Society progresses over time. Humans are conditioned and their behaviour changes according to the environment. Accordingly, the difference in behaviour between different behaviour is to be expected.
Today, employers have to grapple with how to attract and retain GEN Y. The challenges associated with GEN Y are new and many: “to be promoted quickly after a short spell”; “dislike the strict rank and file, want equality and freedom of expression”; “enjoy being connected all the time” and “like to share and like flexibility”.
While appreciating the differences in the behaviour and attitude in the GEN Y (Post 80s), the employment market is struggling to modify the traditional workplace to cater to many of the differences, if not all. One can learn from the happenings in the USA. Many American companies were unprepared for the differences and encountered low morale and high turnover situations. Obviously, these situations brought about severe adverse impacts on the companies.
Consequently, the American companies spent many years and considerable significant resources to research and understand GEN Y with the objective of eliminating these severe adverse impacts.
PWC Chairman, Mr. Dennis Nally said, “The millennium generation is probably the most technological group of people ever joining the workforce. How they want to work, use social media and team within a company is very different than the prior generation. If your human policies aren’t responsive to what they are looking for, they are going to go to a company that is. They want less-hierarchical structures, they want more flexibility, they want to work as hard but they want to define how they do their work. If you can’t figure out a way to accommodate that kind of flexibility, you’re not going to be able to retain that talent.”
In addition, Charlie Johnston, HR Director of technology company, Cisco Systems Limited said, “Understanding and responding to Gen Y is vital to our business. Gen Y has become a strategic priority for the company.”
Serious employers may want to learn from the painful lessons of the Americans and take pro-active steps to cater to the major differences, if not all the differences. Failing to do this may risk suffering the same fate of the American companies. As GEN Y will form the main bulk of the workforce, this will become more critical.
Of course there are many detractors who prefer to think that GEN Y is a fad. There are others who think that companies should focus on individuals, rather than generations. There are definitely some truths in this line of thought. Still, the most cautious and logical approach will be to be sensitive and adaptable to generational differences while at the same time, focusing on key individuals. This would be by far, the more balanced and risk-free approach.
For companies to be able to attract and retain GEN Y, employers need to learn and understand the challenges posed by them now, and make appropriate adaptations in the workplace to foster a conducive workplace for the Gen-Y.
By Stan Tan (http://www.facebook.com/stanleytan1000)
GEN Y Specialist
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