Generation Y Connects Part II

As promised, albeit over a month ago, this is a follow-up to my previous post about Gen Y in the workplace. In Generation Y Connects (Part I), I succinctly established who Gen Y are and how they’re perceived in the workforce; in this post I’m going to explain the strategies that my company uses to communicate with them. 

My employer specializes in creating integrated communication campaigns that relay Loss Prevention and Safety (LPS) messages to associate-level employees of large American retailers–we do more traditional marketing communications as well, but our specialty is helping our clients protect their bottom line. Just to provide some context, we begin any of our LPS campaigns by researching a given company’s employees’ perspectives on Loss Prevention. We prove that associate-level employees are typically unaware of how to spot potential shoplifters, the consequences of internal theft, and spotting hazards directly affects their personal safety.

While collecting information about employees’ perceptions about LPS in the workplace, we also collect their demographic information (specifically gender and age). So, for example, a typical employee of Winners is a female 17-22 years old, a typical employee of Office Max is a male 20-26 years old. Associate-level employees come from a younger demographic—these positions typically don’t pay very well and don’t include benefits (I’m not suggesting the aforementioned retailers don’t pay well; entry-level positions in any industry don’t pay very well—unless you’re working on an oil rig, but that’s an entirely different story.) As time goes on, and more and more members from Gen Y enter the workforce, our company has come up with four strategies to effectively communicate training messages to them:

1. Voice and Delivery
2. Expectations
3. What’s in it for me?
4. Personalization

Voice and Delivery

As mentioned, Generation Y has grown up in a culture of receiving and assimilating large amounts of information on demand. Employers have to avoid inundating their employees with extraneous information to which Generation Y’ers won’t relate to—quite frankly, Gen Y becomes bored easily and is quick to move on to the next thing. My company use communication and graphic design aesthetics to synthesize information into drillable packets that Gen Y’ers can quickly access and compartmentalize. We use straightforward language and avoid “corporate” jargon–avoiding a dictatorial or overly authoritative communication style voice with that of being team player.

Expectations

Gen Y’ers demand the benefit of the doubt and respect–and this can come across as a sense of entitlement or privilege. We highlight happy, fun or, low stress aspects of their jobs to demonstrate the flexibility in their job tasks. Our communications speak to Gen Y’ers as colleagues, not as subordinates–again, Gen Y has been trained to be confident in their talents and are more willing to cooperate with a friendly boss. Any training material for Gen Y’ers should always be focused on “work” from a realistic and appreciative point of view, but it should also be friendly and have a sense of humour. Regular recognition of good work can also go a long way–tangible rewards of a perceived value are important for engaging those who go above and beyond.

What’s in it for me?

In communicating to a Gen Y audience, it’s important to illustrate the benefits for everyone involved, the consistent expectations for their performance, the potential flexibility available for their unique style, and specificity in how they should operate. It must be made clear what the individual benefit is for doing something, especially if it’s perceived as going above and beyond their job–so, for example, my company has become the industry leader in explaining to employees the benefits of not stealing, reporting internal theft, and working safely. Gen Y’ers have a strong work ethic, however, it is best engaged when they are provided with challenging opportunities that really matter to them, have an altruistic motive, or offer them increased responsibility as a reward for their accomplishments. Furthermore, Gen Y’ers gravitate toward jobs that offer regular constructive feedback for development, ongoing training and learning opportunities.

Personalization

Finally, any opportunity to personalize communications with Gen Y’ers is a good idea. they’re attuned to recognizing hype, spin, or “fluff” and when messages have a sincere, personal touch they tend to be more frequently given the benefit of the doubt and accepted. One way I like to think of this is imagining Gen Y as the Simpsons generation–they’ve been raised around media with a profound sense of ironic and parodic humour, and this carries forward in their ability to detect doublespeak. Communication modes that encourage spending time getting to know employees, recognizing their capabilities, and engage them in mentoring dynamics also tend to be accepted as genuine.

Fortunately, my employer embraces all of these strategies in dealing with their employees as well. I guess that’s why I love blogging about my job.

 

Generation Y Connects

 

 

What is Gen Y?

Every 17 year old entering the workforce has been around the Internet for their entire life! Generation Y is the generation who has grown up around advanced networking technologies such as mobile phones and the Internet–also know as the iPod generation, the Echo Boomers, Generation “Why”, or the Millennials. I’ve been working on a research project for my employers to show how our clients can more effectively communicate with their Gen Y staff. Here’s the first part of what I’ve found:

Gen Y in pop culture

The Mac vs PC commercials are one great example of Generation Y in popular culture. These commercials are a parodic representation of the generation gap between Generation X/Baby Boomers and Generation Y (loosely defined as the generation that has grown up around computers and the Internet).PC is an uptight, older, suit wearing, glasses, balding, shaved geek; whereas, Mac is a laid back, casually dressed, soul-patched ‘cool guy’. These commercials are hilarious and effectively use the X/Y gap to sell Macs. I argue that these commercials align Mac users of all ages with Generation Y in an attempt to ‘geekify’ PCs as well as make investing in a Mac something cool and sexy—a really successful campaign and BRILLIANT marketing.

Gen Y in the workforce

Professional and popular bloggers, proud members of Gen Y, frequently post about the issue of Generation Y in the workforce. But career and human resources specialists are also keen to discuss this demographic. For example, Dr Randall Hansen, director of Quint Careers, outlines what he sees as the “perceptions and realities” of Gen Y in the workforce:

Perception	Reality
They are spoiled.	Baby Boomer parents coddled this generation by constantly telling them how special they were and that anything they sought was possible. They were rewarded for every little thing, receiving trophies and prizes simply for participating.
They have a poor work ethic.	Actually, texting, instant messaging, social networking, and Web surfing have all made Generation Y workers more competent, efficient, and productive. They have a strong work ethic — not just in a 9-5 sort of way. Generation Y wants work to be fun and flexible and follows a mantra of working smarter, not harder.
They don’t respect authority.	This group has been raised to think critically, they’re very independent and not afraid to ask questions and challenge the status-quo. It’s not that these folks have little respect for authority; on the contrary, they admire their employers and want the same in return.
They’re self-centered and individualistic.	Gen Y have been taught the value of individuality and independent thinking. They see themselves as unique and, unlike previous generations, these workers do not plan to let their jobs define who they are.
They’re not committed to the company.	This generation has been raised in an age of unprecedented access to knowledge and communication. Gen Y workers believe their work should have meaning. More than ever, these workers are seeking greater fulfillment and are only willing to work hard at jobs that provide it.
They lack social skills.	Generation Y are some of the most social of any generational cohort; it’s just that they communicate and socialize much differently from the rest of us.

 

In a recent post to the police blog Officer.com, Sgt. Susan Grant, a member of the Saskatoon police department, outlines some of her observations of Gen Y police officers:

[Generation Y] are three times the size of Generation X . . . [and] were brought up with the influence of TV, internet, cell phones and video games and learned to have instant satisfaction for any and all outputs through these instruments. They have the inability to concentrate for a long time at one task and are constantly doing many things at one time; talking on cell phone while on the internet and listening to their iPOD.

I’ll add that the onset of technology has drastically changed the way that young people define themselves. Along with techno-globalization comes the ability to publish egos worldwide. User generated content sites like Youtube allow some young people to become instantly famous—one Georgetown University student was recently hired to be a fulltime video blogger in Washington DC, 9 months after he started doing fake political interviews with the heads of politicians cut out and taped to the backs of pencils. There is a certain amount of hubris that comes with this–a tone of “why should I listen to YOU when I have 8000 friends on Facebook who will validate my decisions?”

So, what does this all mean for employers? That will be my next post.