries attending – so obviously all sorts of cultures and religions will be represented. Out of respect for Ramadan (the Muslim religious observance that takes place during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and calls for fasting from dawn to sunset), they decided to accommodate their practicing Muslim population of managers. Breakfast will be served before sunrise at 4:30 AM, a prayer room will be provided, special plates of food will be offered, and wine will not be offered to those who indicate they are observing the holiday.

Needless to say, Gorsline and her team received tremendous feedback from their Muslim employees – many indicating they were proud to be working for such a forward-thinking company. And get this, it cost them next to nothing – just a little time and effort from the conference organizers and the hotel staff.

Tell ALL your employees about your initiative

It’s great that all of the employees who were directly affected by the Ramadam accommodation felt proud to work for the company, but don’t think they’re the only ones who want to hear about it. If your company is creating special initiatives for young employees, employees who lose a family member, employees who have a baby or employees who are approaching retirement, don’t keep it a secret, tell everyone!

I would be thrilled to know that my employer cares about my fellow employees so much. When Susie sent out the email notifying everyone of their intentions for Ramadan, it wasn’t just the Muslim employees who responded positively, many others replied with emails commending the HR department, and it was the hot topic of conversation for the rest of the week.

It’s amazing how helping one small group can make every other group proud to work for your company.

Watch the Trickle down happen

American Express wanted to cater to their baby boomer employees, so they created a program promoting the new concept of phased retirement. The program allows soon to be retired baby boomers to transition from full time work to full time retirement and transfer the invaluable knowledge they’ve gained during their time at the company. It’s a great initiative for experienced workers who are almost ready to retire, but either need a little more money, tenure, or just aren’t quite ready to quit work cold turkey.

Well, the next thing you know, this initiative actually trickled down to benefit their Gen Y employees. The young employees ended up getting exactly what they wanted too – hands on training and mentoring from the people who were running the organization

No matter how hard you try, you’re not going to please everyone by treating everyone the same. We’ve all come from different backgrounds and we’re all at different points in our lives. So put in the extra effort and figure out how to give every group special treatment — not just Generation Y.