3 ways Vancouver small businesses can boost workplace happiness across generations

Mohamed Basma leads the Small Business Services division for ADP Canada.

Picture this: It’s 8:18am in a bustling Vancouver café. Boomer owners greet regulars with genuine warmth, Gen X and Millennial staff juggle orders behind the counter, while Gen Z employees work on a social media campaign.

This isn’t just a charming West Coast vignette. It’s a snapshot of the modern small business workforce: diverse, multigenerational, and increasingly complex to manage. Each generation brings different expectations, communication styles, and definitions of success. And for small business owners in Vancouver, navigating these differences isn’t just a leadership challenge, it’s a survival strategy.

British Columbia’s small business sector is under pressure. According to CFIB’s August 2025 Business Barometer, long-term confidence among B.C. entrepreneurs has dipped below the breakeven point, signaling more owners expect weaker performance than stronger.

Meanwhile, a recent Happiness at Work survey, reveals that B.C. ranks among the least happy provinces, with a Workplace Happiness score of 6.6/10, below the national average of 6.8. Layered within this regional challenge is a growing generational divide. Over the past year, Boomers have consistently reported the highest workplace satisfaction, while Gen Z hit a new low in August. Millennials and Gen X tied for second overall. These differences aren’t just statistical—they’re strategic. If left unaddressed, they can lead to disengagement, turnover, and lost productivity.

And that’s where October comes in. Small Business Month is more than a celebration—it’s a call to action. It’s a moment for reflection, renewal, and reinvention. For Vancouver’s small business owners, it’s a chance to ask: Are we building workplaces where every generation can thrive? If not, now is the time to start. Here are three strategies to help small businesses boost workplace happiness across generations – and turn generational diversity into a competitive advantage:

1. Embed flexibility

In today’s world of work, flexibility is essential.

However, it’s important to recognize that not every small business is able to offer complete flexibility in where employees work. For example, a coffee shop in Vancouver needs to have people at the coffee shop facilitating orders. But, where can you offer flexibility as a small business?

As a Vancouver coffee shop, are you able to grant workers more flexibility in how they work? Can employees have license to create a new ordering system that’s optimized for their prior experience and learnings? Can that Gen Z employee allow their creativity to flow freely when working on a social media campaign?

Giving your employees this type of autonomy in their day-to-day workflows can increase commitment, engagement, productivity and retention. Circling back to the more traditional approach to flexibility, this comes back to culture. As a small business, recognize work-life balance and give your workers the ability to juggle competing personal and professional priorities. If a worker needs to head out early for a dentist appointment, grant them that flexibility and work on filling their shift. If you’re able to give employees the ability to customize their schedule to make it work for their lives, that’s ideal.

Flexibility is a multi-generational priority, especially coming out of the pandemic. The more of it you’re able to embed into your multi-generational workforce, the happier and more engaged your workers will be across the board.

2. Emphasize culture

Small business culture is paramount, and it starts from day one. Emphasising your small business culture is essential during the hiring process. When you clearly outline your culture to job candidates, it helps your small business find the right fits, regardless of generation.

A good strategy to create a sticky small business culture is through building an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) that appeals to all generations and stays true to your ideals as a small business owner. An EVP outlines what your small business is about and can help identify the right multi-generational talent that shares those same values to build a cohesive, diverse team that can offer different perspectives under a shared sense of purpose.

Beyond an EVP and finding the right-fitting employees, building a strong, multi-generational culture is an ongoing project for your small business. To continuously foster a strong culture that facilitates engagement, retention, and productivity, ensure your multi-generational workers are involved in key strategic decisions. Incorporating different perspectives and experiences is not only good to inform sound business decisions, but it makes all employees feel seen,  heard, and valued from Baby Boomers to Gen Z.

 3. Prioritize skills development

Making skills development a core small business strategy is imperative to managing your multi-generational workforce. According to a study from ADP Research, when workers strongly agree their company is investing in their skills development, they are nearly six times more likely than others to recommend their company as a great place to work and 3.3 times more likely to describe themselves as highly productive. The research found that just 17% of Canadian workers strongly agree their employer is investing in their skills development, making this a huge opportunity for small businesses to engage with their talent and separate themselves from the competition.

Skills development is not unique to any one generation; it’s something that is coveted by all workers. Older workers want to learn new technologies like GenAI, while younger workers want to learn valuable institutional knowledge and soft skills that are crucial at work.

The good news for multi-generational small businesses is that they have a terrific opportunity to lean into their diverse workforce for reciprocal mentoring. Bring your workers together as a multi-generational team that can share knowledge back and forth and learn from each other. This type of team-centered skills development can catalyze chemistry and cohesion, and that’s where the multi-generational magic happens.

Additionally, small business owners should speak with each of their employees to understand what specific skills they need and are looking to learn. According to ADP Canada’s Small Business Owner’s Toolkit, personalized learning can boost individual confidence and engagement and strengthen the long-term success of your business.

Vancouver’s small businesses are uniquely positioned to lead with empathy and adaptability. Boomers bring wisdom, Gen X pragmatism, Millennials flexibility, and Gen Z fresh perspective. Leadership that listens, supports growth, and cultivates belonging can turn generational differences into a competitive advantage.

This Small Business Month, let’s move beyond celebration and into transformation. Workplace happiness isn’t a luxury; it’s a business imperative. In a city as competitive and diverse as Vancouver, small businesses must go beyond filling roles to building teams that stay.