The importance of Generation Y in the workforce
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:
- 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. 
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 priori
ty 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)
- First Steps conference - research background
- Generation Y research strand
- Generalisations & Generation Y
- Generation Y articles used for research
- Gen Y1 - role of Generation Y parents
- Gen Y2 - role of technology
- Gen Y3 - other factors influencing Generation Y & the Generation Y divide
- Gen Y4 -Generation Y characteristics and values in life
- Gen Y5 - the marketing view of Generation Y
- Gen Y at work 1 - characteristics and values at work
- Gen Y at work 2 - Generation Y and intergenerational conflict
- Gen Y at work 3 - Generation Y - vision, good work, work ethics, work-life balance
- Gen Y at work 4 - how employing Generation Y will benefit business
- Gen Y at work 5 - how to manage Generation Y
- Gen Y at work 6 - Generation Y and career
- Gen Y at work 7 - recruiting Generation Y
Posted by: Hina Patel
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