Managing Gen Y in Today's Workplace

The Positive Impact of a New Generation of Employees

Jul 31, 2009
Pervin Shaikh

Balancing the Expectations of Young Employees - Suat Eman

Employers are presented with a number of challenges as well as opportunities when dealing with a new generation of employees in the workplace

There is a plethora of negative and positive press directed towards Gen Y, which attempts to dissect and analyse their attributes and desires as well their whims and demands. This sort of analysis is helpful to the extent that it provides HR professionals and leaders an insight into a new generational mindset, as well as reflecting the changing nature of the working world

This is not a bad thing at all, in fact, if these needs are accommodated and expectations managed well, Gen Y will continue to make a significant impact and invaluable contribution to the workplace of today and tomorrow. The workplace of tomorrow requires a new mindset, attitude and approach in dealing with the many challenges which are likely to be presented by increased globalisation. A “one size” approach to managing Gen Y is also inappropriate; so is being focused on their wishes and whims. Instead, their needs can be accommodated by working with them to find out how best to engage their talents.

Different Era, Different Mindset

What is not helpful is portraying Gen Y as a completely different breed of whimsical employee who is content on fulfilling his/her own desires and agenda without too much regard for the employer. What is evident from published material are Gen Y’s expectations and beliefs about the world of work and the greater need for workplace flexibility and challenging and engaging work.

Employers should be more concerned about utilising Gen Y and their full potential, as this group of employee has a lot more to offer than meets the eye. Less emphasis should be spent on the idiosyncrasies and the negative side of Gen Y because this distracts the attention from the task at hand, which is to harness their talents in an ever increasing and turbulent world

Changing Face of the 21st Century Workplace

The workplace of the 21st century is ever changing reflecting the speed of change in the world. Interestingly, today’s workplace now has a generational mix of people ranging from Boomers, Gen X to Gen Y, who all bring with them great attributes as well as challenges because of their varying values and expectations. Moreover, this is good because it means that an organisation can capitalise upon the differences to suit business needs as it sees appropriate.

Some other changes which have taken place in the 21st century workplace are highlighted below:

More flexible working arrangements
Increase in virtual working
Greater engagement in cross border and cross cultural working and working across different time zones
Blurring of the work and social boundaries as a result of technological innovation and the ability to readily access information at the touch of a button whilst on the go with gadgets like blackberries
Rise of eastern economies such as China and India
Increase in networking professionally and socially
Engaging in meaningful working relationships with clients and developing rapport
Flatter organisational structures
Greater emphasis on social and environmental issues

Consequently, Gen Y may find some of the work boundaries put in place by Boomers and Gen X to be challenging because of the nature of their mindset, but this is a small challenge. Interestingly, Gen X posed many challenges for HR professionals and leaders when they first joined the workforce and Gen Y workers are now doing the same. The key for today’s leaders will be to managing these expectations and providing the necessary framework and guidance including the mentoring needed for Gen Y to progress successfully in the workplace.

Managing Expectations

If managed well by today’s leaders, the above changes, coupled with a mix of generational employees – especially with Gen Y in the equation, can prove to be a great asset in increasing business competitiveness. The key is to work more on focusing on the motivational aspirations of the different generations and identifying areas of potential friction rather than trying to get different employees to “fit in” with existing workplace practices and

Generational employees are nothing new in the working world, but the generational gaps do pose interesting challenges for the leadership in place in many work places around the globe. Employers should be concerned about Gen Y in more ways than one, but rather than focusing on the numerous challenges they pose, employers should concern themselves with how best to harness the talents and knowledge this generation of employee brings. Employees (regardless of age), who are adept at working flexibly with cross border, cross cultural teams are the ones who will contribute significantly to their workplaces.

Readers may also enjoy Gen Y and Boomers who are not so dissimilar which looks at the similarities between the two generations and looks at the characteristics of Gen Y and their values in greater detail.