August 08, 2007

First Steps Conference....Networking Dinner # 2 (31st June 2007)

Sand_heart_freeWho was there? - Participants for our second networking dinner

What we explored

  • The different sides of the graduate market
  • Skills gap
  • Funding sources for the First Steps! social conference

Thoughts that were expressed in the networking focus group

Graduate Market - what can students do to make themselves more marketable - what can they do to create work for themselves?Geny1

  • Demonstrate that you can do high value adding work - despite the huge amount of offshoring going on, there is still a need for high value adding work in the UK - typically only jobs of the "number crunching" type are offshored. Graduates need to be prepared demonstrate that they fall into the "value adding" category rather than the "number crunching category" to become more employable
  • Enterprise is needed more than qualifications on the market - the UK market needs more enterprise in order to be successful in the global market. Many employers are looking for enterprise skills and entrepreneurial skills even though they may not have articulated it in their role descriptions. Having these skills will make graduates more attractive to employers in general
  • Do internships - intern experiences with different types of organisations and different industries / sectors will give students salable work experience, as well as allowing students to explore what kind of work they can be passionate about. This is extremely valuable experience to obtain - students should strive to get internships even if they need to volunteer their time to get internships in their target organisations
  • Don't just consider big organisations - graduates need to open themselves up the SME (small medium enterprise) and third sector markets to open up their employment options. Unfortunately, since these since organisations are not on the conventional graduate recruitment circuit, it will be more of a challenge to identify suitable organisations to approach. On the sunnier side, these smaller organisations typically do not have fixed recruitment processes and so will be less likely to discriminate on qualifications. Generally, these organisations will be open to proactive individuals approaching them as they are always on the look out for good people to help their businesses to grow and expand. Graduates who want to work for these organisations will need to demonstrate that they are self-starting and self-learning since these organisations typically don't have huge amount of managerial time or training budgets for graduates who need their hands held
  • Consider big organisations that do not have graduate schemes - many of the bigger organisations do not have special recruitment processes for graduates and so do not appear on the graduate recruitment circuit. However, like the SME market (see the point above), they are looking for proactive good people on a ongoing basis to fill graduate caliber positions that become available
  • Get values - students need to develop themselves more holistically - work experience, voluntary work and other extra curricular activities are all needed to help to show employers the value system that the students are operating from
  • Consider short projects to gain experience - even small voluntary projects (for charities, community groups, for the university etc) that are completed in a couple of weeks can provide invaluable work experience and skills that can be marketed
  • Make volunteering the norm to gain skills and experience that employers want - in some countries like Canada it is expected that students and graduates will have done a considerable amount of voluntary work to get onto the work ladder
  • Be proactive in company research - students need to be more active in their research to find organisations that would be suited them. Students should try to meet people who work in the organisations rather than just relying on the marketing literature that has been provided by the organisations
  • Demonstrate that you can handle work by building a portfolio of experience - graduate employers are finding it difficult to fill their graduate positions even though an abundance of graduates have applied because significant basic work skills are missing. European graduates and students are seen as more employable because it is a norm in Europe to build up a portfolio of voluntary and internship work experience to develop these work skills
  • Hunt down jobs and work experience opportunities like International students - graduates need to be more hungry for the work. Currently domestic students expect everything to be handed to them, whilst international students are actively looking for work experience. UK students and graduates are being outsmarted by those from abroad - and oftentimes the difference is like chalk and cheese in terms of enthusiasm and passion
  • Sometimes it is good to wait if you have work experience to offer - some graduates wait 6 months or so after they have graduated before looking for a job. Good graduates who already have work experience will still be able to find work and be paid several thousand pounds over the market rate for positions that employers have been struggling to fill
  • Raise your graduate caliber - the phrase "graduate caliber" no longer means what it meant a decade ago - the employers on the market feels that graduate caliber has dropped considerably over the past years. The time has passed where graduates had jobs handed to them on a plate. Successful graduates are the ones that have worked at being seen to be more than the "standard" graduate by demonstrating that they can perform and deliver with relevant experience and attitude
  • Exceed employer expectations if you have high standards - if graduates have high expectations that they want their employer to meet, they need to make sure that they can prove that they can exceed expectations of their selected employers
  • Think differently about yourself - you are more than a qualification - graduates need to determine what makes them unique as person (values, strengths etc). This assessment will help the graduate to determine the organisations which would value the whole package the graduate has to offer
  • Work experience is better than backpacking experience - actual work experience has more value on the market than the experience gained as a result of backpacking trips
  • Use "gap" year to differentiate yourself - working abroad in Brazil is no longer a differentiator in the graduate market because "everyone is doing the Brazil thing". This kind of working / volunteering abroad is considered the easy option by employers - finding a job in the local market to gain work experience will be more attractive to future employers. If students do want to volunteer in their gap year, they would be better off being active in their local communities (helping out charities, communities, other third sector organisations) rather than volunteering abroad
  • Get the right attitude - graduates need to work at developing a proactive attitude so that they come across as having spark and passion - graduates who have the right attitude are more attractive to employers. Having a great attitude can also make up for not having all the skills that the employer is looking for as employers will be more disposed towards recruiting on attitude and training for missing skills
  • Get rid of apathy - many students and graduates on the market are considered to be "too apathetic" and nonchalant by employers - apathy is not an attractive quality for employers no matter how great your qualifications are
  • Use personal development to differentiate yourself - graduates will become more attractive to employers in general if they show that they have the ability for self-analysis and self-learning
  • Value your education - higher education is not "business as usual" for the majority of the world who need to make huge sacrifices to gain a higher education. Students need to value their higher education more and to be hungry for the opportunities that they now have access for as a result of their degree. The current apathy and lack of care from students and graduates is making higher education a commodity rather than something to be valued
  • Don't go for high pay - graduates that choose work based solely on what they will get paid will often find that they are in the wrong job
  • Control your helicopter parents - helicopter parenting is now creeping into the UK - students are advised to not let their parents become too involved in their job searching activities. Parents need to be kept away from potential employers!
  • Understand that employers want to work with people rather than qualification - once graduates have passed the filters that employers have put into place to reduce the number of people that they have to consider, employers will then select based on attitude, passion and fit with the organisation's culture. If graduates have not developed themselves as a unique people who are something more than their qualifications and resume, they will not get past the final round to achieve a successful job offer
  • Understand you will have multiple careers - generally most graduates will need to explore several different careers to determine which career they want to focus on in the long term. This tendency can have a negative impact with potential employers if it is not managed well. Whilst graduates are not expected to stay in a job forever, they will still need to demonstrate to potential employers that they will stay long enough in the job so that the employers can reap the benefits from the training and effort provided to get the graduates up to speed
  • Working for corporates will require a certain mentality - if graduates are passionate about being highly creative and innovative in their work, they will be better off with a smaller organisation since larger ones are more set in their ways. Graduates will also need to watch out for organisations that are only paying lip service to creativity - these organisations will recruit for creativity but they do not have a culture that supports creativity
  • Look for intelligent organisations - all companies are not the same - there are big cultural differences between organisations. Some employers are intelligent about how to work with young people, others are not so intelligent. Some will see graduates as a cog in the machine, others will see them as a whole person with strengths, weaknesses, hopes and desires
  • Use your network of friends and family to find work - 40% of jobs in the USA are filled by internal recommendation by staff. Graduates and students need to leverage their network rather than solely relying on conventional graduate recruitment paths. To be successful in this method, graduates need to ensure that they are the type of person that their network will be happy to refer to employers. This is the best route into organisations who do not normally recruit graduates and students
  • Why are graduates and students so passionate in their "life" activities and apathetic about "work" activities? - Generation Y is an authentic generation. Graduates and students typically do not feel excited about work/professional life because they do not see work as an authentic avenue for expressing what they are passionate about in life. They see work as something to be tolerated so that they can live the rest of life as they like. When young people get to see that their work will help them to achieve what they desire from life, they can move from "apathetic and switched off" to "hungry and switched on" overnight...it is all about finding the right context

Graduate Market - What can employers do to make the most of student and graduate resource available on the market?Geny1_2

  • Understand labour market dynamics more and take advantage of the graduate resource available - we are approaching a demographic challenge - there will soon be shortage of people in the UK who can work to deliver the current economy when the Baby Boomers start retiring on mass. Since this demographic shortage is also a global phenomena, the UK shortage cannot be fully solved with back-filling strategies such as offshoring and migrant labour
  • Use a bottom up approach - employers will be able to get more value from graduates if they are able to assess and creatively use the skills that are actually available on the graduate market to deliver their business objectives rather than moaning about what is missing. At the moment, most employers are operating from a top down approach where they dictate what they want without taking into consideration what resources and skills are actually available
  • Use technology to facilitate digging into the skills that applicants have - the technology is now available to facilitate employers to have a more bottom up approach in their recruitment process
  • Even Government need to be less choosy - the Government is a large employer of graduates and even it is currently struggling to fill its graduate positions despite the large number of applicants. As a example, Government recruiters are even filtering out candidates if they do not have Power Point skills....Power Point skills can typically be gained with a one day course. Employers need to do more work to identify skills that are essential and skills that they can train for in order to expand the pool of suitable candidates available to them
  • Employers need to see themselves as sellers rather than buyers - employers need to market the opportunities that can offer in order to attract the kind of graduates that they want rather than waiting to be approached as customers
  • Graduate recruitment programmes need to have more intelligence - many graduate employers are just not looking for the right skills - they are looking for outdated skills and they do not take account of the new skills that are coming on to the market. This is resulting in graduates becoming frustrated because the newer skills that they have to offer are not being considered by employers
  • The opportunity to giving back for Generation Y is more important than employers think - employers need to provide graduates with more opportunities to contribute back to community - Generation Y is very socially minded generation that is driven to make a difference in the world. The top graduates in the market are not prepared to "do the time" before they have the opportunity to give back - they want to do it as soon as they start and they do not see why they need to wait to do it
  • CSR is not a hygiene factor - it is more than a tick box - given a choice, most graduates will prefer to choose employers who see CSR activities as an integral part of their business rather than employers who see CSR as an activity that they need to pay lip service to please the government and other stakeholders. Employers need to ensure that they walk their talk in CSR spiel that they give to graduates whilst recruiting them - otherwise their recruited graduates will walk!
  • Reshape jobs to include some CSR - good graduates are looking for jobs with high levels of CSR activities. Since CSR includes running "business as usual"(business processes, supply chain, recycling, sustainable workforce etc) more responsibly as well as giving back to community, employers should find it relatively easy to reshape existing graduate roles to include CSR activities
  • Realise that the ambitions of the graduate market are changing - graduates are now less motivated by the opportunity to earn lots of money. Good graduates are now starting to go to lesser brand names and smaller firms so that they can have more work-life balance. Graduates are also looking for work in organisations where they are able to gain a variety of skills in a more unstructured way that suits their personal aspirations rather than joining a fixed career track
  • Design jobs better - there is a lot of potential for jobs to be designed better so that people are able to get more personally out of work and life. Graduates are more likely to be retained if their job roles are balanced and designed to suit human beings
  • Make your company information more attractive - the current information packs that employers offer about their organisation are boring and just do not play the role that they are supposed to - they are outdated and not geared towards the needs of Generation Y
  • The search for bright sparky people - many companies are now getting their staff to look for young people in their network of friends and family who have the right attitude and have a bright and sparky energy. In doing this, companies are acknowledging that their current recruitment processes do not fully deliver that kind of people that they are seeking
  • Understand that young people are on a journey - employers need to understand that young people need to try out different things before they get a clearer vision of what they want to do with their working lives in the long term
  • Provide portfolio working - many of the top end graduates are looking for portfolio working - look at providing this as an option when recruiting graduates

Graduate Market - What role can universities play to improve the employability of their students?Geny1_3

  • Balance the skills required by industry - too many people are doing courses like media and not enough people are doing the sciences. Universities should do more to ensure that core skills that the market needs are made more attractive to potential students - they need to liaise more with the different industry sectors to do this
  • Universities need to do more than they have done in the past - in the past, universities mainly concentrated on research activities with the education of students was seen more as sideline something done on the side to support research activities. This attitude worked in the past when a degree was seen then as the "key to riches" and students found it relatively to place themselves in the employment market. However, a degree now no longer has this status with employers mainly because the numbers of graduates have increased substantially over the last decade. Students need to have more support from their universities to get employed after their degrees - universities need to change with the times and get more interested in making their students more employable
  • Support students to choose courses that make them more employable - students are generally clueless about what skills the world of work actually needs - they need to be supported to make course decisions that fit their personal strengths and will maximise their employment opportunities
  • University is a not a "three year holiday" - university needs to be seen more than a place where you go to do an easy course so that you can have "fun" for three years
  • Improve university career services - most careers advice provided by universities is considered to be "rubbish" that does not meet the needs that the students have. The focus group estimated that 90% of students do not use their University career service at all

Thoughts on the skills gapGeny1_4

  • Close your skills gap by using selling skills - graduates can actively use selling skills to determine what prospective employers (customers) want and actively develop themselves to match that need
  • Make the most of programmes that develop employability skills - there are many programmes available (including volunteering) that are designed to improve employability skills - students need to become more aware of them and get themselves onto the ones that best suit their needs as early as possible
  • Get the best job you are capable of getting to gain employability skills - any work experience is a start to make students more employable. Even a lower grade job will help students to start to develop basic employability skills - the students can work themselves up to get better work experience as they progress through their university career
  • Close your skills gap by going for the "right jobs" - go for roles that roles that suit your strengths - graduates that go for jobs that maximise their inherent strengths will find it easier to find work. A role that uses a graduate's strengths will ignite the graduate's passion as this will be role that they will be excited by. Furthermore, the graduate will be more able to demonstrate more solidly that they have the skills that are required for the role because they will have many examples from their life to pull from

Gallup in their StrengthsFinder book define a "strength" as a skill that a person enjoys and uses frequently when they have a choice. It is estimated that 80% of people in the UK are in the "wrong job" where they are working in roles that do not maximise their strengths and hence do not capture their motivation and passion. People in the "wrong jobs" are considerably less productive than those in the "right jobs"

  • Close your skills gap by mapping your skills - most graduates have more skills than they are aware of - these are the skills that have been gained in non-work work related context (volunteering, social projects, personal activities and projects) that can be mapped to working context
  • Close your skills gap by being responsible for your own learning - graduates should not expect to have their hands held in their first jobs. Graduates will considerably improve their employability if they are able to show prospective employers that they are willing to be responsible for their own learning and personal development to help support the delivery of company objectives
  • Improving the specification of skills will close the skills gap - skills need to be broken up and better defined. Employers need to do this when they are specifying the skills that they need so that prospective employees can see if they realistically match what is required. Graduates who are able break down their skills in more detail will be able to sell themselves better. The low level of specification of skills on both sides of the market is causing the skills gap to be larger than it really is in many situations
  • Recruitment agencies need to improve - recruitment agencies need to be more truthful - they often try to fit people into the wrong jobs to make up numbers - they often try to make a square peg to fit in a round hole
  • Close your gap by gaining skills from a mentor - one of the best ways to learn skills is hook up with a mentor who has done well
  • Close your gap by gaining sought after entrepreneurial skills - many organisations are looking for entrepreneurial abilities. Graduates who have developed these skills with entrepreneurial projects will immediately improve their employability.
  • Close your gap by developing the right attitude - having a good attitude is a the biggest tool that graduates and students have available to close their perceived skills gap. Most employers have realised that employees with the right attitude is an extremely valuable asset to their organisation. Employers are more likely to forgive a skills gap if the graduate has the right attitude. Developing the right attitude is bigger challenge than it seems because the right attitude can only be cultivated from inside out rather than with superficial inauthentic behavioural changes. Unfortunately, the right attitude cannot be taught since it is more about "a way of being" rather than "a way of doing"
  • Be motivated to close your skills gap by linking skills with passion - students and graduates will be more motivated to close their skills gap if they can link the skill that they want to improve with achieving their "secret passion / ambition". An example was given of a "D" high schools student in English become an "A" student practically overnight when the student realised that having this skill would help them to fulfil their ambition to be an author
  • Careers advisers need to understand the context of "secret passion / desire" - careers advice needs to be focused more around "unleashing" passion in students rather than giving advice based on what the student has studied
  • The current education system is not creating the right skills - the education model is the wrong model - it is more concerned with churning out identical people like a sausage making factory, rather than creating enterprising, passionate unique individuals that employers actually desire to have
  • Employers are underestimating Generation Y skills - Generation Y are hitting the workforce and we are still not fully aware of what Generation Y are capable of. Employers are penalising graduates because they are not the same as previous generation graduates - they see more about what is "wrong" with current graduates rather than looking at how they can fully exploit the unique talents of Generation Y that have been enabled by the technology and the Internet
  • Graduate social networking skills need to maximised by employers - students and graduates are on the leading edge of technology based social networking - they can help organisations to be more connected up and effective
  • Resumes and CVs need to change - the current formats are not working - how can the new media be used so that individuals can express themselves as human beings as well as what they are able to do? How can resumes be more expressive of the core competencies and skills that the employers are looking for?
  • Skills gap vs information gap - much of the perceived skills gap is actually an information gap due to lack of clarity on both sides

Thoughts on fundingGeny1_5

  • Having employers as sponsors will compromise the event - employers will most likely try to monopolise the event to follow their agenda
  • Have employers pay for tickets rather than as sponsors - employers will find it easier to pay a ticket price rather than a sponsorship because it comes from different budgets
  • Make sure outcomes are clear - for people to attend and sponsor, the outcomes for each group attending will need to be distinctive
  • Price it differently for different groups - the best way of raising funds is to charge for tickets for all participants - and vary the price point for the different groups to make it attractive
  • Make sure it is different from other conferences discussing graduate employability - there are many other conferences operating in this space, we need to make sure that we are different
  • Focus on innovative solutions - be different by being a solutions orientated conference - show participants the innovative employability solutions that have already been implemented
  • Potential funders - Dfes, LSC, Hefce

Posted by: Hina Patel

Aug 8, 2007 6:25:08 PM | First Steps! Networking, graduate conference

Gen Y@Work 7 - Recruiting Generation Y

Geny5Recruiting and retaining Generation Y will become more and more important over the next few years

There will be large competition for new Generation Yers entering the workforce as the labour market tightens up. See post on intergenerational conflict for more information about demographics.

Over the next few years, most employers will have realised that the rapid retirement of the Baby Boomer shortage means that they will feel the pressure to accommodate for the needs of Generation Y. Companies will need to be able to attract and retain Generation Y more effectively if they want to remain competitive in the market.

Currently, many companies are finding it a struggle to recruit and retain good Generation Y workers.

The main key to recruiting Generation Y is to show them that you can help them to lead a more meaningful life

Be authentic

  • Employers need to be authentic and straight up in their interactions with Generation Y
  • Generation Y will be able to pick up if an organisation is paying lip service and are not "walking their talk" - and they will happily use social media tell the rest of their peers that this is the case
  • Generation Y would prefer the unvarnished truth rather than something that sounds good

Use Generation Y marketing techniques

  • Recruitment needs to be treated as a marketing effort (with Generation Y being the buyers rather than the sellers) - see post on Managing Generation Y
  • Generation Y is fickle and very attracted to what is hip and cool - employers will need to keep ahead of the times to recruit the best Generation Yers
  • Maximise the use of websites, social media and other popular technologies in recruitment campaigns
  • Start employing "Myspace" type recruiting - go to where the Generation Yers hang out

Make your sector attractive

  • Sectors that Generation Y find naturally attractive
    • Generation Y's social awareness makes the third sector very attractive to them
    • Also Generation Yers are intrinsically very attracted to cutting edge industries (media , technology etc)
  • What about the other sectors?
    • In general, Generation Y's knowledge about different industries is poor because they think more in terms of a portfolio of skills rather then specific industry focused career paths (see post on Generation Y & careers for more information).This means that employers cannot rely on Generation Yers specifically targeting employement in their particular industry without any proactive marketing. Employers will need to work actively to make their industries attractive to the Generation Y workforce if they want to draw them in the numbers that they require
    • Even graduates with vocational degrees cannot be expected to look for jobs in the vocation that they have trained in - there are many other jobs that they can do in the market that do not require specific degrees (for example the IT industry is currently suffering from a skills shortage even though enough graduates have been trained in IT) - vocational employers will be competing against generalist employers for good Generation Y resource

Make your organisation attractive

  • Employers need to be prepared to actively communicate their vision, values, culture and organisational structure in their marketing
  • Employers need to recruit to culture and values - the best way to recruit and retain Generation Yers is to those who are are aligned to the organisation
  • Employers should not pretend to have an organisation that they do not have to attract Generation Y - even if employers are in the process of cleaning up their organisation, they need to be authentic about where they are and where they want to get to with Generation Y candidates

Make the roles offered attractive

  • Offer balanced roles that are well designed and provide work-life balance
  • Show them that they will be managed well
  • Offer the opportunity for Generation Yer to gain a variety of different skills in your organisation
  • Upgrade internships to include coaching and mentoring
  • Work with candidates to determine how the opportunities available in your firm will help them to achieve their personal objectives and passions
  • Take advantage of their tech savvyness (Internet, mobile technology, computer games, gadgets etc) - most of Generation Y is highly technically literate not matter what they have studied at university. Generation Y is ideally placed to drivers of product development, sales, entrepreneurship in the organisation. Furthermore they are ideally suited to generate innovation by challenging the way that your organisation and your industry operates

Effectively manage Generation Y expectations

  • Generation Y are looking for a lifestyle whilst working that is in alignment with their expectations (work-life balance etc)
  • Generation Y are very idealistic - do not be disenchanted with what Generation Y are looking for them - work with them to create win-win solutions. A perceptions survey in USA has shown:
    • Pay - salary is primarily an attraction tool, it is not a retention tool. Even though Generation Y can come across as overly concerned about money, they are prepared to shift if employers can support them to create the lifestyle that they desire
      • Gen Y - $45k
      • Employers - $28k
    • Promotion - the mismanagement of this expectation will result in your recruited Generation Yers leaving in droves when they are disappointed
      • Gen Y - after 6 months
      • Employers - after 18 months
  • What Generation Y want from work:
    • purpose
    • meaning
    • responsibility
    • promotional opportunity
    • increased responsibility
    • individuality and creativity
    • flexibility & fun
    • ethical commitment
    • belonging and engagement
    • up-to-date work environment
    • passionate & optimistic workplace
  • What they want from their boss
    • empowerment
    • mentoring rather than direction
    • fairness / recognition
    • personal connection
    • involvement & demonstration of values
    • demonstrated competence
  • Educate candidates - help them to understand your corporate culture, the lifestyle that they will have, the values of your organisation and the expectations of your organisation
  • Have an effective candidate management system where all candidates are treated as individuals

Reference articles

Click on this link to access the links to the following article: (1),(13),(15), (21), (23), (28), (30), (31), (32)

Generation Y articles in this research series (in date order)

Posted by: Hina Patel

Aug 8, 2007 6:23:14 PM | Generation Y, graduate conference

August 03, 2007

Gen Y@Work 6 - Generation Y & Career

Geny4Generation Y's concept of career

"Career is not for life but for time being"

Generation Y's view of career is significantly different from what has been normally accepted in the past.

Generally Generation Y believe that work and career need to be integrated with the rest of life rather than being distinct and separate from it. Generation Y are advocates of work-life balance and for the majority of them, work is not their top life priority.

The ambitious generation

Generation Y is hungry for success, but their approach is different from previous generations. Generation Y prefer to see themselves as a "business" rather than as a "job".

Generation Y top line career goals

  • Developing skills that they want to learn and experience in order to increase their work fulfilment from work
  • Making a difference to the world in areas that matter to them

Anything is possible

Generation Yers have a high level of social consciousness that is supported by high levels of self esteem developed from highly nurturing parenting (see post on role of Generation Y parents). Generation Y have high expectations of their "career" because they have been bought up to believe that if they dream big and work hard, then they can have anything that they want - that they can be anything that they imagine.

Generation Yers aspire to leadership very early in their working lives - they are yearning to have responsibilities that help them to make a tangible difference in the organisation that they are working for and in the world. Their career choices are typically driven by the quest for opportunities to play meaningful roles in work that help others.

Believe in ability rather than hierarchy and £££££Geny2_5

Generation Y value skills and abilities more than hierarchy. Generation Y is more incentivised by the opportunity to develop a diverse range of skills rather than being promoted.

Generation Y are not so interested in the need for financial success that ran Generation X. Additionally, as many still have parental support until their late 20s, Generation Yers have the freedom to seek work based on interest rather than how much it will pay at the start of their career.

Career is not a job for life

Generation Y do not resonate with the concept of a single career track that you need stay on and follow forever. Generation Yers do not expect to stay in the same career for more than 2 - 4 years. They are willing to move around until they find something that suits them. Most of Generation Y aspire to Initially acquire a diverse range of skills before they make more long term decisions about specialisations.

The importance of passion

Generation Y prefer to choose to do work that that they can be passionate about rather than taking a well paid position. They want to do work that matches what they are interested in and what they perceive their abilities to be. Many of the Generation Yers are idealistically looking for the paid equivalents of voluntary positions.

Personalised careers - portfolio careers

Generation Y want personalised careers that they have built for themselves - careers that incorporate all their current passions and interests. Generation Y are very open to developing "portfolio careers" where they are able to perform a range of roles that will give them fulfilment in their work (eg banker part time & yoga teacher part time).

Self-loyalty

Career wise, Generation Y do not plan to be loyal to anyone except for themselves. They are not prepared to give their loyalty to any company unless it provides a huge benefit to them.

Career planning

Generation Y prefer to leave entering the world of professional work as long as possible. The term "too little too late" describes well how a lot Generation Yers embark on initial career planning. This lack of care and lethargy is most probably due to the knowledge that they know that they will be able to move on easily if they initially choose a job that they have does not suit them.

If a job looks interesting, then a Generation Yer will be willing to take a risk and take it on to see how they get on. One can see how this mentality could be frustrating to potential employers who prefer to hear that prospective employees have carefully selected their industry and their organisation.

Management and work environment Geny2_7

Although Generation Yers are not too certain about what job they will take on to start their career, they are very definite on how they want to be managed and the type of work environments that will suit them. See post on how to manage Generation Y for more information.

Entrepreneurship

Generation Y prefer to feel that they are working for themselves even when they are working for a company.

Reference articles

Click on this link to access the links to the following article: (11), (14), (15), (17), (23), (24), (25), (27), (30), (31)

Generation Y articles in this research series (in date order)

Posted by: Hina Patel

Aug 3, 2007 1:46:18 PM | Generation Y, graduate conference

Gen Y@Work 5 - How to Manage Generation Y

Geny3List of tips on how to manage Generation Y

Many of the things on the list below are how most people would like to be managed and what good managers are doing anyway.

However, Generation Y is the first generation that actually demands it! If Generation Yers are not managed well then they (especially the good ones) will leave for another firm that treats them better.

Good management is a key tool for retaining Generation Y. Organisations that do not develop good management will:

  • Have difficultly in retaining good staff
  • Have difficultly in filling their positions - Generation Y will market to each other the good & bad firms to work for
  • Not releasing the potential that Generation Y have to offer in their organisation - Generation Y employees have the potential to be very high performers - if they are managed well, Generation Y will be a huge asset to their employers

"Many of us are bored, we want more from life than a desk. We want continued education in the workplace, better hours, more family focus...etc"

Do not reject Generation Y workers because they seem difficult to manage

  • Generation Y is the most smartest, tech savvy and idealistic generation of our time - organisations need to learn to leverage this generation to ensure their future success and competitive advantage
  • Meeting the challenge of effectively managing Generation Y will support organisations to raise their overall bar in management capability - the other employees will also respond positively to raised management standards

Make their work matterGeny2

  • Prove to them that there is a good enough reason to for what you are asking them to do
  • Give them productive tasks that make a difference from day one

Listen to them and provide them with feedback

  • Generation Y workers need for their voice to be heard
  • People that manage Generation Y need to notice and react to their performance - Generation Y need to be stimulated and given feedback on an ongoing basis
  • Give them the opportunity to tell you when they have a better idea for something since they will tell you anyway!
  • Try to make an effort to understand their "language"
  • Allow them to have their say in organisational decision making

Generation Y want to experience leadership as soon as possible

  • Build opportunities for leadership for them
  • Generation Y desire to take on significant responsibility early - they will respond positively if they are made responsible for sugnificant pieces of work
  • Provide them with autonomy - do not micro manage them - they will come and ask for help and feedback from managers and other employees if they can not do something

Get them on the leading edge of what the organisation is doing

  • Generation Y need to feel that they are the cutting edge at work - show them how their work is cutting edge

Encourage problem solvingGeny2_2

  • Never take for granted that Generation Y will not understand complex situations or products
  • Generation Y will not believe that something will fail unless they see it - they want actual proof that something that cannot be done
  • Generation Y are capable of solving issues that organisations have failed to solve in the past because they are not afraid of trying and learning from failing

Understand what motivates Generation Y

  • The key to managing Generation Y is understand what motivates them - once managers are able to active this, they will be able to inspire the loyalty of high performing Generation Y employees
  • Consider new benefits and compensation strategies
  • Generation Y are motivated to contribute by working through levels of increasing complexity -this comes from their gaming mentality
  • Generation Y do not respond well to command and control management styles ("do this or else"). Many companies have found that their Generation Yers have quit before they have the time to fire them
  • Remove / minimise company politics - Generation Y are not interested in "sucking up" - Generation Y is not afraid to tell people at all levels of hierarchy what they think of them
  • Goals, goals, goals - small goals with tight deadlines
  • Generation Y want work that is sociable and fun

Generation Y want recognition for what they do

  • Give public praise - Generation Y want to be famous and known for their achievements

Be prepared to manage their high expectationsGeny2_3

  • You will need to actively manage the expectations of Generation Y workers - explore with them which of their expectations can be achieved and why others cannot - Generation Y will leave if they are not supported to manage their idealistic expectations

Help them to make the transition into the professional workplace

  • Generation Y workers need to be provided with professional guidelines as they are not used to being formal
  • Teach them the basics of time management
  • Generation Y need support to transition to the real world - they are not as ready as to hit the ground running like Generation X were - they need more instruction & mentoring

Support them to give back

  • Offer Generation Y workers opportunities for community involvement
  • Allow them to help those less fortunate than themselves
  • Generation Y have a core need to make a difference and affect the world for the better - help them to do this

Be flexible about how they work

  • Be prepared to reconfigure the way that things are done - if the work is getting done, does it matter where and how it is done?
  • Provide balance, flexibility and variety in their work

Generation Y prefer to work in teams

  • Allow Generation Y workers to work in teams whenever possible as they are more social than other generations

Be prepared to encourage and guide them

  • Encourage the use of mentors
  • Generation Y know what they want from work but they will need support on how to get there
  • Model the behavior that you want them to have - be prepared to walk your talk - Generation Y will know when you are not being authentic
  • Provide coaching - coaching is one of the most successful methods for Generation Y retention

Cater to Generation Y's concept of careerGeny2_4

  • Create customised career paths for them rather than forcing them onto standard career paths
  • Provide them with a personalised portfolio job - give them the opportunity to experience different departments
  • Be prepared to develop additional career pathways in the organisation
  • Profile each Generation Yer individually and provide a personalised career path
  • Show them what lateral opportunities exist in the organisation - otherwise they will leave to find them in another organisation

Understand and provide for their need for technology, knowledge and opportunities

  • Commit to training and educational programmes
  • Provide them with opportunities to travel
  • A key part of retaining Generation Y is the provision of the technology that they are used to using in their personal lives - Generation Y "need" to have access to informal technology based communication
  • Allow them to consume media as part of their work
  • Provide them with cutting edge knowledge management tools

Allow them to contribute their skills

  • Provide Generation Y with opportunities for reverse mentoring - they will be excellent at rasing the technology capability of the rest of the workforce

Allow for "helicopter" parents

  • Parents may want to be involved in the development of their children at work

Reference articles

Click on this link to access the links to the following article: (13), (15), (16), (17), (23), (25), (26), (27), (28), (31), (32)

Generation Y articles in this research series (in date order)

Posted by: Hina Patel

Aug 3, 2007 1:45:35 PM | Generation Y, graduate conference

August 02, 2007

Gen Y@Work 4 - How Employing Generation Y Will Benefit Business

Employing Generation Y is more than filling in a gap in the workforceGeny1_4

Modifying their recruiting, managing and retaining processes to cater for Generation Y may seem like a high maintenance chore to some employers. They may feel that they have been pressurised to make changes to suit their Generation Y employees because they need to fill the workforce gaps left by their retiring Baby Boomers.

However, the benefits of having a satisfied Generation Y workforce are more considerable than just having a complete workforce.

Having Generation Y on-board and engaged will support their employers to naturally develop further proven sources of competitive advantage:

  • Engaged staff & higher productivity
  • Increased CSR capability
  • Increased collaborative working
  • Enhanced problem solving capabilities
  • Maximised use of technology
  • Enhanced core competency development
  • Increased internal entrepreneurship

Engaged staff & Higher ProductivityGeny2_20

The "good work" and "management" that Generation Y require are also conditions that the rest of the workforce will thrive under, increasing their happiness levels at work. Happy workers are more engaged in their work which which will result in higher levels of productivity, creativity and innovation and lower levels of stress and sickness. A more detailed discussion of the link between happiness and engagement is detailed in our previous blog summarising our happiness conference research. The current level of workforce engagement is only on average 30%...even an increase by a few percent will provide substantial productivity improvements.

Furthermore, a Generation Y workforce will challenge outdated ways of working that are entrenched in the organisational culture....Generation Y love to ask "Why?"...especially when it means that they could be sacrificing their work-life balance. Generation  Y will be incentivised to work with employers to reshape job roles so that they are more effective and more conducive to work-life balance...this should result in increased productivity over a shorter working week.

Increased CSR capability

An organisation's CSR activities will be a key attraction and retention tool for a Generation Y workforce who want to contribute back to society. Furthermore, an organisation's Generation Y workforce would be delighted to support their organisation to develop its CSR capabilities further. If the organisation is able to engage their Generation Y workforce in their CSR development, then they will be able to implement highly leveraged creative CSR solutions with a limited resources because of the passion and enthusiasm of their Generation Y workforce. Additionally, many Generation Y employees will be willing to implement community focused CSR activities in their non-working time as it will contribute to their personal social responsibility.

The CSR business case - the government CSR department is currently working to show that organisations that take on CSR actively improve their profitability because they will be able to attract better customers and business partners.

Increased collaborative workingGeny2_21

Collaboration is one of the most difficult activities to develop in business because most people have been trained to work and deliver as individuals...developing effective teams has always a significant challenge for the management in all organisations.

Generation Y are naturally collaborative employees - the majority of Generation Y love to work in teams rather than as individuals. Furthermore they are savvy with technology based collaboration tools, facilitating collaborative working even when the team is working remotely. This passion and enthusiasm for team working should rub off onto the other members of the workforce who are working with Generation Y team members.

Enhanced problem solving capabilities

Generation Y love to solve problems. They are not stopped by the fact that the organisation has not succeeded in the past with any particular issue - they love to take on these types of challenges and they will not stop until it is done. Typically, Generation Y have no problems in risking failure in order to learn how to solve problems...this mentality comes from their game playing activities where you need to fail in order to learn how to get to the next level. Properly supported through mentoring and good management, an organisation's Generation Y workforce will be a great asset in supporting the organisation to solve their long standing issues.

Maximised use of technology

An organisation's Generation Y workforce will know more about how to use the latest technology applications effectively and creatively than the rest of the workforce. They will facilitate their organisation to learn how to use the latest technology to improve performance and they will also teach the rest of the workforce how to use it. Generation Y will be particularly useful in helping their organisations to implement the web 2.0 and 3.0 tools (on line social networking etc)to improve connection, sharing and collaboration internally within the organisation and externally with customers, suppliers and partners.

Enhanced core competency development

Generation Y want to learn a portfolio of skills that they find interesting rather than concentrating on specializing in one job profile. Generation Y also prefer a portfolio way of working where they are doing several job roles at the same time. Organisations that facilitate their Generation Y workers to do this will both increase retention (as their Generation Y workers will not need to leave the organisation in order to learn other new and interesting skills) and increase the organisation's ability to transfer knowledge and best practices across different functions.

Increased internal entrepreneurship

Generation Y value autonomy, independence and entrepreneurship. They would love to help their organisation to improve its entrepreneurship activities.

Generation Y articles in this research series (in date order)

Posted by: Hina Patel

Aug 2, 2007 7:02:49 PM | Generation Y, graduate conference

Gen Y@Work 3 - Generation Y - Vision, Good Work, Work Ethics, Work-Life Balance

The importance of Generation Y in the workforceGeny5_2

The demographics show that the Generation Y are a prominent section of the workforce - currently 20% of the workforce and rising to 40% in 2010. Employers are starting to realise that with the upcoming Baby Boomer shortage through retirement that in the future they have no choice but to accommodate Generation Y if they want to retain a robust competitive advantage.

In the next few years, Generation Y workers will be in the position of asking for what they want from their work from their employers.

So what does generation Y want from their work?

When you look at the list of what Generation Y are looking for from their work (vision,values, good work, work ethic, work-life balance), you will see that it is not much different to what most people desire from their work. However, Generation Y is the first generation that is not willing to sell out on themselves to please their employers. Generation Y workers have high expectations and they expect to them met.

Good Generation Y workers will leave an organisation that does not give them what they want - some of the older Generation Y workers (circa 27 years) are in their 9th job!! Typically it is expected that the majority of Generation Y will have changed roles 5 times by the time they are 30. Generation Y have considerably less company loyalty than previous generations and are more prepared to walk and seek another organisation that is more suited to their needs if they are dissatisfied.

Company Vision & Values

Companies that want recruit and retain good Generation Y workers will need to create company vision and values that will motive them. Generation Y want their work to be holistic, have meaning and make a difference in the world. The key elements that are important to Generation Y are:Geny2_13

  • A company vision that seeks to make a positive difference in the world...Generation Y has a core need to make a difference and affect the world for the better

"Work needs to matter - make it matter"

  • A set of shared values that are actually lived...ie the company walks its talk!
  • Flat organisational hierarchies...Generation Y value abilities and skills more than positions
  • Divestment from dictatorial regimes...Generation Y are not well suited to command and control type management
  • Valuing the development of people...Generation Y want their work to help them to fulfil their potential and dreams
  • Ethical and sustainable operation...Generation Y are highly supportive of CSR
  • Affinity groups for shared learning and working....Generation Y love to learn, share knowledge and work in teams

Good Work

We have already explored "what is good work?" in a series of Blogs that are part of the foundation's happiness research (posts: Good Work Part 1 and Good Work Part 2). Generation Y are demanding good work and are prepared to be paid less for it. In general they prefer choose employers who have well designed work that suit the needs of a human being rather than employers who pay more but do not provide "good work". In the USA, even management consultancies (long known for long hours, lots of travel etc) are having to lower the hours that they expect their staff to work and to also allow time for volunteer work and entrepreneurial activities. Geny2_14

Generation Y are not afraid of challenging their employers as to why things need to be done a certain way. They are not willing to put themselves out and compromise their work-life balance to do things in a certain way because it has always been done that way. For example in Deliotte in the USA, Generation Y challenged the need working in intensive on-site teams when the same work with the same time-lines could be done at the hours convenient to the consultants off-site.

"If the work gets done, does it matter where it is done from?"

Work ethic and work-life balance

Many employers are saying that Generation Y have a low work ethic in that they are not prepared to work hard and deliver what they are being paid to do. In actuality, Generation Yers do have high work ethics but they define it differently....Generation Y are hard workers:

  • but they are not willing to do work that has no meaning for the sake of it
  • ...and they are not willing to work long hours and compromise their work-life balance....Generation Yers will challenge employers who require long hours as a standard for the jobs that they offer - from the Generation Y perspective these jobs have not been properly structured in the first place and the jobs need to change so that they are more suitable for human beings!

"Organisations just can't find people who are willing to work 60 hours a week"

Generation Yers will also challenge the need for excessive amounts of formality at work when it is not really required - this can be seen as a lack of professionalism by some employers

Work-life balance is an important value held by Generation Y. Employers can be last on the list of a Generation Yer's priorities unless they feel that their work is extremely valuable to their life.  Even Generation Yers who are passionate about their work will not make work a top priority because of their desire to have life with balance. A typical prioriGeny2_15ty list for Generation Y is:

  • families
  • friends
  • communities
  • coworkers
  • themselves
  • employers

"Overall, Generation Y are not that into work"

Generation Y have typically achieved the experience of affluence as part of their upbringing...and they know from this experience that money does not make you happy. Generation Y are not as interested as previous generations are to put earning lots of money above the overall quality of their lives...they have seen their parents make their lives work and TV and they do not want that for themselves.  Furthermore, Generation Y are better able to regulate the demands of parenting and juggling their career because they are more prepared to make quality-of-life trade-offs. 

Reference articles

Click on this link to access the links to the following article: (15), (16), (17), (18), (23), (24), (26), (28), (30), (31)

Generation Y articles in this research series (in date order)

Posted by: Hina Patel

Aug 2, 2007 3:24:52 PM | Generation Y, graduate conference

Gen Y@Work 2 - Generation Y and Intergenerational Conflict

The current generations at workGeny4_2

This is the first time in history that we have four distinct generations in the workplace.

  • Traditionalists Pre 1946 (youngest is 64)
  • Baby Boomers 1946 - 1964 (youngest is 43)
  • Generation X 1964 - 1979 (youngest is 28)
  • Generation Y 1980 - 1994 (youngest is 13)

The workplace clash - the intergenerational conflict

Thoughts about Generation Y at work...

"...Companies are now waking up the havoc that the newest generation is causing"

"...These people are so smart it is sometime unbelievable...and here is the cool part, they don't know what they can't do..yes, they are pampered by their parents...but they are smart, fast learners who love to please"

"...70% of older workers are dismissive of Generation Y"

Reference article 34 provides a comparison of how the different generations work & reference article 35details the conflicts due to the different generations in the workplace.

What the demographics are telling usGeny2_11

  • Currently Generation Y make up 20% of the workforce
  • In 3 years time (2010) Generation Y will make up 40% of the workforce
  • Baby Boomers are starting to take early retirement and in 5 years time a large proportion of Baby Boomers will be eligible for full retirement
  • This will result in a tightening of the labour market with a severe skills shortage
  • The UK will not be able to solve this problem with migrant labour and off shoring because this demographic problem is a global phenomenon
  • The government are predicting that work capacity that is not currently being utilised (stay at home mothers, disabled, sick people, carers, retired workers, students etc) will need to enter the job market to keep the UK economy on track
  • The job market should be be looking healthy for Generation Yers who are graduating in the the period that employers should be preparing for the future shortage of workers

The transition period and the difficulties being experienced by Generation Y

The demographics should be good news for the UK's graduate population. However, this is not the experience that most graduates are experiencing:

  • Many employers do not seem to be aware of the demographics time bomb...their Baby Boomers still have not left and they are experiencing a large influx of new graduates on the job market that they do not have the facility to cope with. Employers are reacting by raising their employability standards to make recruitment manageable, forcing many graduates to resort to taking sub-graduate jobs in order to be employed Geny2_12
  • Employers are expecting that they will be able to hold onto their Baby Boomers heading into retirement on a part time because they still need to earn money to support the lifestyles that they desire
  • Current graduates are now being advised to not make the "demographic" mistake and prepare even more rigorously for employment in the job market by:
    • not letting their helicopter parents have contact with employers
    • making sure that their "My Space" is suitable for employer viewing
    • networking to raise their profiles
    • being courteous
  • In the USA, the story seems to be different for graduates because the market is tightening up at faster pace because of higher rates of early retirement. Organisations are typically increasing their graduate intake rates by 20%
    • Here the demand for young graduates is already outstripping supply
    • Employers are having to pander to the employment needs of Generation Y in order to be competitive in the recruitment market

Reference articles

Click on this link to access the links to the following article: (1), (4), (17), (18), (23), (25), (27), (28), (34), (35)

Generation Y articles in this research series (in date order)

Posted by: Hina Patel

Aug 2, 2007 3:24:16 PM | Generation Y, graduate conference

Gen Y@Work 1 - Characteristics and Values at Work

Generation Y characteristics at workGeny3_2

  • Work-life balance is not a "buzz word" to Generation Y - they mean it  (work-life balance comes first even if their career does not progress)
  • Work is not life
  • Don't like "command and control" management styles (equality with parents means they are less open to being told what to do)
  • Want to be independent (much of Generation Y is attracted to the idea of working for themselves)
  • Want to work in independent environments
  • Love to work in teams
  • Highly naturally collaborative
  • Tech smart
  • Have a different concept to career than previous generations (they want to explore & change, they want to apply the "mash-up" concept to jobs)
  • High performance AND high maintenance
  • Hard working
  • NEED and want direction
  • High ability to multi-task (concentrate on many things at the same time) Geny2_10
  • Able to reverse mentor technology skills to rest of workforce
  • Casual and informal working styles
  • Require constant feedback and stimulation
  • Have difficulty in concentrating for long periods
  • Find it difficult to make the transition to professional work (this may come across as low self confidence at first glance, but Generation Y are typically very self confident)
  • Not afraid to move about as not intimidated by companies
  • Low levels of ability verbal / social / written communications (Generation Y is used to communicating in their "own language" to each other)
  • Low loyalty to organisations
  • Low receptivity to long hours

Generation Y Values at Work

  • Work life balance
  • Good work
  • Work with meaning
  • Building a portfolio of skills
  • Personal expression
  • Work they can be passionate about

Reference articles

Click on this link to access the links to the following article: (4), (6), (7), (11), (12), (13)

Generation Y articles in this research series (in date order)

Posted by: Hina Patel

Aug 2, 2007 3:23:30 PM | Generation Y, graduate conference

Gen Y 5 - The Marketing View of Generation Y

Understanding Generation Y from the experience of marketing to themGeny4

Many of the behaviours and values that are intrinsic to Generation Y are showing up in how they want to be marketed to....this post explores what is showing up about Generation Y from the marketing perspective.

Generation Y is a significant market

The "collaborative partnership" relationship that Generation Y have with their parents has resulted in Generation Y having more financial clout in the market than expected. Generation Y have a significant impact on the purse strings of their parents because their parents:

  • Spend a large proportion of their disposable income on their children
  • Rely on their children to make technical buying decisions because of Generation Y's technical fluency
  • Rely on their children to make product and service comparisons in a complex consumer market

Generation Y is a "marketing mystery"

Marketers are finding it extremely difficult to market to Generation Y because it is a very diverse group in terms of demographics. Generation Y is also a very "tight" group because they have a high level of influence amongst themselves...Generation Y prefer to market to themselves than to be marketed to.

Generation Y have low brand loyalty

Old marketing methods based around brand loyalty are not working. Generation Y is driven by what Generation Y themselves as a group deem to be hip and cool. They want to have products and services that are on the leading edge, and they will change suppliers at the flick of a switch to get this. They demand real intrinsic value in their products and services than than perceived values that are build around branding. Generation Y are also less likely to be influenced by celebrity and image marketing. Generation Y want more authentic and human marketing - they prefer to have the unvarnished truth rather than hype.

Generation Y is driving market diversityGeny2_4 and innovation

This lack of brand loyalty by Generation Y is lowering the barriers of entry for new competitors. If suppliers have products and services of real value that are on the leading edge, then Generation Y would like to buy from them. Generation Y is always searching for the next best thing...driving high levels of innovation.

Generation Y need to participate and interact

Generation Y see on-line shopping as a sport. They see on-line as a medium by which they can influence the products and services that they have access to. They want to be able to vote and provide feedback...Generation Y are not prepared to just read marketing material in a magazine and then buy - they want to log in, provide feedback and also socialise with other buyers. They want to be involved in the creation of their products and services. They know what they want and they want to influence their suppliers to get it - Generation Y do not like to be told what they should want, they want to dictate what they want.

Generation Y need multiple marketing channels

Generation Y need a mix a marketing channels, with the on-line participatory channels becoming more and more of a necessity to reach them. The technology that is available is now driving unprecedented levels of customer choice....marketers are finding that they need to go to where Generation Y hang out and participate with them rather than waiting for Generation Y to come to them to purchase set solutions.

Generation Y prefer simplicityGeny2_5

Generation Y want stripped down brands that are forward thinking. They want their products and services to be more "real stuff" and less packaging.

Generation Y are sophisticated buyers

Generation Y have been making buying decisions for a lifetime. They are now the most sophisticated buyers in the consumer market.

Reference articles

Click on this link to access the links to the following articles: (2), (3), (4), (6), (10), (11), (12), (15)

Generation Y articles in this research series (in date order)

Posted by: Hina Patel

Aug 2, 2007 3:22:17 PM | Generation Y, graduate conference

Gen Y 4 - Generation Y Characteristics and Values in Life

Generation Y CharacteristicsGeny1

  • positive attitude
  • happy
  • sociable
  • driven
  • want to help those less fortunate than themselves
  • talented
  • collaborative
  • team workers
  • open-minded
  • achievement / goal orientated
  • confident
  • hopeful
  • inclusive
  • technically fluent
  • skeptical
  • impatient
  • civic minded
  • creative
  • hard working
  • know what they want
  • multi-tasking
  • always looking for the next best thing
  • lack of loyalty for organisations and brands
  • lack of personal resourcefulness (but high problem solving resourcefulness)
  • lack of personal independence (but are very independent in what they value)
  • lack skills for dealing with different kinds of people (but are very effective at collaborative working)
  • lack of professional fluency
  • low levels of general literacy
  • lack of concentration
  • distaste manual work
  • rely too much on spell checkers!

Generation Y valuesGeny2_9

  • choice
  • informality
  • personal expression
  • authenticity
  • work-life balance
  • contribution
  • meaning

Reference articles

Click on this link to access the links to the following article: (2), (3), (5), (6), (7), (15), (23),

Generation Y articles in this research series (in date order)

Posted by: Hina Patel

Aug 2, 2007 3:20:47 PM | Generation Y, graduate conference

Gen Y 3 - Other Factors Influencing Generation Y & The Generation Y Divide

Drivers that have shaped Generation YGeny6

The two main drivers that have shaped Generation Y have been:

  • Parenting - increased focus on family and nurturing of Generation Y by their parents, high levels of parental advocacy, and the living of scheduled and structured lives (see our post on Generation Y parenting)
  • Technology - Generation Y are the most technological focused generation in a world technology continues to speed up at a rapid rate (see our post on the impact of technology on Generation Y)

The other drivers that have also influenced Generation Y include:

  • Multiculturalism - Generation Y is used to living in a multicultural society where diversity is seen as positive asset and where they are used to mixing socially with a variety of people
  • Globalisation - unlike previous generations, Generation Y do not see globalisation as a threat - they see it as a core part of life
  • Social consciousness - Generation Y have experienced the rise of Corporate Social Responsibility (companies giving back), the expanding third sector (organisations created to give back), the awareness of unsustainable living (recycling, global warming, the drive to reduce carbon footprints etc), and the awareness of global inequalities (poverty. third world debt etc)
  • Terrorism, heroism, patriotism - September 11 and other terrorist activities has also been a key influence for Generation Y

Impact of digital divide and social divide on Generation YGeny2_8

From our posts on parenting and technology, it is clear that these two drivers have played a very important role in the development of the distinctive Generation Y characteristics and abilities. However, not all the members of Generation Y have had full access to these factors...there are significant numbers of Generation Yers, mainly from the lower socio-economic groups, who have not had full access to the benefits of these drivers....resulting in the creation of a digital and social divide in Generation Y:

  • Digital divide - one one side we have the Generation Y members have had the opportunity to have access to the Internet 24/7 and have had access to the new technologies that have come onto the market...on the other side we have Generation Y members who did not grow up with Internet at home and the latest technology products impacting negatively on their developed technology skill levels and technology awareness
  • Social divide - on the one side we have Generation Y members have had access to helicopter parents who have nurtured them and build up their self esteem as well providing good professional role models....on the other side we have Generation Y members who have had not had access to high levels of nurturing and limited access to professional role models to raise their aspirations of what is possible for them

The importance of parenting and technology as the main factors that have shaped Generation Y has also intensified the difference between those who had full access to these factors and those who have had limited access. The differences in the members of Generation Y on either side of the divide are stark and are not easy to fix...for example developing high self esteem later on in life is a very difficult achievement to attain even for a very proactive person. On the employment front, this divide could be the cause of significant employability differences and this is currently showing up in the graduate market.

Reference articles

Click on this link to access the links to the following article: (5)

Generation Y articles in this research series (in date order)

Posted by: Hina Patel

Aug 2, 2007 3:19:15 PM | Generation Y, graduate conference

Gen Y 2 - The Role of Technology

The Internet has been a key driver for Generation YGeny5

Generation Y is the first generation that has fully grown up with the Internet. They have seen the Internet transition from its Web 1.0 format (top down information driven) to the current Web 2.0 format that is alive with blogs, forums, feeds, chat etc.

Generation Y is not a bystander in the world of Web 2.0 - it is a leading practitioner using the Web 2.0 tools to generate social communities, participatory cultures, self expression & individualism, collaboration and sharing. Generation Y is also adept at creating what is called "mash-ups" of different technologies (mobile technology, interactive TV etc) to create personalised media services for themselves. Typically Generation Y will spend up to 2-3 hours a day on the Internet. For Generation Y, the Internet is core avenue of social communication and cohesion.

Speeding up of technology is differentiating Generation Y

Technology is speeding up a rapid rate, and it is not showing signs of slowing down in the near future. This speeding up of technology is now causing a differentiation between the older members of Generation Y and the younger members of Generation Y who are even more tech savvy. The younger members of Generation Y (aged about 13 years) are interacting and multi-tasking to levels that are blowing away the older members of Generation Y (mid 20s).

The impact of technology use on the Generation Y brainGeny2_6

The use of technology that is continuously speeding up has created a phenomena call Continuous Partial Attention (CPA). Experts believe that the brains of Generation Y have been actually rewired by technology. This rewiring is enabling Generation Y to become exceptional at handling high levels of diversity and vast quantities of information as well as facilitating astounding levels of creativity. Generation Y are fast thinking and are able to work on multiple activities without losing concentration.

However, as well providing these benefits, on the downside this rewiring has also resulting in Generation Y:

  • Needing constant stimulation and feedback to be happy
  • Not being able to concentrate on single tasks for long periods of time

Generation Y are our technology leaders and teachers

Generation Y are the leading edge users and developers of technology. They want to use the newest technology tools out there and they will participate with developers to make the tools even better. Generation Y love to drive innovation and they know how to get the maximum value out of technology by driving technology to its limits.

Generation Y also have a huge contribution to make to rest of the population by teaching them to make better use of technology to create change and make life easier.

Generation Y are natural problems solversGeny2_7

Generation Y have grown up with playing games (they are also known as the "gaming generation"). The playing of games has given Generation Y a lack of the normal societal fear of failure - they are used to "failing" whilst they learn to create winning strategies.

Generation Y expect to fail when solving problems and at the same time they are willing to keep on trying until they succeed. They are naturally able to develop complex strategies because they believe in the use of a combination of moves to solve problems through game playing. Generation Y also have a natural preference in developing a series of abilities & skills - they like to learn a variety of new skills and achieve a high level of competency in them because it is fun to do so. Generation Y are also highly resourceful information finders and problems.

High technological fluency vs social fluency

Generation Y are used to high levels of social interactions on-line and off-line with their fellow Generation Yers. They prefer to hang with each other and to work with each other...and they have developed their own culture & language that has mainly been facilitated by technology to communicate with each other. Generation Y love to work in teams and they are naturally collaborative workers.

However, they are not so socially fluent in interacting with and connecting with the rest of the population. Employers are finding that Generation Y lack both social fluency  (eg being on the phone) and professional fluency (eg writing and speaking) when interacting with other non-Generation Yers at work.

Reference articles

Click on this link to access the links to the following articles: (6), (7), (11), (12), (25), (26), (31)

Generation Y articles in this research series (in date order)

Posted by: Hina Patel

Aug 2, 2007 3:17:49 PM | Generation Y, graduate conference

Gen Y 1 - Role of Generation Y Parents

How has Generation Y been shaped by their parents?Geny3

The background of increased affluence and affection

The general affluence of the 80s and 90s has allowed more parents (from both the working and middle classes) in the western world to provide better parenting to their children. Generation Y is the first generation where greater emphasis has been put around children.

Many Generation Y parents (who mainly Baby Boomers with a smattering of Generation X) have made the decision to provide their own children with better parenting than they had received themselves from their parents. Typically they have bought their children up with more affection and involvement, and in return their children have a high degree of affinity closeness to their parents.

High self esteem vs narcissismGeny2

Generation Y in many respects have been treated as "equals" whose opinions are listened to and celebrated by their their parents. Generation Y typically have high levels of self-esteem and self-regard.

Some consider that this high level of parenting has backfired and parents have created a "generation of narcissists" with self-inflated views. Generation Y is also known as "Generation Why?" because they have no fear of questioning anyone or anything.

Caring vs over-involvement

Generation Y parents have been more involved in the lives of their children, providing more caring and affection than previous generations of parents. They have also generally taken it upon themselves to structure the lives of their children with value adding activities - scheduling their children from when they get up to when they go to sleep. What has been the consequences of this over-involvement?

  • Reduced robustness and decision making ability - Generation Y has not had to experience as much struggle and self-sacrifice as previous generations. As a result, they have developed to a lesser degree the robustness and resilience that comes from learning to handle difficult situations and experiences. Generation Y also have less experience in making decisions for themselves because everything has been structured for them
  • Helicopter parenting - the integration of the lives of parents with the lives of their children has meant that the line between "parent" and "child" has become blurred. Generation Y parents are considered to be over-involved in the lives of their children by employers and also known as "helicopter parents" because they hover over everything that their children do. In the past young people were typically left to their own devices in their university education and in their job searching activities supporting their early independence...however the rise of helicopter parenting has resulted in parents becoming too involved both in their children's university experiences (some universities in the USA have banned parents from their campuses) and work experiences (there have been some interesting accounts of parents participating in the interviewing process with their children!)
  • Longer transitions into adulthood - Parents willingness to continue parenting for longer periods of time has resulted in Generation Y now stretching their transition into adulthood into their late 20s. We also have a term "boomerang" that applies to young people who return back to live with their parents after they have finished their studies

Decisions that Generation Y have made from looking at the lives of their parentsGeny2_2

Generation Y have been significantly impacted by viewing the lives their parents:

  • they have seen their parents revolve their lives around work and TV
  • they have seen the impact of what a lack of work-life balance create
  • they have seen their parents work too hard at work for not much return
  • they have seen that a lack of investment in personal relationships result in divorce
  • they have seen a lack of company loyalty towards their parents who working extremely hard to please their employers only to be made redundant or downsized
  • they have seen the impact that unfulling work has on a person
  • they have seen that money and an affluent lifestyle do not provide happiness

...they have seen all this and they do not want the same for themselves or their own families.

Reference articles

Click on this link to access the links to the following articles: (7), (13), (17), (18), (19), (20), (30)

Generation Y articles in this research series (in date order)

Posted by: Hina Patel

Aug 2, 2007 3:16:05 PM | Generation Y, graduate conference

July 30, 2007

Generation Y Articles Used for Research

Geny2Research methodology for our Generation Y posts

This post details links to the articles (many thanks to Google!) that have been used to as a basis for this series of posts on Generation Y.

How we developed this series of posts:

  • we first went through each of these articles and summarised the key points that were being made
  • we then went on to develop a mind map that helped us to determine the key themes and issues that were emerging from the reviewed articles
  • each of the posts in the Generation Y series details the overall findings in each of the themes
  • all the articles that were used to develop the findings in each post will be referenced at the bottom of post

Articles used for Generation Y research

  1. Wikipedia reference for "Generation Y"
  2. Ypulse...daily news blog for "Generation Y"
  3. Business Week (1999) "Generation Y - Today's teens - the biggest bulge since the boomers - may force the marketers to toss their old tricks"
  4. USA Today (2005) "Generation Y: They've arrived at work with a new attitude"
  5. Generations at Work - Claire Raines Associates (2002) - "Managing Millennials"
  6. Washington Time (2005) "Generation Y embraces choice, redefines religion" by Cheryl Wetzstein (direct article link no longer available)
  7. Seattlepi.com (2006) "Millennials make their mark"
  8. Chief Learning Officer (2004) "Buckle up: Generation Y is here"
  9. BBC(2001) "Millennials: The kids are all right"
  10. Neovox "Generation Y: The ultimate consumers"
  11. Innovate Big...blog about Generation Y
  12. The Oberlin Review (2006) "Understanding Generation Y"
  13. University if North Carolina - power point presentation on "Tips for managing generation Y" (direct link no longer available)
  14. ABC South Coast WA (2006) "Doing it for love or money"
  15. Brainreactions...blog for Generation Y
  16. www.toytowngermany.com "Generation Y & work" (link no longer available)
  17. CNN (2007) "Attracting the twenty something worker"
  18. CNN (2007) "5 big mistakes new grads make"
  19. Generation Why "Whys Blog"...Generation Y blog
  20. The Consumerist (2007) "Gen Ys Top 15 most trusted brands"
  21. Interbiznet (2006) "Multi Generational Recruiting 1"
  22. Dallas News (2007) "Study: Young people increasingly self absorbed"
  23. Generations in Conversation (2007) "Recruitment perspective on Generation Y"
  24. Business Week (2005) "Welcome to the Gen Y workplace"
  25. Workplace Transformation (2006) "Generation Y in the workplace"
  26. Hotel Online (2000) "Generation Y: motivating and training a new generation of employees"
  27. OC Register (2007) "Gen Y floods the workplace"
  28. Career One (2007) "Gen Y drives workplace change"
  29. Manpower (2007) "Generation Y in the workplace Australia"
  30. Fast Company (2005) "This is your new workforce: Gen Y"
  31. Harvard Business School Archive (2004) "Managing the gamer generation"
  32. Internet Marketing (2007) "Managing Generation Y in the workplace"
  33. Career Journal (2006) "Three tips from Gen Y about the new workforce"
  34. PBS (2006) "Generation next changes the face of the workplace
  35. Med Hunters (2005) "In my day, things were different"
  36. Med Hunters (2005) "Multigenerational staff: conflicts & opportunities"
  37. NAS Recruitment (2006) "Generation Y: the millennials - ready or not, here they come"
  38. Monster (2007) "Hiring and hanging onto Generation Y"
  39. Talent Edge (2007) "Engaging the next generation"
  40. IEEE (2007) "Mentoring Generation Y"
  41. Business Week (2005) "Welcome to the Gen Y Workplace"

Generation Y articles in this research series (in date order)

Posted by: Hina Patel

Jul 30, 2007 10:16:29 PM | Generation Y, graduate conference

Generalisations & Generation Y

Geny1

Kicking off the Generation Y research - review of articles

We have started to develop our understanding on "Generation Y" with some desk research. You can look at the articles that we have written to summarises our finding by looking at the posts that we have indexed "Generation Y".

The key issues that you will need to be taken into consideration when looking at these articles is:

  • Understanding that we are making generalisations in order to draw out the Generation Y key themes
  • Understanding that the posts are based on articles that are USA centered where most of the Generation Y research has been done

Generation Y - can we generalise?Geny2_16

Who is Generation Y

Generation Y is the generation that was born between circa 1980 - 1994. This range of dates varies from source to source, however for our study we will take that the oldest of Generation Y is currently aged about 27 and the youngest being about 13. On a world wide basis, the use of the term Generation Y seems to be restricted to the Western World.

New behaviours belonging to Generation Y

As with people in general, the population of Generation Y also has a huge variation in the characteristics of the young people that make it up. However, there are a combination of key drivers (social, economical, technological) in this generation that are bringing up behaviours and tendencies that are more prominent with this generation than in the previous generations. Our series of post on Generation Y will concentrate on these new prominent behaviours and tendencies - with the understanding that these findings will not apply equally to all members of Generation Y.

The emergent generation

Furthermore, Generation Y seems to be more of an emergent generation than other generations - we are finding more and more about the values and beliefs that drive them as they start to play a more prominent role in society and the workplace. Generation Y is also more difficult to tie down and categorise than previous generations - for example marketers are finding it exceedingly difficult to market to Generation Y because they do not respond to the standard marketing techniques.

The surprising generationGeny2_17

It seems that we as a population seem to be generally surprised and flummoxed at the behaviours and values of young people today. We are struggling to understand what makes them and drives them - and Generation Y themselves are struggling to understand themselves. Individually Generation Y members see themselves as odd because they are struggling to fit in with what society expects of them - they do not realise that there are many others who are also struggling with the same issues that they are facing.

The divided generation

Just as we find commonalities for this generation, we also have divides (such as the digital divide, the social divide, the cultural divide) that have become more even more prominent in this fast moving world of Generation Y. This has resulted in a precipitation of distinct sets of "haves" and "have nots" in Generation Y which is also proving difficult to understand and accept in a world that expects equality as its basis no matter what your background.

Work Empowerment Foundation's focus

We are hoping that this series of articles on Generation Y will provide the overview...that will help Generation Y to understand itself and help others to understand Generation Y...as well as raising the issues of the divides that are operating in Generation Y.

Generation Y and the USA focus of articlesGeny2_18

The majority of the articles that we found when googling "Generation Y" are USA in origin (with a significant smattering of Australian articles). It seems that the USA are currently on the leading edge for understanding Generation Y - and it seems to be that not much has been done to specifically done to date understand the characteristics of UK's Generation Y.

The key differences between the UK and the USA for graduates seem to be that:

  • Tighter labour market - The labour market in the UK has not tightened up as much as the USA. The labour shortage due to baby boomers leaving the job market has not yet fully hit the UK market. This difference mainly seems to be due the fact that more USA baby boomers are taking on early retirement than the UK. As a result, the UK graduates are finding the market considerably more difficult than their USA counterparts since large numbers of graduates are now flooding a market that is not ready for them. In 2007, there is expected to be 90,000 graduate advertised jobs for the 250,000 students who will be graduating this year). This huge influx is causing employers are tighten up their recruitment processes even more as a response, making getting a getting a graduate a challenging experience for many UK graduates.
  • More competition - UK graduates are facing more external competition than USA graduates in their home market because the UK market can easily be accessed by other European graduates.
  • Less Generation Y opportunties - These two factors and other factors seem to provide USA graduates with more of an opportunity to exhibit their Generation Y characteristics at work and have the job market accept these differences

Learning more about the UK Generation YGeny2_19

Who is the UK Generation Y?

It is clear that we need to do more research in the UK to determine what are the characteristics that make up the UK Generation Y rather than relying on the findings for the USA Generation Y.

Work Empowerment Foundation and the UK Generation Y

The Work Empowerment Foundation feels that the best group of people to do this research is Generation Y themselves. The results of this research will be used by the foundation to facilitate Generation Y to develop services for themselves.

Generation Y articles in this research series (in date order)

Posted by: Hina Patel

Jul 30, 2007 10:07:28 PM | Generation Y, graduate conference

July 12, 2007

First Steps Conference.....WEF Pitch at Future Foundations Sparkle Event (27th June 2007)

Work Empowerment Foundation Pitches at Sparkle Network EventBalloon2

The foundation had the pleasure of doing its first pitch at a Sparkle Networking Event run by our partners, Future Foundations, for the "First Steps!" graduate event (click here to see the post giving an overview for the event).

What is the Sparkle Network?

The Sparkle Network is a group of twenty and thirty somethings which meets on a monthly basis in London to support each other at the start of their careers. I have attended two Sparkle Events so far and have enjoyed them tremendously...typically the events consist of:

  • Free form networking
  • Sparkle Pitch 1 - here a small business "pitches" to the Sparkle Network for no more than 5 minutes and asks for help on certain aspects of their business from the network members...with 10 minutes of questions and answers
  • Speed Networking - here you have the opportunity to meet with up to 9 other Sparkle Network members for 2-3 minutes and explore how you can help each other
  • Sparkle Pitch 2 - another small business pitches to the Sparkle Network
  • Free form networking

What did the Work Empowerment Foundation Pitch?

Here is a summary of my Sparkle Pitch:

"Message from Hina Patel of Work Empowerment Foundation…

“It was great to meet you at the last Sparkle event…I really enjoyed your enthusiasm in response to my Sparkle pitch on behalf of the Work Empowerment Foundation (www.WorkEmpowermentFoundation.org)  – a non-profit social enterprise seeking to help people create fun, freedom and fulfilment at work through a variety of services (online portal, social conferences, projects, consultancy etc)

As a summary, my pitch covered a social conference planned to run in November 2007 that the Work Empowerment Foundation is developing with Future Foundations. This social conference will explore the key issues that graduates are facing in the current job market…read my Blog for more information.

We want to involve both students and graduates in the development of this social conference – we are planning to pitch this to potential sponsors as an event “Created by Graduates for Graduates”.

We are looking for ways to create an active and passionate steering group of students & graduates who will work with us to (taking into account the summer vacation) to help us to achieve this.

If you are interested in participating in the steering group or have ideas to suggest on how we can create this to an impactful event, then please contact myself (Hina@WorkEmpowermentFoundation.org – mobile 0771 713 2026) or Jack Butler.”

Key Input From Sparkle Network

  • People don't generally know what social conferences are...this needs to be described more clearly and concisely so that people get how they are different from conventional events
  • Include student bodies in the event development (NUS, Welsh UMCA)
  • Get a clear idea of what the issues that each of the stakeholder groups are facing by holding a series of focus groups as part of the event development - this will give the opportunity for the key issues to be aired so that the most appropriate people / organisations can be invited to the social conference. Also keeping the groups separately initially in the focus group phase will ensure that people are really free to speak openly about the issues that are being faced
  • Use the results of the focus groups name what is really going on out there from different perspectives...this will support the development a social conference proposition that is cutting edge and addressing what really matters...this is the key USP of the event and will attract the people who are interested in actively meeting the issues face on as opposed to just having a nice discussion

Posted by: Hina Patel

Jul 12, 2007 5:29:06 PM | empowerment conference keys, Events Attended, First Steps! Networking

July 04, 2007

First Steps Conference....Networking Dinner # 1 (20th June 2007)

Sand_heart_freeThoughts from the first "First Steps!" networking dinner

We are now in the process of developing the proposition for the graduate event which is being run in partnership with Future Foundations (click here to see the post giving an overview for the event) in November 2007.

To kick-off this development and to support the ongoing research we hosted a networking dinner with:

  • Mark Faulkner - University of East London Employability Team
  • Mark Winlow - LECG - employer perspective
  • Keith Williams - Energize Solutions - partner for development of our Peer Mentoring Graduate Employability Programme
  • Ian Nixey - Work Empowerment Foundation consultancy
  • John Harper - MD SIFE UK
  • Hina Patel - Work Empowerment Foundation
  • Jack Butler - Future Foundations

What we explored

  • Skills gap
  • Graduate market
  • Generation Y

The thoughts that were expressed in the dinner

Graduate Market

  • Diversity tick boxes creating false expectations - it seems that some employers come to recruiting events at universities that they have no particular interest in recruiting from just to tick company boxes (to prove that they are seeking to improve the diversity of their organisation)
  • Student pre selection at employer presentations - UEL have come up with good way to create a better match between employers who come to their campus and the students who meet with them - the employability department actively preselects students who have a good fit with the requirements of employers by getting students to apply to attend the events. This process has has started to change the perception that employers have of UEL students and has improved UEL's graduate recruitment success rate
  • Universities need to play a more active role in the graduate job market - employers feel that universities need to provide more of a "market handshake" - they need to operate more as an intermediary to match up employers with their students / graduates
  • More visibility of the graduate market is required - many employers and students are operating in the dark - we need to have a better understanding of the market (numbers that industries & employers are employing, the number of graduates available on the market and their skills, salaries that available & expected salary progression etc) so that both employers and graduates can make better decisions - this will facilitate a "market handshake" (see point above)
  • UK PLC - the concept of the corporate niche in the UK was introduced - this group has been looking at why the UK is falling behind in the global  competitive landscape. How can UK PLC utilise the current graduate pool differently in order to improve their productivity?
  • Employer uniqueness - just as all students are different, all employers are different as well - the recruitment process needs to allow for uniqueness on both sides. Different employers are looking for different things. Graduates need to be more aware of the uniqueness of the employers that they are applying to
  • University students need to prepare early - the group felt that university students generally left it too late to be preparing themselves for employment - ideally this preparation should start pre-university
  • Unrealistic expectations - some graduates in the current market believe that they should be leading projects from day one on the job - there seems to be a lack of an "apprentice" mentality - often graduates expect to be promoted four to six months after they start their first job
  • "Walking into jobs" - many students believe that having a degree will allow them to just walk into a job - this has resulted in lack of preparation for work market
  • Jobs have not changed - there are more and more graduates on the market but fundamentally the number and types of jobs available have not changed that much 
  • Graduates are spreading bets too much - it seems that graduates do not trust the advice given that it is better to apply for fewer jobs and research / prepare well rather than playing the numbers game by making many applications across many industries and functions - this strategy results in the candidate coming across as ill prepared - candidates need to know who the employer is and the employer wants before applying - they need to make their applications more specific and be able to communicate this during the interview process
  • Use of "MBA books" - most MBA schools provide a book of profiles for their MBA students - this allows employers to choose students that they want to approach. How could this concept be used with standard university students?
  • Raised bars - some graduate employers are resorting to raising the bar by looking at grades achieved at the GCSE level in order to limit the applications that they receive. Typically large employers will set up "barriers" in terms of qualification levels etc to make application numbers more manageable - once candidates have passed these barriers they will need to further prove that they have the capabilities (range of skills etc) that the employer is looking for - just passing through the advertised "barriers" is not enough
  • Lack of ability of graduates to sell themselves - graduates need to be more proactive in showing that they have a clear fit with what the employer is looking for. Many of the graduates on the market are lacking the ability to sell themselves - their CVs tend to lack transferable skills - they take the skills that they have for granted and do not promote them - when interacting with the employers they fail to realise that they are selling themselves as a "product"
  • Getting into the "wrong" job - a Gallup poll has shown that 8 out of 10 employees feel that they are in the wrong job (a job that does not make the best use of their strengths) - only 17% of the working population is actively engaged with their work - it seems that Britain as an institution has created a job market where people end up in the wrong job. In the USA productivity is considerably better because employees can be fired easily with just 2 weeks of pay - this motivates employees to look for jobs where they are able to perform well - additionally as a constitution, Americans believe that they have the right to be happy and motivated to look for work that makes them happy
  • Students need more support in making career decisions - universities should be a "non-attached" adviser - they need to take students though a path so that students are able to make choices about the jobs that are the best suited to them - students need to understand more clearly what they are good at and then be given the skills to seek for jobs that fit both their aspirations and what they are good at
  • What are "graduate jobs"? - graduates should not just be looking for jobs that are labeled "graduate jobs" - there are many jobs on the market that will provide graduates a good first step in their careers

Skills Gap

  • Technical skills are not enough - students and graduates in technical subjects cannot expect that their technical skills will be enough to gain technical employment...the need for basic business skills is becoming more and more important, and more and more employers are looking for this. How much are existing university curriculums catering for this? Furthermore, many current "techie" students and graduates still believe that they don't need to have a high level of social skills as they are wanting to enter a technical profession. How can students and graduates be made to realise that they NEED to have social and business skills to be success in the current market?
  • "X Factor" skills - The X Factor show is full of people who really believe that they are good at something, however in many cases this does not stand up in front of an audience. This concept also applies to graduates - how can graduates really determine that they are good at something rather than how they perceive themselves to be?
  • Jobs are more than a degree? - most jobs require a specific skills set rather than a specific degree - if graduates want to be successful, they need to prove that they have the skills portfolio that the employer is looking for
  • Proof of skills - if an employer is looking for "strong team skills", saying you are a "strong team player" on your resume is clearly not enough - but what is enough to prove to the employer that you may have the skills set that they are looking for?
  • Where "more character than qualifications" is required by employers - many of the jobs that are available on the market that are suitable for graduates require people who are more than a set of qualifications - how can graduates show that they have the "character" employers are looking for?
  • Employers are reluctant to train - employers do not want to invest in graduates schemes - this is because graduates are now moving moving so quickly that the employers feel that they would be "training people for someone else". Furthermore, employers now expect candidates to have the skills that they previously trained their employed graduates for
  • Is the skills shortage really a "lack of ability to find the skills"? - employers need to more specific about the skills that they are looking - the skills that are specified need to more differentiated - it seems that employers don't know how to specify and look for skills - employers need to do more tests to look for the skills that they want rather than just rely on CV and interviews
  • Ambiguity of skills requirements - it seems that some employers prefer to stay general in their specifications of the skills that they require even though they know what they are specifically looking for - they want the applicants to share their, for example, experience of "strong team skills" so that they can ascertain themselves from the answers that the candidate give if he is a good match for what is required
  • More soft skills are required - generally there is a growing need in the work market for "change" skills - this is because the competitive landscape is moving so fast that companies need to be more adept at change - many employers are actually looking for "change" skills but are not able to make this explicit
  • It is not just about skills - motivation and the ability to demonstrate it is also a key factor that employers are looking for
  • University students are missing basic English and maths - due to the increased diversity in universities many students are missing the basic levels of English and maths that employers are looking for
  • Pulling out skills - graduates need to be shown how to draw out the full breath of employable skills that they have from their life and work experiences - otherwise they will just have their qualifications to promote themselves

Generation Y

  • Graduates want freedom - many students do not want to work for anybody else - they want to set up their own business so that they are not treated like a "cog in a wheel" - they want to be free and not a slave to anyone
  • Not looking past the first "rung" - this generation of students are typically only seeing as far as their first job - they are not looking at what they will be doing next - this need to look forward is becoming more and more important because we no longer have the situation where we have "jobs for life"
  • Employers need to demonstrate opportunities more fully - employers need to be able to communicate more effectively to candidates the further opportunities that will be available to them if they take the positions offered to them - this will will appeal to generation Y who are looking for opportunities to gain a large skills portfolio rather than a specific career
  • Graduates want to contribute to the social good - many students and graduates now have more of a social consciousness and are looking for organisations that are making a positive social difference in the world
  • Graduates are more diverse now - it seems that many potential employers are not ready for handling and taking advantage of the diversity available from the current graduate pool
  • Affluence - students are still living under the affluence of their parents and do not need to just rely on themselves and their jobs to have a good lifestyle
  • Life is less predictable - in the past everything was more predicable and straightforward - life now is no longer like this - we no longer have the option of predictable career paths - there is more need now for people to actively plan their lives

Future First Steps Networking Events

We are planning to host more networking dinners and focus groups to explore the issues that could be covered by the social conference. Click here to read about other networking events.

Posted by: Hina Patel

Jul 4, 2007 12:44:57 PM | empowerment conference keys, First Steps! Networking, graduate conference

May 29, 2007

"Graduate Skills Gap" Research Strand

Graduate Skills Gap - Research BasisSunflower_istock_000000106302xsma_2

Introduction

This post details the starting basis for the research of the graduate skills gap in the UK. We have developed this research design basis by interviewing our partner on this project, Jack Butler from Future Foundations, to identify the key issues that are influencing the graduate skills gap.

Please note that we will be updating this post on an on-going basis as the research progresses.

What are the skills involved in the the graduate skills gap?

There seem to be four types of skills that graduates are expected to have to land their first jobs...the definitions of these will be clarified as we progress the research:

  1. Technical skills - these are industry specific skills that students are trained for in their university course. These skills are fundamental to performing the job role (e.g. engineering, law, chemistry etc).
  2. Soft skills - these are general people skills, leadership skills etc
  3. Working world skills - these are skills related to actually doing work (e.g. writing a report) and work ethos (e.g. time keeping, dress, being reliable, having integrity)
  4. Prior work experience skills (not sure if this is a skill but will keep it here in the list) - these are skills that are available as a result of working in previous suitable jobs

Skills Gap Issues - Generally it seems that there is "too much issue raising and not enough action" in the area of graduate skills gap.

To look up - NESTA have recently commissioned Demos to look at the top 10 skills that employers need and what the gaps are.

How does the skills gap look from the employer side?

Role of employer expectationsBalloon2_2

The vast majority of the media concerning the graduate skills gap comes from the perspective of the employer. Many of the employer bodies (CBI, IOD etc) have been complaining that they feel that the government has let them down because they do not have access to the kind of graduate work force that they desire.

Technical skills - many industries (eg IT, construction, engineering) are saying that there is a shortage of suitably trained graduates on the market that they can employ to meet their manpower capacity requirements. What could be the causes of this?

  • Not enough students studying the subject in the first place...the student capacity is less than than the required industry capacity for graduates...the industry may not be considered attractive enough by potential students...or students are not aware of the potential of careers in this industry.
  • Not enough trained students going on the work in the industry that they have trained for...it could be that these trained students have a large choice available to them in terms of potential jobs. These students may prefer to not enter the industry that they have been trained for because they do not find it attractive enough compared to other options.
  • Graduates not specialised enough in specific areas...for example in IT it could be there is a shortage of specific programming skills even though there are more than enough IT graduates.
  • Trained students lacking other skills that make their training unusable...it could be that the some of the trained students on the market have such low levels of soft skills, working world skills and work experience that they are considered unemployable by the industry that they have trained for (see below section on soft skills & working world skills).

Soft skills & Working World skills - many of the graduate employers are complaining that they cannot fill their graduate positions because the caliber of the graduates with respect to the softer skills and working world skills is not satisfactory at all. What has this been caused by?

  • Students prioritising study over social activities - as the number of graduates available on the market has increased, there has been considerable pressure on students to concentrate more on their academic studies so that they improve their academic ranking in the graduate pool. This has resulted in students having less time to participate in social activities that build these kind of skills.
  • Working world skills are not specifically taught - some students are not even aware that they need to be developing these skills because they are not taught specifically...and even if they are aware of what was required, how would they go about developing these skills unsupported?
  • Employers are no longer recruiting for attitude and training for skills - in the past when the available graduate pool was a lot smaller, employers recruited for attitude and then trained for working skills. It seems now that perhaps graduate employers are less prepared to train graduates that they employ for these skills...they expect prospective graduates to have them already.
  • Employers are not specific about the skills that they are looking for - employers need to more specific about the level and range of soft skills and working world skills that they expect from their graduates...this would then give the graduates a benchmark to aspire to. At the moment most employers say they want team players and a work ethos etc...but they are not specific as to what to what they are actually looking for. This is very much like having a performance assessment for a job based on criteria that have never have been articulated...leaving both parties dis-empowered as they are both unsure about what is needed to count as a good performance.

Work Experience skills - work experience skills are good for both parties...employers get to see examples of how graduates have performed in actual work places...graduates get to see if they really want to work in that particular industry, lowering turnover when they are employed for real.

However, in order to receive graduates with work experience skills, employers need to be prepared to "contribute to the pot" of student work experience by actually providing student work experience positions...work experience does not appear from thin air!

An idea - Many students need to work at university in order to support themselves...with the majority of them are taking minimum wage jobs to achieve this. Employers could take advantage of this trend by providing a range of jobs through the year at minimum wage in their organisation where students can gain suitable work experience - creating a win-win for themselves and for students.

How does the skills gap look from the graduate side?

The numbers game...not in the favour of graduates

From the graduate side, the issues caused by the skills gap could seem unsurmountable. There are more and more competing graduates on the market and yet employers are complaining that they cannot fill the graduate places that they have because the caliber of graduates on the market is not good enough. Graduates are finding it increasingly difficult to secure graduate positions and are being forced to take sub-graduate jobs that they could have obtained without a degree. Clearly this is not a sustainable position if the government requires to continue to grow the graduate pipeline.

Role of graduate expectationsBalloon2_2

The exploration of graduate expectations is relatively underplayed by the media who prefer to concentrate on the expectations of graduate employers. So what is the nature of graduate expectations?

  • They expect to get a "graduate" job after graduating - here graduates could be contributing to their own problems because they are not willing to explore jobs that have graduate potential but are not classed as "graduate" jobs. There is a role for graduates to go into the market and look for jobs that suit them and then negotiate with the employer to create graduate potential in it.
  • Graduates do not think beyond a "job" - graduates would do much better if they looked from a perspective of creating a career that suits them and then looking for work that would get them started on that career path. By taking the perspective of looking for a "job", graduates are tending to spread themselves by going a wide range of jobs...and they then come across as ill-prepared as they have not researched all the prospective markets well because of the "any job will do" attitude.
  • Graduates tend to believe that doing well in their degree is enough - often graduates discover too late that they have a significant skills gap that they need to bridge in order to get the jobs that they desire.
  • Variations in graduate expectations:
    • How do graduate expectations change regionally? What do they expect potential jobs will look like?
    • What do graduates think that they are worth? Is the market able to match this? Is it reasonable?
    • What are the differences in expectations between say an economics graduate and an English graduate

Technical skills

  • How aware are students about the range of jobs that are actually available on the marketplace when they are selecting their university courses?
  • Would they have made a different selection if they know what skills that the employers are actually looking for?
  • How are students currently educated about the skills need of employers on the marketplace?
  • Are there too many graduates going for industry niches that seem "sexy"?

Soft skills & Working World Skills

  • Do students really understand the importance of these skills in the current graduate job market?
  • How can they start developing these skill pro-actively if their university does not offer them?
  • What role can graduates play in forcing potential employers to be clear about the soft skills and the working world skills that they as employers are looking for?

Work Experience Skills

  • Work experience is essential...what can students do to ensure that they get the right sort?
  • What role can students play in finding work experience jobs with employers that they like instead of taking low paid jobs (e.g, cleaning, factory work etc) that do not provide suitable work experience?

Understanding the Graduate Skills Gap - Research Results

Summary of research required:

  • NESTA / Demos report on skills required by employers
  • What industries has short-fall of graduates? What is the reason why?
  • What percentage of graduates do not end up working for the industry that they have trained for? Why?
  • Just how important are soft skills and working world skills to the graduate employer of today?
  • How well do employers articulate the level and range of soft skills and working world skills that they require for their graduate positions?
  • What is the general employer philosophy towards student work experience?
  • Survey - what are the key concerns that graduates / students have about the graduate market?
  • Survey - how do graduate expectations change by discipline and by region?
  • Survey - how aware are students / graduates about the actual manpower requirements of the economy?

Research results - list of the posts detailing research results

This list will be updated on an ongoing basis as the research phase commences.

Posted by: Hina Patel

May 29, 2007 7:54:19 PM | empowerment conference keys, graduate conference

"Generation Y" Research Strand

Sunflower_istock_000000106302xsmallGeneration Y - Research Basis

What is Generation Y?

The current group of graduates entering the market at the moment have been classified as "Generation Y"...who is this new generation?

Definition of Generation Y: TBD....we will be updating this definition as we progress with our research on Generation Y.

This post details the starting basis for the research of Generation Y. We have developed this research design basis by interviewing our partner on this project, Jack Butler from Future Foundations, to identify the key Generation Y issues.

Key issues pertaining to Generation Y

Education on Generation YBalloon2

Generation Y is not at all well understood by the work market and the general public....there is a need to provide some education of what is Generation Y and the implications of Generation Y to society and the workplace.

Generation Y does not understand itself

Generation Y is the silent revolution born from technology, economic and social factors...it is an emergent generation that still has to acknowledge to itself what it is. Starting points for research:

  • Book "Generation Why?"
  • Australian website for Generation Y
  • Orange and Demos report on Generation Y

CPA phenomena

CPA...Continuous Partial Attention...Generation Y has grown up with technology and are using it in a way that is unprecedented in the current work market. How can the work market maximise the opportunities made available by CPA. This issue was covered well in Channel 4 conference on 10th May 2007 looking at informal learning for young people.

Ambitious and Restless

Generation Y have a very high sense of ambition. They want early responsibility and they want to make a difference..."they are driven to make a difference". They want to work for organisations that are making...this is driving an increased interest in the third sector.

Boomerang Children

Financial concerns are causing more and more graduates to return back home after they graduate. Graduates need to look for jobs from home if they have not been successful in finding a job whilst at university. This group of graduates are so focused on finding a job that most of them do not have robust career plans. It will be interesting to explore in the research how this situation fits in with Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Generation of Career Breaks

Generation Y is the generation of career breaks...

  • Why are career breaks taken?
  • How many graduates are taking career breaks?
  • What happens after a career break?

Understanding the Generation Y- Research Results

Summary of research required:

  • What do employers and general public understand about Generation Y
  • Continuous Partial Attention phenomena
  • What kind of work are Generation Y demanding from the market
  • What do Generation Y know about themselves
  • Career breaks (why, how many, what afterwords)

Research results - list of the posts detailing research results

This list will be updated on an ongoing basis as the research phase commences:

Posted by: Hina Patel

May 29, 2007 10:06:32 AM | empowerment conference keys, Generation Y, graduate conference

May 25, 2007

"Graduate Market" Research Strand

Sunflower_istock_000000106302xsma_2

The Graduate Market - Research Basis

The graduate market is made up of the:

  • The suppliers - graduates & universities
  • The customers - organisations

This section of the research will look at the structural factors that are impacting on each side of of the graduate market. The more softer issues will be covered in the following posts:

  • Generation Y - how the characteristics of the graduates are changing
  • New Organisations - how the characteristics of organisations are changing (link to be provided later)

This post details the starting basis for the research of the graduate market. We have developed this research design basis by interviewing our partner on this project, Jack Butler from Future Foundations, to identify the key issues pertaining to the graduate market and then using a bit of common sense structure the research work.

Research Results - This post will be updated on a regular basis (see last section of this post) with links to other posts that we have made that are related to the Graduate Market.

The Suppliers - The Graduate Side of the Market

Graduate Numbers Balloon2

The number of graduates entering the market has increased significantly as a result of a government policy decision to increase graduate numbers. What are the implications of this on the graduate market?

  • More diversity is now available - in the past university students were mainly from a white middle class background (need to check out this assumption)...now there are more university students from a working class background covering a diversity of cultures. This should support employers to create greater diversity at tops of their organisations.
  • A wider range of abilities is now available - typically in the past only the top students of the class attended university, now a large proportion of the class is expected to attend university. This means that a wider range of abilities and skills is now available in the graduate pool. It also means that the previously assumed "high classroom intelligence" is no longer a norm in the graduate market.
  • Degrees are the "norm" - having a degree now is no longer a premium on the market. Many graduates are attempting to differentiate themselves on the market by spending more time studying to achieve high grades - however in this pursuit they are letting lapse the more social aspects of university life that build team working and other people skills.
  • Increased financial burden - most students need to take out loans to pay for their university education. This financial burden can limit options - students try to minimise costs by studying from home (limiting the universities that they can take attend) and working part time (reducing the time that they have to study and to enjoy student life). After they graduate, they are then under pressure to bring in money as soon as possible to cover their debts. This has resulted in graduates taking the first job that they find - often these jobs will mostly be sub-graduate jobs (jobs that do not require a degree) or other jobs that may not give them the best start to their careers.

How is the current system working? Looking at Graduate Rates

How can we understand how well the graduate side of the market is working - what are the key numbers that we need to understand?

  • Drop out rates - how many of the students entering university are actually finishing?
  • Retention rates - how many graduates go onto further study instead of entering the job market?
  • Sub graduate job rates - how many graduates are entering sub graduate jobs when they leave university?
  • Graduate job rates - how many graduates are successful in obtaining graduate jobs?

The Role of the University in Marketing of Graduates

  • What is the role of the university in helping their graduates to find suitable employers and jobs?
  • How has the roles of the university changed as a result of increased of student numbers and a more challenging graduate job market?
  • Which universities and regions are more successful than others?
  • What is the potential for student empowerment in universities?
  • What is the role of the university in working with industry sectors to attract students into industries with manpower shortages?

The Role of Graduates in Marketing Themselves

The increased competition in the market has resulted in more graduates "hedging their bets":

  • Graduates go for many options (job, masters, law school etc) and then they take the first one that comes up...letting the market dictate their career choices
  • Graduates go for many markets and dissipate their energy by spreading themselves thin - this results in them coming across the potential employers as not very knowledgeable about the sectors that they are applying for
  • Graduates look for "jobs" rather than for "careers" - this can result in graduates making choices that are not good for their career in the long term

Typically, graduates are not selecting and targeting niches that best suite their strengths and aspirations. As an analogy, businesses that do not select and target their customer niches well tend have mediocre or sub-mediocre business performances.

Other Non-UK Graduates Entering the Market

The UK market is currently very attractive to high quality graduates from the European mainland - for example London is now the 7th largest French city. There seems to be opportunities in the UK market that the rest of Europe cannot offer - what are these opportunities?

The Customers - The Employer Side of the Market

Graduate Numbers & Diversity Balloon2_2

The employer market does not seem prepared for the availability of a large pool of graduates that is more diverse in terms of culture, abilities and skills. What are the possible implications of this?

  • There are new potential employers who do not know how to recruit and work with graduates - employers who previously did not recruit graduates now have that option available to them. However, working with new graduates is a challenge that can be difficult to meet if you have not worked with them before.
  • Employers not prepared to train graduates so other employers can have them - it seems that graduates are considerably more employable once they have completed a graduate programmes with another employer. This has resulted in some graduate employers dropping their graduate programmes(eg Vodaphone and Orange).
  • Existing graduate employers not used to the new diversity of graduates - the diversity and the mix of graduates available on the market is increasing, however many existing graduate employers may still be recruiting on the basis of the old graduate pool. This means that that employers maybe making graduate employment decisions that are not realistic for the current graduate pool. Additionally, the existing graduate programmes may no longer be well suited to this new pool of graduates.
  • Employers try to handle the volume by raising the academic bar- employers could be trying to cut down the volume of applications that they receive by increasing their criteria (typically academic levels) to well above that required by the graduate jobs that they are offering. This results in the employers all going for the same niche of graduates for vastly different jobs that could be more suited to more practical graduates.
  • Employers are not fully exploring the possibilities that are available with this new pool of graduates for meeting their manpower needs - many employers have not looked at how they can exploit this large graduate pool fully in their organisation. There are many jobs in organisations that can be done by new graduates that would both benefit the graduate and the organisation. Employers are missing out on good, cheap highly motivated young people who could make a significant difference to the performance of their organisation because they are not thinking beyond standard graduate positions.
  • Graduates are missing out on career opportunities because some employers are not willing to take new graduates - many growing sectors such as the third sector, creative economy, and media are only willing to take on graduates who have several years work experience in related fields - this situation would also apply to some rapidly growing SMEs. This situation creates significant issues in the graduate pool because many graduates specifically want work in these target markets and they are struggling to get the right work experience so that they will be eligible for the positions later on in their careers.

How the sectors have been changing

The landscape of the industry sectors has changed considerably over the last decade due to globalisation, technology and other factors:

  • What new sectors have been emerging?
  • What existing sectors are in growth?
  • What existing sectors are in decline?
  • What existing sectors have changed their roles?

How has this impacted on the ability of the sectors to recruit the manpower that they require:

  • Undersupply - which sectors are struggling to find graduates? What are the reasons for this struggle?
  • Oversupply - which sectors are inundated with graduate applications?

Understanding the Graduate Market - Research Results

Summary of research required:

  • Government policy around university education
  • Growth of the graduate market
  • Diversity of the graduate market
  • Effective ways of creating differentiation on the graduate market
  • Typical student debts
  • Graduate rates (drop out, retention, sub graduate jobs, graduate jobs...by region & university)
  • University - role of career and employability departments
  • Graduate employment strategies
  • Who are the employers new to graduate recruitment
  • Employer graduate programme trends (retention rates etc)
  • Third sector, creative economy, media - how do they view new graduate employment?
  • How has the landscape of sectors (as defined by the sector skills councils) changed over the last five years
  • How are the sectors getting on with recruiting the graduates that they require?

Research results - list of the posts detailing research results

This list will be updated on an ongoing basis as the research phase commences.

Posted by: Hina Patel

May 25, 2007 7:03:22 PM | empowerment conference keys, graduate conference
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Hina Patel

The founder of Work Empowerment Foundation.

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