Hugh, The Maze MasterHugh's Reviews
Each week Hugh reviews something, anything really, that has provoked a thoughtful insight."Not Everbody Gets A Trophy." by Bruce Tulgan
How to manage Gen Y. What a great question! Tulgen writes this book for managers and HR people who are in the midst of hiring Gen Y (born 1978-1991).
I find this book interesting because we are also hiring these kids for our seasonal workers. Many of the principles of how Gen Y views work apply to our business.
How Gen Y Views Work:
1. Work is not life. Baby boomers and even Gen X (that's me!) often define themselves by their work. Gen Y has been brought up with the concepts of work-life balance ingrained in them. They had to! Their parents were struggling for it as they grew up!
Work is not life to Gen Yers but they are struggling to create meaning by doing something useful. Parents programmed them to do that too.
Self-fullfilment is the end goal, not approval from upper management.
2. Multitasking. This is the generation that was over-programmed from the time the were 2 years old. Piano, soccer, play date, church, preschool, dance class, and parent errands, often between two households, is normal!
They have been multitasking since birth and have trouble doing just one thing at a time.
3. Internet + connection = breathing. Life without cell phones and the Internet is unknown to them. Without continuous connection to "their life" (i.e.instant messaging, text messaging, social media, etc.) they feel like they are drowning.
Ever try to separate a teen from his phone? Gen Y must have things NOW! Google, the Internet, phones have made it possible to get whatever you want, so instead of placing importance on memorization, they value knowing where to find the answer.
What the heck do we do with them?!. Tulgen's conclusion, as I feel it is most applicable our kind of businesses, is to use these premises to understand Gen Y and develop a workplace in which they fit.
Give them the recognition they crave. Give them important things to do. Use their technology savvy for your business. Give them training, but then let them go!
I certainly don't claim to be an expert in managing Gen Y, but one tip I've found effective is to allow self-directed-ness.
After I know I can rely on the crew enough to be work by themselves, I just give them the list of tasks, give them a time limit for each and for the whole list, then turn them loose.
I don't care the order of the task or how they split the responsibility. The result is most important.
It doesn't always work, but it's better than fighting with them over the details.
We working on a pay-for-skill system by which a new hire could earn wage increases inside of the first week. INSTANT rewards for skill acquisition.
It sounds like it should work...
Any other ideas?
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