Generation Y 2.0

From 29 April, in partnership with FAFIEC and REGIONSJOB.com, we will begin to roll out a training course on recruitment and social networks across major French cities. These courses are aimed at recruiting professionals wishing to deepen their knowledge in 2.0 and tools to cope with new behaviours from the Y culture and changes in the face of crisis.

The job of recruiting has changed drastically. If the first objective is always that of being an intermediary between a job post and an individual wishing to occupy it, the components have evolved, both in substance and in the appeal of new approaches and practices.

These parameters include:

• The maturity of the customer requirements have changed significantly. If the emergence of the Internet in the recruitment process has temporarily led us to believe that businesses could “source” by themselves, we must once again get recruitment firms to use “e-recruitment 2.0” tools

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So much has been written already but what is happening right now and what do we need to be thinking about when it comes to the China’s future workforce?
Although China is experiencing a slow down in exports and property sales, it remains one of the least exposed countries in the financial crisis. Many hope that this will lead to closer ties and cooperation with the western continents and ideally support the IMF in the global crisis.
While many may fear China’s growing superpower, what would happen if China was not able to sustain its markets in years to come? Amazingly, with a population of over 200 million in the Generation Y age group, way outnumbering the 7% over 65’s, and 5 million graduates entering the market each year, China is still struggling to find the right talent, especially in key positions and with few top talents in the pool, the long term future of China’s leadership is still uncertain.

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With job cut backs and hiring freezes, graduates may be wondering what’s in store for them this year.
The Graduate Market in 2009 report by High Fliers and the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) own report, there will be less opportunities for graduates in this years’ hiring round despite reported increases predicted earlier in 2008. Cuts are of course being firmly blamed on the credit crunch/recession.

Last year there were approximately 2.8 graduates for every place in the leading companies and with more graduates coming onto the market this year competing for potentially less jobs this ratio is likely to be at least 3.5 to 1. Competition is likely to increase again in 2010. Yet stories continue that employers are looking to overseas candidates in order to find the skills they are looking for, as found by the AGR. Focus on university league tables showing the employability of their graduates is likely to increase and employers may be thinking of targeting their rounds very carefully.

Most of the vacancies continue to be based in London and the South. According to the AGR, banks are likely to cut graduate vacancies by at least 28%, together with cuts in graduate starting pay. Engineering sectors may see an increase in graduate vacancies but continue to have a shortfall in the right calibre of candidates. So perhaps engineering graduates will be less inclined to head to the City for banking jobs this year, but the shortfall in this field continues. And there appear to be reports of pay freezes for graduates elsewhere.
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You’ve been waiting, now it’s here. The test. The ultimate quiz to see if you are more aspiring to a Y or a boomer!

As we have said before, being Generation Y is a lifestyle, not just an age group and now is the chance to check if you have the “Y Lifestyle” !

After twenty years of research and a doctorate from Cambridge, this is the questionnaire that you’ve all been waiting for… well ok may be this has not quite been tested along with the best psychometric tools in the world… but it’s fun, so have a go anyway.

You know the rules. There are no right or wrong answers blah blah blah. Answer honestly and usually nothing can be held against you.

So answer yes or yes to 22 questions if you want to be sure not to make a mistake and prove that you are aligned with young people.

Here we go: Read the rest of this entry »

In a week of chaos across Britain as it continued to snow, more in inches than metres, and whilst our Aussie colleagues were literally BBQ’ing on the beach, what were our Y folk up to? Was there some positive light to come out of the week or was it all grey slush and misery?

So ok, getting anywhere on any kind of transport was difficult and well done to all of you who battled through to get to your destinations and to panic buy all those cartons of milk (did you need so many?!). Shame on you who used it as an excuse to stay home! No seriously, was staying home such a bad idea? What about the perils of bad weather and associated safety risk? What about all those important events and practise nights. What of productivity and the effect on industry at a time when businesses need every drop of income right now? More doom and gloom I hear you say.

Perhaps there are other ways to look at this. What about the peace and quiet to get those reports done and catch up on all those emails? Two days in your PJ’s and with your favourite snacks to hand and iTunes to play without headphones, could you breathe a sigh of relief that you didn’t have to go to college or the office and save a bit of time? Well many could see that there was an awful lot of time being spent on Facebook and online chat this week, and a remarkable number of photos of snow filled driveways, gardens and parks! What an industrious lot we are, and yes we still know how to build snowmen and other well known snow loving (?) British characters .
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Following some of our earlier articles, it is clear that cross-generational working is essential in the times ahead. If you think that baby boomers should be leaving the scene, think again, they bring wisdom and real experience of surviving a recession and managing change. Gen Y can bring collaborative spirit and a fresh perspective. But it is predominantly our Generation X middle managers and leaders who have the challenge of bringing all this together.

As managers, it is time to be prepared and open minded about what each of the generations brings. Those seniors may have worked in a different era but the experiences are no less valid and they’re amongst the users of the internet and web 2.0 tools just like everyone else.

Our Gen Y need an encouraging hand, genuine interest in what they have to say and what they want to achieve; it’s not about their managers making assumptions or judgements, or ensuring these newcomers have to go through the same paces they did.

In the article “I’m way more Generation Y than I thought, you too?” by 23 year old Victoria Gutierrez, she looks at the fundamental differences in her Y world and that of her boyfriend’s father who is busy conforming to the traditional hard working career guy image just like many of the others that she perceives follow in similar footsteps. Victoria remains frustrated, trying to bring her unique contribution, finding something exciting and creative that allows her to be herself at work.

So what are these Gen X senior and middle managers going to do to bring these groups together? How are they going to cope with the pressures of change? How are our new Gen Y middle managers going to embrace these strange times? And how are we going to support them?

Of course there are plenty of leadership development programmes and workshops out there, change management guide books and all the rest. In fact we urge you to keep investing in your leadership and think carefully about how you can do that in an imaginative way. The top companies distinguish themselves by the way they develop their leaders and think about the young leaders of tomorrow.

However, we need to think about what is different and not just fall back into our old ways. First, what is similar: Recognition, Leadership, Meaning and Authenticity: Read the rest of this entry »

Did you know, baby boomers seem to be the only ones who love the name of their generation!

It doesn’t change the world and it’s nothing new, but here’s a small article which allows us to illustrate this. For those who missed previous episodes, we have 5 demographic generations right now:

• Generation Y (aged 14 to 30 years)
• Generation X (ages 31 to 45 years)
• Baby Boomers (aged 46 to 65 years)
• The Silent Generation (age 66 to 84 years)
• The Great Generation (age 85 and beyond)

So why is it since the baby boom, generations were given only one letter?

Because authors/sociologists William Strauss and Neil Howe published a book entitled Generations, in which they described the Amercian generations since 1584. According to them, there were altogether 4 types of generations that follow in an endless cycle. If their thesis (published in 1991) has not been terribly well followed by historians, it was a Canadian writer, Douglas Coupland, which, in the same year, made a book “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”. It describes the angst of this generation in search of new spiritual values. Read the rest of this entry »

While large companies are beginning to take into account changes in behaviour in their HR practices and marketing, a recent survey suggests that small businesses are not yet ready to adapt their marketing strategies to meet the expectations of younger generations.

The survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and the software developer Genesys, asked executives around the world * how they attract and retain young consumers.

It turns out that many companies are still debating the benefits of investing in this age group rather than the baby boomers. 42% of respondents believe it is better to “invest in Y” against 39% preferring to concentrate on other generations while the number of people of generation Y will soon surpass the number of baby boomers and will continue to gain influence.
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In these times of survival there are going to be a number of skills, capabilities, characteristics or traits that are going to be needed to rely upon. There appear to be a number of ‘soft skills’ that will distinguish those with not only the survival skills but the ability to help carry their organisation and themselves forward. These may include for example: self awareness, ability to communicate and relate, emotional intelligence, ability to evaluate complex problems, passion, entrepreneurial spirit, positive thinking, and curiosity.

Curiosity can be described as the desire to learn or to know an object that arouses interest, an emotion that causes curious behaviour, or just being inquisitive or nosey!

Without curiosity what would we have missed or would have happened to these guys - Sir Walter Raleigh, Captain James Cook, Richard Branson, Akio Morita, Friends Reunited, YouTube, Dyson, the entrepreneurs of Dragon’s Den, Harry Potter or perhaps this guy:

“The important thing is not to stop questionning”, Albert Einstein

For GenY and those with ‘Y behaviours’ this may be part of what distinguishes them, and something that our baby boomers and Gen X need to encourage. But don’t forget that “curiosity is common to human beings at all ages from infancy to old age”, Wikipedia. So this is something we must share across the generations.

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Whilst our Generation Y colleagues provide significant commercial opportunity for many businesses such as advertising, shopping, gaming, and e-commerce, and entrepreneurial benefits for others, they are also proving a headache. A headache for those who have yet to redefine their IT strategies in order to accommodate integrated media platforms whilst safeguarding company security and data protection.

In “IT Security’s Next Big Threat: Young People”, in Dark Reading, editor Tim Wilson concludes from three recent studies that our Yers “are engaging in online behaviour that could expose their organizations to data leakage and information theft”. The question being whether it is the behaviours or the company policies and training that are ultimately to blame.

More and more people are using Instant Messaging, social networking, open source technology, and other online applications rather than traditional tools and email, many of which are not supported by their employers. On top of this there appears to be a growing need for online learning suites.

Chris Sparshott provided the keynote at the Digital Technologies Professional Learning Symposium in Auckland, NZ, recently, using a Generation Y persona to illustrate his perspective on the need for training and education to embrace the benefits of the computer/video gaming, virtual worlds and 3D UIs that our Y’ers and Generation Z have grown up with. David Williamson Schaffer long pointed out the benefit of educational games that can bring players together, promote interactive learning and help individuals absorb fairly dry complex topics, for example. Also Daniel Sieberg from CBS News more recently reported on the benefits of the right games in education to help individuals learn, solve problems and overcome obstacles.

Whilst some organisations are looking to revise their platforms to accommodate the new tools and new ways of working, others are tightening their policies whilst many continue to remain exposed in more ways than one.

The three studies mentioned above came from Accenture, Intel and ISACA (a major IT users group):

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