The last Online Educa e-learning conference in Berlin touched on some interesting issues in relation to the changing demographics in the workplace especially in reference to Generation Y. Before I summarize my learning from this let's look at what all this generation business actually means. Organisations have four generations of workers as outlined below:
- Traditionalists - aged 65 and over
- Baby Boomers - aged 48 to 65
- Generation X - aged 30 to 47
- Generation Y - below 30
Karen Velasco, MD of organisational Development at PeopleSolve presented some research from Ashridge Business School which reveals that Generation Y:
- demand high quality learning that meets their needs (although previous generations had the same needs they just didn't demand it)
- see themselves as more ambitious than others see them
- appear to have greater maturity in terms of their global awareness and the fact that they are more streetwise
- But they have been criticized to be too self focused and lack emotional intelligence
Velasco said, organisations that want to manage Generation Y must understand them. But also Generation Y need to acquire certain workplace skills they are not taught in school if they are to be the successful leaders and thinkers of the future. She also emphasizes that traditional management styles will not appeal to this generation. Generation Y prefers to:
- work collaboratively and don't like being told what to do
- appreciate attentive management where they are given a lot of attention and constant feedback to help highlight their faults and cause them to improve
A well known fact about Generation Y is that they grew up using the internet and are often referred to as digital natives because they are very in tune with technology.They expect the workplace therefore to be up to date in technology. Velasco gave these pointers for creating a flexible workplace that can work with all the different generations at the same time:
- adopting a flexible management approach
- providing regular feedback
- being goal-specific and accurately measure goals
- reward appropriately
- let people get on with their jobs
- encourage mentoring
- embrace diversity
- adopt a management style that enables each generation
- acknowledge what you cannot change
- employ the talents and strengths of each generation.
Source: Training Journal - January 2012
