Managers should embrace the Y-factor
Senior executives need to try and meetthe expectations of a restless generation of future business leaders, writes Richard Watt

Generation Y was the first generation to have been brought up with computers, worldwide connectivity, the internet and e-mail, and many of them have two tertiary level qualifications. Photo: Bloomberg

For the past few years the buzzword around human resources departments, and in management handbooks, has been Generation Y. This generation of employees, born after 1982, are the best educated generation ever.

They were the first to have been brought up with computers, worldwide connectivity, the internet and e-mail. Many of them have two tertiary level qualifications before entering the workplace. They are willing to work as part of a team and are eager to work for organizations where they feel they are not only contributing to their own careers and pockets, but also to society.

Avril Henry: different levels of loyalty

But according to Avril Henry, managing director of Avril Henry, an organisation committed to developing leaders and improving work environments, these positive attributes are not always viewed favourably by older generations whose job it is to hire and develop Generation Y professionals.

“Most people don't understand Generation Y,” Ms Henry said. “They are seen as being disloyal, restless and irresponsible.”

Ms Henry said that these views could stem from the fact that Generation Y employees tended to switch jobs more often than previous generations.

“What causes conflict in the workplace is that senior management, who are principally baby boomers [born in the '50s and'60s], and board members, who are even older than them, have always been loyal to their chosen profession or organisation.” As such, they expect the same level of loyalty from future employees.

The obvious irony that has become increasingly apparent over recent months is that it is these baby boomers and Generation X managers who are now in the position of having to lay off staff, while at the same time complaining about a lack of loyalty to their organisations from Generation Y employees.

So why should those from Generation Y employees remain loyal to today's organisations that have been rewarding loyalty with redundancies? After all, it will be this generation that will have to pick up the pieces of the recession.

This conundrum brings with it two further questions: what can today's managers do to attract and retain Generation Y professionals, and how can organisations best encourage their loyalty and harness their creative and tech-savvy abilities?

Claire Garner: it is important to listen

Claire Garner, managing principal and director at YSC, a business psychology consultancy group, explained that to reach Generation Y employees effectively, employers need to understand and listen to their needs, and manage their expectations.

“As with anybody, it's always important to get close to an individual's motivation, philosophy and intentions,” she said.

“Many of the tensions [between generations] could be framed as being between managers from one generation encountering people who are working for them from a different generation, who mostly have different expectations of work, and different ideas about the employer-employee relationship.”

Research conducted by YSC showed that the different expectations of work in part came from Generation Y being more flexible when it comes to managing their careers.

“There is much more tolerance of portfolio careers. People are more likely to take charge of their own career management rather than expect an internal process to manage it for them. They also have a better sense of their own worth in the market, and are much more fluid about moving between different roles.”

Ms Garner added that remote working, hot desking and working to task rather than working to hours were also key factors.

“Generation Y employees want to be rewarded for what they produce, and to have fewer constraints about how it is produced.

“This means [that managers] need to think differently about performance management and to ensure that they manage performance by output rather than by hours worked.”

To meet these needs, she explained that organisations can put the onus on the individual to manage their career, and to have processes that allow people to make conscious choices about their careers. So rather than having an overly rigid process that moves people around and presents them with opportunities, organizations should enable employees to make choices for themselves and to help these career choices happen.

She added that Generation Y employees were also more adaptable to remote working and to being connected electronically to their workplace 24 hours a day. As such, organisations should look at integrating less centralised working patterns, such as working from home, and give employees more flexibility in terms of where they work from.

Having this new generation of employees in the workplace should be seen as a benefit to the company, not a drawback. Many Generation Y employees have worked in several jobs, and can benefit the company by transferring various skills to the workplace, especially during a recession.

“You could argue that Generation Y employees, with a more diverse career portfolio and a more flexible approach to their career, could be better placed to weather the storm than somebody in mid-career who has always worked for one organisation and possibly become quite institutionalised,” Ms Garner said.

By not looking solely at thenegative aspect of the recession there was a growing sense among Generation Y employees of “a huge opportunity to put right some of things that were manifestly wrong. So they are quite energised. There is a sense of wanting to be part of building something, putting it back together and making it work properly”, Ms Garner said.

SCMP
18th March, 2009

Read about the other series