The matric students of 2009 were born after Nelson Mandela was released and have done their entire schooling in the new South Africa. They are part of a group of young people known internationally as Generation Y. The oldest of this generation is already working for you, and they bring a very different attitude to the workplace. Why Generation Y is different, and what you can do to get the most out of them, especially during a recession?
It’s been 20 years since some of the most amazing moments of human history changed our world forever. In the first few months of 1989, students led a Chinese revolution, culminating in June’s iconic Tiananmen Square protests. In Iran, the Ayatollah’s funeral brought two million young Iranians to the streets on 6 June 1989. On 23 August 1989, two million people in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania held hands across their countries to form a single human chain to protest Soviet occupation.
On 9 November that same year, the Berlin wall came down, and a few days later Prague experienced a “velvet revolution” as hundreds of thousands took to the streets. On Christmas day, 1989, the Romanian dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu was hanged outside his palace. The following day, Mikhail Gorbachev proclaimed perestroika and banned the communist party in Russia. And, on 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in jail.
Eight months, and the entire world was changed – north, south, east and west. And today’s 20-something young people can’t remember any of it – for them, it’s just history. They’ve grown up in a new world, not just politically, but also technologically. Windows was released in 1992, the first SMS was sent from a cellphone in Finland in 1993, and Netscape Navigator was launched in 1994, quickly capturing 90% of the Internet browsing market.
And economically, they’ve never really experienced much of a downturn. The IT bust of March 2000, following the complete non-event of the Y2K bug (remember that?), now seems like a mere blip in what was an almost unbroken boom period through the 1990s to September 2008.
Generation Y: Freedom’s children
This quick history lesson is important context. Generational theory explains that people born during the same era are influenced, shaped and moulded by society’s reaction to world events. Today’s young people, sometimes called Generation Y, have grown up in a very different world, and have different values and attitudes. Understanding this will make it easier to identify what motivates and drives your younger employees and consumers and how you can influence them. It’s important to understand that they’re unlike any generation that has preceded them.
There is no consensus over the exact birth dates that define Generation Y. In America, and therefore in most mainstream media, they are normally defined as the young people born from 1978 to 2002. In South Africa, they’re generally regarded as the children who cannot remember apartheid, born from the late 1980s onwards. Either way, they’re your youngest employees and customers, and more of them are “coming soon to an office near you”.
Wake up call
We’re talking about a generation of people who have experienced very little adversity in their lives thus far. This is their first economic downturn, and most of them have been taken by surprise. I was speaking with a business owner recently, who had just realised that most of his young sales team had never actually sold anything. His industry had been growing so much over the past 10 years, with his products so easy to sell, that in all honesty, his “sales” team had been more of an order taking team; they had never needed to chase down sales or do cold calling.
As the recession hit, they needed to develop real selling skills. After a few difficult months, this business owner had done some hard-core sales training. He turned his young team around – from low morale, almost depressed, to thriving and excited about hunting for new leads and closing sales. These young people might exude confidence, but they’re actually new to the world of work, and might need a bit more handholding and training than they appear to.
Because this generation of young people grew up with digital technology, they expect everyone else to be as comfortable as they are using it. And because they grew up in a world filled with the optimism about change, they became fearless about the future. As a result, they may be somewhat lost in this time of economic recession. Because this generation has been extremely pampered and nurtured since they were toddlers, with every moment of their days filled with adult-led activities, they are both high-performance and high-maintenance, with a strong sense of self-worth.
In other words, if you’re prepared to put in some effort, they could be brilliant for you right now.
A different frame of mind
Leaders need to understand that a younger generation of staff and customers, who have never experienced a downturn, have different expectations of the workplace and will respond to the stress of the current environment in different ways to older people. Not just because they are younger, but also because they have a different set of generational values guiding their attitudes and behaviours. As frustrating as they might sometimes be, your business can benefit greatly from their outlook, energy and passion. But it will take dedicated leadership – and a mindset shift – to make it happen.
How to get more from the me generation
- Communicate differently. Generation Y’ers prefer short and sharp emails to long-winded memos, they stay connected via social media, and they are comfortable using text messages for formal communication. Improve your use of digital communication, and don’t restrict their access to it.
- Meetings and teams. Older staff may expect a phone call or face-to-face meetings on important topics, but younger workers prefer virtual problem solving. They want meetings to be short, to the point, and interactive – they don’t see the value of a meeting or presentation if all you do is speak at them; rather just send an email. They work best in teams when they have a specific and unique contribution in the team.
- They need to know “why”. They are less likely to respond to the traditional command-and-control type of management still popular in many of today’s workplaces. They’ve grown up questioning parents and teachers – and they will question their managers, too. Unless they have been given a reason to do something, they won’t be inclined to do it. This is a critical issue in difficult times – it may seem obvious to management that the strategy presented to the team makes sense and is appropriate for the situation, but has the reason why it will work been explained?
- Give them constant feedback. An annual review is insufficient – they want feedback at the end of every project, whether it’s a day, week or month-long event. They also want a personal mentor or coach.
- Help them grow and they’ll stay. In a world where there is no job security, today’s young people are passionate about developing their CVs and ensuring their skills are current and honed. The recession might give them a reason to stay with you slightly longer than they anticipated, but don’t be complacent about staff turnover. As an upturn begins, they might be the first out of the door if you take them for granted now. It may be a paradox, but the more confident your people are that they could get another job somewhere else, the more likely they are to stay with you. Spend time developing them, and finding out why they work for you, really (tip: it’s not because they want to make you or your shareholders rich). Help them achieve their personal goals, and they’ll help you achieve yours.
- They hate being bored or doing insignificant work. They need to be kept busy, and they need to know that the work they do makes a meaningful contribution. They’re multi-taskers and they don’t like to stay too long on any one assignment
- They have very different priorities. Whereas older staff members generally see loyalty to the company as a given and don’t have to be asked to work overtime and put their employer first; younger employees are much more likely to prioritise family and personal commitments, especially when they know you’re unlikely to be paying bonuses this year. They also want to have fun at the workplace – this might be easiest to forget during tough times.