Are your managers prepared for Gen Y employees?

Generation Y or the “Internet Generation” will dramatically change every aspect of your business in the next five years!

The change will be constant, fast and revolutionary. Do you want proof?

First, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is putting all of its 1,500 courses on the Internet. MIT believes that “the dissemination of knowledge and information can open new doors to the powerful benefits of education for humanity around the world.” That means that students, educators, and self-learners will be able to audit these courses whenever and wherever they want.

Second, Bob Lutz, vice president of General Motors, has a blog to communicate directly with his customers. It is an invaluable way to get important information to market. It is also a vehicle for accurate and timely feedback. Other GM executives are creating blogs to speak directly to and obtain information from their employees. By comparison, Microsoft has more than 1,500 customer and employee blogs.

Third, YouTube is an overnight Internet success story. It allows people to upload and share videos over the Internet. To date, they have 100 million videos on their site and receive another 65,000 per day. The company was founded in February 2005 and was never profitable. However, Google understood the potential of its technology and bought the company nineteen months later for $ 1.65 billion.

While Gen X employees understand the Internet, multitasking, and instant communications, Gen Y members excel at using these three tools, and Will use them to transform business. They will challenge all aspects of the workplace.

How do managers see different generational employees?

Boomers: The boss is not always right, but the boss is always the boss. I will dedicate many hours to get ahead. If necessary, I will do it at the expense of my family.

Generation X: The boss isn’t always right, but I’m not going to be here long. I saw my parents’ jobs get downsized or outsourced, so I don’t have the same loyalty to a company as they do. I am not married to the company; I value my life outside of work.

Generation y: The boss is not always right, but are they open to new ways of doing business? Events like September 11 and the Columbine High School shooting have taught us that life can be fleeting. The Internet exposed us to new ways of approaching life and work. I want flexibility, to be valued for my ideas and my work and I want free time to volunteer.

They are called Generation Y, as in “why”, because they constantly question the status quo. They are almost as big as the Generation Boomer and are more than 65% larger than the Generation X group. In the next 25 years, 80 million boomers will retire. As Boomers retire, Gen X employees will become Gen Y managers. However, due to their sheer size, Gen Y will be the overwhelming influence in the workplace for the next fifty years. .

Generation Y fully embraces technology. Today’s twenty-year-old college graduate was only five when the Internet was developed in 1992. They have literally always had the world at their fingertips. They grew up with instant messaging, texting, cell phones, iPods, PDAs, MySpace, YouTube, multitasking, and blogging. They think and act in terms of instant communication. While Generation X employees understood and used these vehicles, Generation Y is fully immersed in them.

Baby boomers changed the culture of civil rights, women’s rights, and gay rights. Your world was shaped by the Cold War. Members of Generation Y were born after the passage of the Civil Rights Act (1964), the start of the gay rights movement (1969), the first woman on the United States Supreme Court (1975) and the fall of the Berlin Wall (1990). The struggles that many of us remember are accepted facts in your world. Generation Y individuals embrace diversity as an accepted norm and until recently knew nothing about war. Your world has always included diversity.

Each of us has memories of some recent tragic events: the Oklahoma bombing, the Columbine High School shootings, the World Trade Center bombing, and three wars: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the War on Terror. If you were between thirteen and fifteen years old, how would these events shape your thoughts about the future? In a practical way, this Gen Y remains optimistic.

Members of Gen Y are group-oriented, confident, goal-oriented, and civic. They have a more mundane outlook than Gen X. These new hires have been pampered by their parents. As children they received trophies simply for participating in a team. The parents told them that they were special and capable of doing anything. His non-school activities were scheduled (eg, karate, soccer, etc.) and his parents weren’t afraid to call a Boy Scout teacher, coach, or leader if they thought their son was not being treated fairly.

Generation Y kids have been raised with instant communication, unrealistic feedback, and quick decision-making as the norm. They believe they have the world in the palm of their hand. And, with their knowledge of current technology, they do.

So what can your managers do to prepare for Gen Y employees? Generation Y employees want to be heard and valued by their company when they start their business. They place great value on family and flexibility and will volunteer their time for causes they feel are important. They are fearless and are not intimidated by titles or corporate charts.

They love variety and are not afraid of change. If they think they have a good suggestion, they will own the idea. And they won’t be afraid to take the idea up the corporate ladder to be heard.

Successful companies must find ways to harness the talents of new hires, integrate them into the company, and turn ideas into competitive advantage. Progressive companies understand that learning is a two-way street. Generation Y employees will revolutionize internal and external communications. Businesses have a lot to teach Gen Y, but they also have a lot to learn from them. That will be difficult in rigid and highly structured companies.

Jack Welsh, former CEO of General Electric, stated that “… e-commerce knowledge is often inversely proportional to age and rank.” Hiring, challenging, and retaining good employees has always been the hallmark of successful companies.

Today’s successful companies must develop a culture of learning, sharing, and accepting change. They will employ two-way mentoring, blogging, new training platforms, and new ways to hire and promote people.

Generation Y employee training will change. Boring all-day seminars will be less frequent. Generation Y employees will be texting their friends during these seminars. They need the information from the seminar, but companies will have the training available on different platforms and in smaller “bite-size” portions. These training modules can be downloaded to the employee’s Blackberry, iPod or computer. The employee will view the sessions at home, on an airplane or listen to them in the car while driving to an appointment.

This is an exciting and dynamic time for business! The change will be constant, fast and revolutionary.

Generation Y employees will change the way we view hiring, turnover, mentoring, performance reviews, employee orientation, retention issues, and the way we communicate with our employees and customers. Are your managers ready for this new hire?

Questions for discussion:

  1. It takes about six months for a new hire to “learn to drive” and will likely leave the company in four years. How will your managers make the most of the creative energies of Gen Y employees?
  1. What systems within your company need to be reviewed to take advantage of these upcoming changes?
  1. How can you dramatically change the way you communicate with your customers and employees?

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