Each generation has it’s own type of career path and communication style. It’s important to know how to effectively manage and retain employees in today’s workplace.
Characteristics of the generations:
Leaders are confronting the reality that for Xers and Millennials too, loyalty in the workplace is no longer a two-way street. Partners and shareholders who expect the Generational CODES that surround employment loyalty to be the same for the next generation and match their CODES will be severely disappointed. This Big Mistake has set up many organizations’ succession plans for serious breakdowns.
Millennials frequently find themselves bored at work; they begin to fill in their creative needs by creating options through parallel career-pathing. They may be working for your organization, but on the side, many of them are doing small start-up projects. Maybe it’s ad hoc temporary work, maybe it’s pro bono volunteering, or even a class in a new field, but they are planning another possible career. Often, it’s something in the software area or something in the creative area where they have an outlet just in case they’re ready some day to step out on their own. They aren’t just living one dimension—they’re living two or three—and always keeping their options open.
This open-option lifestyle does not seem to them like a breach of contract with their current employers. They understand that if their employers decide they are not needed, the Millennials will be cut from the workforce. So Millennials keeps their options open and a backup plan in play. Becoming a fully-functioning revenue-producing team member can easily take three, twelve, or even eighteen months from a new hire’s start date. But for many Millennials, twelve to eighteen months is about the length of time it takes for them before they will look for a new opportunity or challenge. You can either be open to exploring with them what their futures might look like at your company, or (gulp), if you’re not ready to help them find a next step up the corporate ladder or in a direction they want to go with the company, someone from your competition probably is talking to them.
Just as corporate America is ready for Xers to move into management, Xers are preparing to step off the corporate ladder and make a little boutique shop of their own. Whether Xers are partners, stakeholders, or rank and file employees, they dream—in fact yearn—to break out on their own. Approximately one in four Xers plans to start his or her own entrepreneurial endeavor in the next ten years. They are quietly evaluating the value proposition of staying with your organization. Even when they stay in one company for extended periods of time, Xers considers themselves as “Intrepreneurs” (internal entrepreneurs).
The need for employees to have a compatible environment to their Generational CODES is reaching a critical point. Xers may have put up with not having the personal work/life balance they wanted for themselves, but as young families grow, they are not willing to sacrifice time with their kids. If you want their choice to be to stay with you, you’d better be engaging in active dialogue and negotiations sooner rather than later!
Retain: Why Should I Stay?
The best companies to work for are consistently articulate not only about the skills employees need to perform well, but they also invest in supporting employees to learn new tools on the job that will add to their portfolios for the future. Although it seems counterintuitive, employers who take an active role in helping employees prepare themselves for the future have lower turnover and higher productivity.
A Traditionalist was happy to have a job at a stable organization where a hard day’s work was its own reward.
Baby Boomers lived by the creed that “If I do my job and stay in the game, I will be rewarded with promotions, raises, financial and experiential bonuses, a company car, or other prestige perks like an office position and assigned parking.” The system and criteria for evaluation was murky at best, held close to the vest of the top management, and timelines were never clear. It certainly was not acceptable to ask your superior directly, or publicly.
As Gen Xers entered the workplace, they chafed at the lack of communication and asked some bold questions that were ignored until the boom of the dot-com era. Suddenly, interviews were both entrance and exit conversations. Xers were not only asking about their job description and duties, but when their stocks would vest. They asked for transparency in the leadership’s exit strategy; alas these conversations did not always go well, and often the Xer was left with broken promises and dashed dreams.
Many Millennials are leaving interviewers flabbergasted by their expectations that employers will have a clear career path lined out for them on how they can quickly move up the leadership success ladder at the organization. They are not willing to wait for someday—maybe if the stars align—to be their career plan. They are demanding that employers have a plan similar to how they selected and completed their major course of studies as undergraduates.
Both Millennials and Xers are looking down the road at what the future holds and how they can prepare for it today. They know that their bosses will make choices that are best for the company and those choices may not necessarily be in their favor.
Generationally Savvy Solutions:
Millennials are used to having options laid out before them by their helicopter parents and college counselors. Resisting this reality is not a long-term solution. One of the best ways to retain these Millennials is to help them figure out what they want to be “when they grow up.” Through open dialogue, managers can discover and address how to capture or channel that creativity and need for expression before it’s too late. Remember, if you’re not talking to them about it, your competition will be. Yes, Millennials have high expectations that their career experiences will be personally fulfilling opportunities to make new friends, learn new skills, and connect to a larger purpose. They are looking for a road map to success, and they expect their companies to provide it. Early in the Millennials’ first thirty days, you want to begin the dialogue of their future steps with statements by managers and mentors such as, “We believe it’s worth building a career through our company. You are a great match for us and we are putting our investment in you.” “Oh, they want to love their job?” co-workers and leaders may be thinking. “Is that all?” Millennials, under the intense scrutiny of their helicopter parents, have been working on their résumés practically since they were in diapers. With 76 million peers, Millennials have been competing for spots in daycare, pre-school, and top schools, and now it’s time to compete for spots at top companies. They’re used to striving to overachieve in sports, academics, and even volunteer services, and now they will want to overachieve on the job for you—if you inspire them.
