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Today I read an article from CareerBuilder about employers sharing their top staffing challenges.  This has inspired me to write an article similar, but completely talking about Gen-Y.  I have no specific percentages as this is just my professional opinion on what I have been hearing about Gen-Y employees.  I will list the challenges below and then explain them following the rest of the bullets.

 

  1. Professional Development – Developing employees into future leaders of their company.
  2. Empty Promises – Telling an employee they will be doing something that they want to do when in all reality the position requires less then 10% of that specific duty.
  3. Low Salary – Lower salary than other positions that are similar.
  4. Not Offering Flexible Schedule – Not allowing employees to determine the hours that they will work.
  5. Offering No Incentives – No drive to excel at your job.
 

Professional Development is extremely important in every organization it is molding the future leaders of your organization.  All Gen-Y’s have the “I want it now” perspective (myself included as I am also a Gen-Y).  This means that we want to exceed and work hard to make it to the top as soon as we can.  Although some may get frustrated if your company is Baby Boomer dominate as many of the Baby Boomers feel you must earn it and put in your time before your opinion matters.  This attitude you cannot have or else you will no be able to retain Gen-Y employees.  Or possibly worse you will retain the employees that you do not want that have no ambitions or they are comfortable where they are.  Allow them to get involved in the community with local chambers and other networking opportunities to help them grow there network.  As Gen-Y we like to be challenged and we love success as when we were younger we were always told we could do anything and be anything when we grow up. 

 

Empty Promises is something that too many employers are beginning to offer to the younger workforce in order to keep them in a job or hire them.  The thing about empty promises they tend to work themselves out.  If you were promised something in an interview and you have been in the job for a couple of months now.  The promise dissipates more and more as time goes on more than likely it was an empty promise.  I believe most companies have an issue with this because they have not re-evaluated many of their job descriptions when they post them.  We are living in a different age now and most positions have changed in the past 2-5 years.  A recently vacated position ad will sometimes be run as the company ran it last time that position was empty.  Only thing is now things have changed.  The way we run and operate on a day to day basis does not promise the same job description it once did.  Always update your job description because more than likely something has changed or you may want to add certain job duties as well.  This is very important as if we get into a position and things were promised and they are not being met then more than likely they will be looking elsewhere.

 

Low Salary is another thing that too many employers are offering to good quality employees.  Just because you are hiring someone straight out of college does not mean that they should be paid lower because they have no experience.  They have bills just as the rest of the world and more than likely more with student tuition continuing to rise.  Have you ever heard the saying “you get what you pay for”?  This is relevant in employee salary as well.  Gen-Y employees will be less motivated to work hard and finish tasks early if they are struggling to make it financially.  If you want a productive and happy Gen-Yer pay them a reasonable wage or it will reflect on their performance.

 

Many employers have started to offer flexible scheduling this is the Gen-Yer’s dream they can work on their time.  This is important as they sometimes struggle with certain shift changes compared to what they are used to.  If they work better and they are more productive at 7PM then why not offer that because overall you will be saving money.  They may not be able to get acquainted with the 9am-5pm shift as their schedule has been class Mon-Thurs generally 10am-7pm for the past 4 years.  I think it is extremely important to allow flex scheduling if the job description allows it.  On the same note as scheduling allow them some vacation time.  Many Gen-Y employees get burnt out after doing the same thing over a long period of time.  They will come back from a vacation refreshed and eager to come up with new ideas.  Compared to just putting in their time and looking forward to the weekend for some break in the normal routine.

 

Gen-Y employees generally like recognition and being rewarded for things.  If you offer incentives even if it is a monthly sales goal and if you meet it you get a $10 gift card to wherever it is important to keep people engaged.  You will be surprised the competition that will derive from something as small as a $10 gift card.  Good competition is healthy and keeps you on your toes and makes you strive to be your best.  Gen-Yer’s have developed an attitude that a paycheck is owed to them from their company and if that’s all they get there is no incentive there.  Get them motivated by offering something even if it is a small token to show your appreciation that they are working hard for you.  Small tokens of appreciation and “pats on the back” are very important to our generation it tells us that we are doing something right.  Then if we do more things that are good and similar we are on the right track.

 

In conclusion do not under estimate your Gen-Y employees even though they are young and may not have a plethora of experience they have great ideas.  Ideas that get people involved and it allows you to keep a thriving workforce.  Remember you will want to retire one day and you have to leave your legacy to the younger workforce.  So focus on the younger generations and teach them important tools to increase their knowledge.  Give them more responsibility so that they can learn what it means to fail and succeed in your business. 

 

-Scott

 

 
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