You will have heard of the phrase Generation Y , but what does it mean to you as an employer?
Well first of all lets define what it is: they are defined as being born between 1980 and 1994, and aged between 13-27. So, as you can see they are your future employees.
So to give you an insight into the generation Y work philosophy, here are 10 things you need to know about employing generation Y'ers:
- They don't expect to be asked about their work experience - they have very little. They will tell you how the world is moving so fast they don't need experience - but they do expect you to still give them the opportunity to show what they can do.
- They will want to work in a two-way management situation. Just don't expect them to sit back and take instruction, they will reply with their own input.
- Questions. Be prepared - all they do is ask questions.
- They need to be part of a continuous feedback loop. They constantly need reassurance and constant feedback to keep their interest.
- Money is key. They have an inbuilt expectancy to be paid a good salary from the beginning.
- Training is important, but so is the style of training. They will want to pass test like training, where scores and definitive marks are given - don't forget they are not long out of school/college.
- Short attention spans. Boredom will kick in quite quickly with them, and don't expect them to work unlimited hours in a day to get that project done, they will only work when they want to.
- They are focused on their social life and consequently plan work around it, rather than the other way around.
- Don't expect them to win that gold watch for staying long in your company. They will already be planning the next job before they have even started with you. And they see nothing wrong with this.
- What does money mean to them? A means to an end - they won't be buying a house, they will be focusing on enjoying themselves. So they will earn (and spend) what it takes to do that, not much more.
So how do you go about recruiting these generation Y'ers then? Well, you need to have a presence in the places that these people frequent - blogs, social networks, forums, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr etc. So are you getting the message? To recruit them you need to interact with them first in the places they are most comfortable!
You will need to have a corporate blog and be active in the blogging community specific to your industry sector. Ideally some form of social network would be good, and you will need to be active in the sites like Facebook and MySpace. Having a presence on content sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr will also be important.
We are currently writing a paper on recruiting generation Y employees. If you would like to be on of the first to receive a free copy, then just email me with 'Please send me a Gen Y copy' in the subject line. You will then receive your copy by email very soon.
Of course all of this is time hungry, but if you want to recruit the Y generation - and of course you will - then you need to be present in these places they regularly frequent.
If you would like to us to help you with:
- Reviewing your existing generation Y recruitment strategy
- Setting up a recruitment strategy to target generation Y people
- Setting up a workshop looking at generation Y in your workplace
- Reviewing the implication of generation Y on your company
- Any other generation Y recruitment issues
Contact us today on 0870 850 8038 or email us, for an initial no obligation conversation.
You can of course use our live chat function on this page to chat to us now online.
