expectations or they will risk losing them.
MEMBERS OF GENERATION Y:
• Have great expectations
• Are loyal
• Want to have fun
• Are smart cookies
They are loyal
Due to their tendency to change companies at a much faster rate than previous generations, generation Y has at times been unfairly labelled as disloyal. However, they are simply responding to the environment they were raised in. Many members of generation Y saw their parents lose their jobs in the recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s after decades of service. After witnessing the fallout from this job loss, they are not inclined to provide the same level of loyalty to companies that their parents did. When their earliest exposure to the business environment taught them that world offers little job security, can you blame them for changing roles more frequently than previous generations?
However, just because they are more likely to change employers (the average employee tenure in 1960 was fifteen years; today it is four), this should not been seen as a sign of disloyalty. Gen Ys are loyal. They are loyal to friends and they are loyal to brands. You only have to be outside an Apple store the day before a new iPhone is released to see evidence of this loyalty in the queues that snake down the street and around the block.
Leaders need to make generation Ys feel valued. They need to be more inclusive and transparent in the way they communicate and lead. They need to provide more regular feedback to this generation than they provided to previous generations. They need to be more real. This generation is screaming out for leaders to be more real – and they are getting a lot of support from the members of other generations, who see the value in people who lead with authenticity and transparency.
So generation Y can be loyal. Leaders and companies just need to work harder to earn their loyalty by offering a combination of tangible, real-time rewards, open lines of communication and transparency. The long, distant promise of promotions and job security does not rate for generation Y.
They want to have fun
Generation Y employees expect to enjoy their job. The thought of staying in a job they hate is absurd to them, and you really can't blame them. A mindset of ‘If you're having fun you can't be working’ will not serve you well if you are leading this generation.
When it comes to having fun at work, I think we can learn some important lessons from the Danes. Many words exist in one language and not in another language. One such word exists in the Danish language but not in English – ‘arbejdsglæde’. ‘Arbejde’ means ‘work’ and ‘glæde’ means ‘happiness’, so ‘arbejdsglæde’ is ‘happiness at work’. This word also exists in the other Nordic languages but does not exist in any other language group.
On the flip side, the Japanese have ‘karoshi’, a unique word that translates to ‘death from overwork’. Not surprisingly, no such word exists in Danish. Nordic workplaces have a strong focus on making their employees happy. Danes expect to enjoy themselves at work, and why shouldn't you too? Your employees are catching on to this train of thought and so have increasing expectations that their time at work should be enjoyable.
GENERATION Y CAN BE loyal. LEADERS AND COMPANIES JUST NEED TO WORK HARDER TO EARN THEIR LOYALTY BY OFFERING A COMBINATION OF TANGIBLE, REAL-TIME REWARDS, OPEN LINES OF COMMUNICATION AND transparency.
As a leader, you don't have to turn into a stand-up comic, but thinking that you can't have fun at work is misguided and, I would argue, not realistic. This approach normally comes from a leader who is perhaps trying to be the serious leader they think they are expected to be. Being a strict, staid boss is an outdated concept. Being more relaxed and open to the concept of fun is more real and gives you a greater chance of connecting and engaging the hearts and minds of the people that work for you.
They are smart cookies
Generation Y is the most formally educated generation ever. Education rates in Australia have been on the rise for decades and this means much of the power has shifted to employees.
Unlike previous generations, members of generation Y don't feel the need to work in an organisation for years before they ask for a change of role or promotion, or increased work–life balance. They know what they expect and demand these aspects from their first day at work – many will run through their expectations during the interview process. I know of one graduate who had interviews with three of Australia's largest corporations. While these corporations were interviewing him, he was also interviewing them. He received offers from all three but he chose the company that had the greater commitment to volunteering in the community through their skilled volunteer program.
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