A morning tide filled with Generation Yers and Millennials is resolutely sweeping into the workplace. They promise their co-workers, managers and leaders substantial opportunities as well as significant challenges. Bruce Tulgan and Dr. Carolyn Martin aptly describe these global citizens, born after 1980, as “the most demanding generation in history.”1

Rolling up their sleeves and brimming with self-confidence, Gen Yers and Millennials can hardly wait to break with the traditional values of Veterans and Baby Boomers to get to work and make the world a more productive and tolerant place. If Boomers value personal growth and hard work, Millennials are competitive, goal oriented, and prize a balance between work and life. They are a generation that demands competent managers and leaders who will bring the very finest out of them. They are a generation that respects knowledge and innovation. They promise to be the most productive and the most technology-savvy generation in history. We see the results of their work in the recent campaign sophistication of President Barack Obama. Only the most effective leaders and managers will be able to recruit, engage and manage the best of them.

What has your Company done to prepare for this New Generation? Because - ready or not, here they come. The question is - are you ready for them?


Boomers and Millennials

The New Generation of workers promises to redefine excellence in the American workplace because they bring the right stuff with them. What do GenY/Millennials have in common with Boomers? How do they compliment one another? And how do they conflict with each other?

Let’s see how they stack up against Boomers. The sheer size of both generations is huge and size has an enormous impact on society. It influences consumer markets, creates trends, and controls jobs. Although both generations are well educated, their motivation for schooling is different. Surveys indicated that GenY/Millennials go to school for social and monetary reasons. Money was not the goal for Boomers. They went to school to develop a meaningful philosophy of life. These aging flower children, who would rather make love not war and who marched against the Vietnam War, traded in their Pukah beads and long flowing hair for business suits, crew cuts and a home in the suburbs.2

Both Boomers and GenY/Millennials seek meaningful work with flexible work arrangements, Boomers have crested waves of change and layoffs. Boomers seek money as a reward and look to a healthy lifestyle. They are nurturers who confine their wisdom to local social issues within their communities. They neither challenge the status quo nor go outside the chain of command. They are the linear, hierarchical, workforce generation. For them, work comes first --- believing that hard work brings success. They have been willing to pay their dues, tolerate mediocre management, and have survived reductions in force. They are unlike the new generation, who were born digital team players and multi-taskers. Boomers wear blinders. For the most part, they are single tasked, good at jobs requiring long attention spans, and live within the bounds of their own work.


The New Generation

As Gen Yers and Millennials inexorably find their way to the workplace in greater numbers, age demographics will necessarily shift. The values, culture and structure of the Boomer-dominated generation will succumb to those defined by a new generation of workers brought up in the new economy.

The differences between the two generations are particularly striking. Boomers grew up watching Captain Kangaroo on black and white television sets, spun LP’s and 45’s on record players, and used manual typewriters to write book reports. Gen Yers and Millennials grew up with dual income parents, divorces and daycare. They listened to answering machines and cooked frozen meals in microwave ovens. They surfed cable TVs with remote controls, listened to iPods, and grew up slapping fingers on hand-held video games. They were bent over computers before they could read. (According to the data from Nielsen Online, U.S. online users spent more than 28.5 hours a month on the Internet. One current estimate is that 10-17 year olds will spend a third of their lives or about 23 years at a computer. (The Fortino Group).

GenYers and Millennials are the leading edge of online Internet revolution that wants to be a part of the collective global social conscience. They were taught to never go outside alone and to fear strangers. They saw assassinations, school shootings, and wars televised in exquisite detail. They watched terrorists attack the twin towers, killing thousands of people. They survived the boom and bust of a technical revolution and they still live in fear of AIDS, Anthrax and Armageddon.

Is it any wonder that GenYers and Millennials worry about carbon footprints and global warming? Are concerned about their safety? Seek quality friendships at home and at work? Are more globally active? Are more committed to making a contribution to work? Volunteer in greater numbers for their causes? Care deeply about projects that will save the planet? See the world with an open mind – accepting diversity in race, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation? They show more restraint in premarital and unprotected sex, alcohol and drugs than Baby Boomers. This new generation is gifted with an inner social conscious and a passion for accomplishment.


Recruitment – Attracting a Successful Multi-Generational Workplace

“The key to a competitive and successful workplace is diversity; a workplace that includes individuals from all the generations.”3 While Boomers are attracted by traditional classifieds, meet and treats, outplacement firms, and recruiting agencies, GenYers/Millennials hunt for jobs on line, through Internet job boards, and company websites. They are turned off by long job descriptions. Boomers, on the other hand, want a detailed description of the job being offered. They first consider salary, title, status, and benefits. They want to be included in strategic planning decisions and want to join an organization that will value their experience and use their expertise.

GenYers/Millennials are attracted by terse messages, which stress engaging and fast paced work. They value employers who will respect their individual contributions, provide real opportunities, a good salary, a casual-family-friendly workplace that prizes a work-life balance. The recruitment message should be: This is a “do it your way” growth opportunity with no rules and the coolest technology on the planet.


Managing and Retaining Gen Yers/Millennials

When Boomers started work in the 60’s and 70’s, they started at the bottom and worked their way up through a number of repetitious and, sometimes, insufferable jobs. The workplace and hours were both inflexible and somber. Many struggled with poor managers who were short on ethics and excellence and long on the bottom line. Innovation was stifled. Promotion was too often a political process rather than based on merit. Race, gender, religion and sexual orientation were steel barriers. Ideas were put in a suggestion box that was emptied once a month, if at all. Annual reviews provided no immediate support or encouragement. It took years before management came to value Boomers’ knowledge, experience and ideas.

While each GenYer/Millennial has his or her own needs, surveys demonstrate that the new generation of workers are engaged and managed by respecting their ideas, giving them meaningful jobs, and valuing their work. By giving them responsible jobs, they satisfy their need to add value to the organization. GenYers/Millennials join organizations that offer career opportunities. They are thirsty for knowledge and want to learn from experts. They will not tolerate incompetent or ineffective managers. Managers must be responsive to their needs for developing their skills by listening, respecting and valuing their ideas.

To retain GenYer/Millennial workers, leaders and managers should design career development tools such as coaching, mentoring, job shadowing, job rotation and training.4 Here are a dozen tips to help you keep the best of the most demanding generation:

1. Encourage them to design and find new ways to accomplish projects.
2. Give them multiple assignments in parallel.
3. Give them a partner and allow them to participate on a team.
4. Clearly explain what you want them to achieve and why the project is valuable.
5. Provide them with continuous assessments and positive feedback.
6. Publicly recognize their achievements.
7. Allow them to utilize their tech- wizardry.
8. Be willing to try their suggestions.
9. Tell them how they contribute to the organization.
10. Maintain a safe, friendly and fun workplace.
11. Demonstrate a high level of integrity and commitment.
12. Offer and role model a high degree of excellence and innovation.


Summary

GenYers and Millennials are finding their way into the workplace. They promise to be the most demanding and the most productive generation in history. Because Boomers are retiring in record numbers, organizations are increasingly competing for the best of Generation Yers/Millennials to fill a growing gap. Employers need to revise traditional methods to recruit, manage and engage this new generation of workers. They are attracted to employers that respect their individual contributions, provide them with real opportunities, a good salary, and a safe and casual-family-friendly workplace. Organizations need to keep this generation engaged in the global economy by providing the proper career development tools such as, coaching, mentoring, job shadowing, job rotation and training.


References

1. “Managing Generation Y,” Bruce Tulgan and Dr. Carolyn Martin, HRD Press, 2001,105 pp.
2. “Boomers, Xers, and Other Strangers,” Dr. Rick and Kathy Hicks, Tyndale House Publishers, 1999, 370 pp.
3. “Bridging the Generation Gap,” Linda Gravett and Robin Throckmorton, 2007, Career Press, 222 pp.
4. “Coaching Career Development Strategies and Competitive Advantage: Finding Freedom From Within,” Valerie
Matthews. http//:www.careertrainer.com/Request.jsp?1View=ViewArticle&Article=OID%3A107265



Caela Farren, Ph.D., is President of MasteryWorks, Inc. in Falls Church, VA. She has been a consultant, entrepreneur, and educator for over 30 years, Caela has worked with hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to get them on their mastery path. Caela’s practice and company builds strong links between changing trends in industries, changing strategies of organizations and the talents and aspirations of individuals. People who work with her company discover their passion, their mastery path, and bring renewed contribution and high performance to their organizations. www.masteryworks.com

Caela is known internationally for her expertise in developing talent management products and services. Her solutions are user-friendly systems that serve the needs of both organizations and individuals. She is frequently quoted in the media regarding her thoughts and advice on changing careers and work patterns in the nation. Hundreds of organizations have implemented talent management solutions from MasteryWorks, Inc. — consulting, workshops, assessment instruments and web-based talent management portals.