Fortune covers Gen Y management

Fortune article link: Gen Y

While discussing new Generation Y employees, Bruce Tulgan, founder of generational research firm RainmakerThinking, remarks “This is the most high-maintenance workforce in the history of the world… The good news is that they’re also going to be the most high-performing workforce in the history of the world.” This presents both a daunting challenge and a clear opportunity for companies which will hire and manage this new breed of employee. Nadira A. Hira, author of the Fortune article offers further insight to why this will be such a high-maintenance group. “Gen Yers have been told since they were toddlers that they can be anything they can imagine. It’s an idea they clung to as they grew up and as their outlook was shaken by the Columbine shootings and 9/11… And each new clip of Al Gore spreading inconvenient truths or of polar bears drowning from lack of ice told Gen Yers they were not promised a healthy, happy tomorrow. So they’re determined to live their best lives now.”

While this can be an asset to Gen Y personally as they are so determined to do their best and thrive, when they enter corporate environments, there can be a bit of a disconnect. “They’ve been made to feel so special, and that is totally counter to the whole concept of corporations.” This is where companies have to take an active and progressive role in their management practices. Gen Y is large enough in sheer numbers that their presence and peculiarities cannot be ignored. Corporations are only going to be successful if they can harness the energy that Gen Y have, and still accomplish their own goals. What this translates to is a need for a more thorough understanding of what drives Gen Y. Even more than the Boomers, Gen Y wants to do good work, and to have their efforts recognized. If this is a side-effect of their coddling from birth, so be it. But they don’t just want to be patronized; they need to feel as though they are making a real contribution. This is where there is real opportunity for corporations, because they can tap this need and with adequate supervision, give much more responsibility to these new hires. Efficient use of them as employees will generate better results for the company and fulfill their need to feel like a substantial part of the program or team. Mark Meussner, a former Ford manager says “We need to use 100% of an employee – not just their backs and minds, but their innovation, enthusiasm, energy and fresh perspective.” This is the key to both allowing companies to fully capitalize on their workforce and to generate an environment where Gen Y in particular will thrive and be both happy and loyal.
In the Fortune article, Hira also addresses Gen Y loyalty, saying that if a Gen Y employee doesn’t like their job that more often than not they will simply quit. The lack of any stigma attached to moving back home with their parents or of being temporarily unemployed, on top of that most Boomer parents will welcome them home, really allows Gen Y to feel free to do this. This is where companies and corporations need to, again, be proactive in developing an environment in which Gen Y employees feel comfortable and also develop a sense of loyalty to the company they are working for. “The key is the same one their parents have used their whole lives – loving, encouraging, and rewarding them. What that amounts to in corporate terms is a support network, work that challenges more than it bores, and feedback” says Hira. “The loyalty of twenty-somethings is really based on the relationships they have with those directly above them,” says Dorsey, author of Reality Check.

It seems like the work that companies put into their new Gen Y employees will have a direct relation to the work that they get out of them. Companies would be wise to generate plans to harness this energy and to capitalize on it.

Labels: Gen Y, Gen Y management, human resources, Fortune,