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Volume 15, Number 12: Faculty Focus
December 2009

Listen to a 5-minute interview with Jana Seijts: Tips for managers working with employees from Generation Y   Listen (4.3MB)   Subscribe

Born between the years of 1980 and 2000, the mysterious creatures known as Generation Y make up a relatively small population in the workplace, comprising of approximately 7 per cent of the Canadian workforce; but, the reality is that this cohort is going only going to get larger.

Ashleigh Nimigan recently sat down with Jana Seijts, a lecturer at the Richard Ivey School of Business, to discuss our newest generation of workers, what they value, need, and want in an organization, as well as tips for managers working with employees from Generation Y. Ashleigh started by asking her why we look at the work habits of different generations in the first place.

A. People communicate based on their generations. Employees of different generations are going to bring different values, attitudes towards work, work styles, job satisfaction criteria, engagement beliefs, learning styles, expectations, as well as different levels of commitment into the workplace. These things are going to be different from generation to generation.

Q. What are some of the defining characteristics Generation Y?

A. They grew up at a time where their baby boomer parents were very child centred. They were very attentive. This generation is often called the Most Protected Generation in History. You saw parents putting bumper stickers on the back of their cars that said, “Honour Roll” or “Student On Board.”

Parents were very proud of their children; they nurtured their self esteem and confidence. These are the parents who told their kids, “You can be anything and do anything.” And so they really grew up with that [mindset], were given high expectation of what they can be, and they see the world in terms of those ideas. [They believe they] can do anything and they can be anything. [Generation Y is] competent, they’re strong, they’re astute, they’re technologically savvy –given the fact that technology has been ubiquitous throughout their life –they’re bright, they’re eager to learn, they are a well educated population, and they’re civic minded.

Q.  Can you give any tips for managers working with employees from Generation Y?

A. It’s really important for leaders to be just that: leaders. Generation Y have often –not always! –but often have little understanding of the expectations, or rules, or norms of working in a corporate environment. They’ve been in school their whole life, so this may be their first job. They might not know how to manoeuvre through the corporate structure. An effective leader will need to become a mentor and coach to this generation.

Another thing to understand is that they love to work collaboratively. This is a generation that has done lots of their projects, all the way from elementary school through to university, in teams. You’ll often find that this group works really well when they have somebody else to work with.

The third strategy is the idea that you need to start structuring assignments for this group and providing them with supervision as they’re doing the task. When they were growing up everything was scheduled for them. Their parents over planned for them; hence, they became great multitaskers, but they needed the structure provided to them by their parents.

Another thing is to keep them challenged and engaged. So give them projects, things they can learn on and feel valued, because this group likes to see that work has meaning and value to the organization, community, or something other than just work itself. They’re also interested in constant skill development, they want to be challenged, and above all, they don’t want to be trapped in the same job, year, after year, after year.

Number five, this group likes feedback on the work that they’re doing. The one caution here is to be very careful when addressing the short comings or concerns you might have with regards to someone in this generation because sometimes they’re sensitive to criticism. The idea here is to be supportive and to show the individual that you care about their growth, as well as their needs and their values.

Another thing that we often say to do is, this is a group, more than any other group in history, they like to see that work is fun. You’ll see that there are organizations, for example, that have social committees and social events that they plan for their staff.

And finally, I think it’s important to understand that this group needs flexibility in work time. You may, as an organization, need to look at things like flexible work schedules, telecommuting, home office arrangements…The key here again is that you have to remember that their personal values reflect the desire to balance social and career interest. So as a leader, you need to think about these values that this population has if you want to retain them and keep them happy in the workplace.

That was Jana Seijts, Lecturer of Management Communications at The Richard Ivey School of Business.