Recruiting the Generation “Y” Workforce
In case you haven’t notice there’s a new generational cohort entering the workplace and they are making their presence know.
Generation Y (aka iGeneration, Google Generation, Millennium Generation, and the Boomerang Generation), have grown up in a world of diverse Internet resources. If you want to bring out the best in your Generation Y workforce you may have to begin by letting go of traditional methods in favor of a more creative approach.
According to experts, Generation Y workers were born generally from 1977-2002. Their force is almost 80 million strong out numbering the Boomers by approximately 1 million. In a recent survey conducted among hiring managers and Human Resource professionals, across all industries, the generation gap is more pronounced in the areas of communication styles and job expectations in the workplace.
The business world as we know it is changing. As the skilled Boomers retire, companies will have to go the extra mile to replace them. Gen Y workers will have a huge impact on the workplace. An inaccurate description of this group is since they have been pampered their whole life they are lazy.
They are not only high maintenance but high performing as well. This generation of workers comes computer literate and high tech ready. In addition they have very high expectations of themselves.
Employers are scrambling to implement new policies and programs that appeal to the new workforce. Those managers that hold steady to old belief about the workplace and how work is done in the business world-will find themselves out of jobs.
There is still much to be learned about this new cohort of workers but here’s a start on some basic principles to keep in mind.
Recruiting – Gen Y are civic minded and socially conscious and very aware of the world. They volunteer and feel personally responsible for making a difference in the world. Gen Y is all about choices and meaningful work and social networks. Don’t be put off by the tattoos or piercing, those are considered stylish and/or spiritual.
Motivate – They like to have choices focusing on output not method. They’ll get the job completed according to the deadline but will resent being reminded to. Members of Gen Y are not obsessed with work. Although they want to make good money, it is not what motivates them.
You will find social networks of friends are their preferred environment and they love to be decorated with their iPods, BlackBerrys, and laptops. Realizing anything is possible they are determined to live their best lives now.
Retain – Gen Y is known for gender bending. When creating new policies list the benefits with out assumptions as to which gender will use them (eg. maternity leave). Don’t be surprised to find they need flex time to compete in some extreme sports activity or to travel.
Expanding their experience, education, and mentoring are important to this generation. This young workforce will job-hop when they see no other choice.
They have a reputation for experiencing boredom and frustration with slow-paced environments, traditional hierarchies, and slightly outdated technology. Telecommuting programs are in great demand allowing Gen Y to work remotely.
They are also likely to be boomerang employees. Those who leave and come back, will return knowing the company and culture and bring a new perspective and institutional knowledge which will be an asset.
Trying to keep up with their demands could send any company into a frenzy but remember workplace diversity is not just about culture: it’s about the way people think. Expect to get professional consultation to transform your organization and coaching for your managers. This generation is very different from any other generation the workplace has seen.
Unlike Boomers who lived for their careers, today’s young workers are more interested in making their jobs accommodate their families and personal life. They place a high value on self fulfillment.
As Bruce Tulgan, author of Managing Generation Y, says, “If you thought you saw a clash when Generation X came into the workplace, that was the fake punch. The haymaker is coming now.”
Copyright 2007 Michelle P Simms, personal development coach. Her ideal client is not defined by a specific profession, but by the passion they have to grow personally and professionally. Michelle leads weekly teleseminars and works with individuals worldwide at http://www.SimmsInternational.com
Are You on the Inside or the Outside of Jargon?
On an online network, the subject of word use became a topic of discussion. This is a worthy topic of discussion anywhere, but it seems especially important online, where the written word becomes the primary means of communication.
Several subtopics emerged in our discussion, including jargon. Jargon is a powerful time saver, if you are inside the circle of people who know its meaning. If you are outside that circle, though, the use of jargon can confuse, annoy, or exclude you. The extent this is problematic to you will depend on how much you want to be in the inner circle.
Entering any new subculture requires getting acquainted with the vernacular. Understanding acronyms, jargon, shortcuts, inside humor, and incomplete sentences are all part of getting acclimated to a subculture or inner circle. Consider the casual chatter about the Internet these days compared to, say, five years ago. Even over lunch time conversation, you will say or hear jargon like ISP, domain, spam, virtual networking, ezines, and on and on. Not that long ago, such conversations would have been very foreign.
As a consultant and coach, I find it absolutely essential to listen to the language of my clients and speak their language as much as possible. Sometimes I ask for clarification when I am unfamiliar with an expression, but often I let it go unquestioned, knowing that if it is important I will figure it out or it will come around again. By being with my clients in their vernacular, I can more easily introduce other language. I am constantly looking for how I can assist others in using language in more and more empowering ways.
Helping people to lift their consciousness through use of language is key to my work. If I let language that I think is silly (for example, “more is less”) pass without a comment, I can more easily focus on transforming language that is truly disempowering to language that creates desired change, whether the language is jargon or some other form of a shortcut or automatic response. For example, “I hate my job, I’m really stuck, everything’s going wrong. . .” are ideas that are truly disempowering and create a self-fulfilling prophecy. A more empowering idea, which is usually believable to the person expressing those ideas, is “I am ready for a job I love.”
Effective use of language clarifies meaning. When language creates confusion, not all is lost, because when confusion is out in the open, greater clarity can emerge. Language is creative. Underneath language are thoughts. Thoughts expressed in language become more tangible than thoughts unexpressed.
One of my favorite quotations of Albert Einstein expresses it so well, “If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t know enough about it.”
Jeanie Marshall is a Personal Development Consultant and Coach with Marshall House, http://www.mhmail.com She writes about personal empowerment, meditation, and effective use of language. She assists professional coaches and consultants to write at http://www.WritingByCoaches.com
Virtual Networking To Keep You Connected When You Are Not Able To Meet In Person
“Yikes! There’s no way I can make it to that networking meeting that I used to attend!
Now I have just too many tasks and people needing my attention.”
Does that sound like you, facing the dilemma of how to stay connected when your usual routine is interrupted by family challenges?
When family challenges make it necessary to alter your schedule drastically, it’s important for you to have an alternative plan to keep your business growing and thriving. You may even be working at a location away from your usual office while handling family responsibilities in another city.
With the vast amount of opportunities on the Internet, you are able to find alternative ways of staying connected and finding new customers. In this article you’ll learn three effective and efficient ways of keeping in touch.
Joining Virtual Networking Groups
There are a number of networking groups online. A few examples are RYZE, Linked-In, Virtual Womens Chamber of Commerce, and E-Women Network.
YouTube and MySpace are two sites that are becoming more and more credible in the business world.
YouTube is actually being used by speakers to promote their programs. In many cases this has replaced the typical demonstration video formerly distributed as a way of giving a taste of what they will experience from the speaker. Videos on UTube are also being used as part of a resume for applying for jobs. When you are not able to meet with prospective clients in person during a crisis period, YouTube is a way that they can experience you and how you work with clients.
Many entrepreneurs have created pages on MySpace to promote their businesses and to make networking connections.
Writing and Submitting Articles
My guess is that you have talks that you have given that would lend themselves to great articles. Just get these down on paper. You could even have a transcriptionist do this for you so that you can read it over and do any necessary editing.
You can then distribute these to article submission sites on the web that will then send them to various online publications. Or submit them to individual publications either online or in hard copy that are relevant to your business. Naturally, at the end of every article, you will have your contact information and an enticing offer for them to either call you or visit your website.
Sending Out An Online Newsletter
An online newsletter is a cost-effective way to keep in contact with current clients, prospective clients, and networking partners. If you have clients or prospects who have not signed up for your online newsletter, it is necessary to send them either a sample issue or an email inviting them to be part of your reading audience. Otherwise you will be violating SPAM laws.
Make good use of the article you wrote and sent to submission sites. Use it in your newsletter to give your readers some quality content every time they hear from you.
To make it a simple process for sending out the newsletter to your database, sign up for a service such as Constant Contact. This service has attractive templates, statistics as to how many emails were opened or blocked, and an easy way for web visitors to sign up or opt out of the newsletter.
For strategizing ways to make your business more resilient even in the tough times, talk to me, Suzanne Holman, your Exuberant Productivity coach and consultant. Free resources are available on the website, http://www.suzanneholman.com
Ten Things Leaders Need to Know About Audience Analysis
The right diagnosis is imperative to success in the medical field. Without it, patients suffer and perhaps succumb. Diagnosing the state of health of a patient is a systematic process which helps the physician come to accurate conclusions. Diagnosis is more than information; it is applying that information in a way that brings accuracy to the process.
Sales, education, public speaking, or writing for the web,in each case leaders doing the communicating need it to be prescriptive. It needs to fit a specific audience the way a prescription is given to fit a specific diagnosis.
There needs to be a systemic analysis (diagnosis) of the audience to deliver content which accomplishes the purpose. Audience analysis is an indispensable part of the systematic design of communication.
There are ten things every communicator needs to know about doing an audience analysis.
1. Do it in writing (or typing). Information changes when it is written down or at least the way you process it changes. It becomes more organized in our thinking. When I take time to write down an audience analysis, it slows me down enough to carefully undo some assumptions I may have made which may not be entirely accurate. It helps me see the information from a different perspective or makes it visible that I have oversimplified perspectives on the audience.
2. Do an analysis, even if you think you know your audience well. By doing a careful analysis you gain deeper understanding of people that we know superficially, and yet do not really know because we have not asked the right questions or only asked those questions in one framework. People are complex. We need to ask questions about the people we think we know best to see how they have changed.
3. Include the context in the analysis. The readiness to listen or ability to absorb information may change with the context in which they are exposed to the content. People behave differently in groups than they do in individual settings. People are sometimes distracted by their setting or the people around them. I try to think about both the physical and social context.
4. Break the audience into segments. Write down the different sub-groups that might be in the audience. I like to attach numbers to them. What percent will be of one gender or another, one age group or another, one interest group or another? This does two things, it helps to clarify how general I need to reach everyone or how specific I need to be but moving that specificity from segment to segment.
5. Consider their culture. Not just as it relates to an ethnic group but community or corporate culture as well. A friend told me about being a translator for speakers who came to Romania to speak. He said the hardest thing was to translate for people who came and used baseball metaphors, when almost no one in the audience played or cared about baseball. He said “striking out” as a metaphor carried no significance for a Romanian audience. There are cultures within academia, business, churches, and communities. The time we take to analyze what the characteristics of the cultures represented in our audience, the more effective our content will be communicated.
6.Analyze their expectations. What are their expectations of the delivery? Are they expecting to be entertained? Are they expecting a serious discourse? That may change from audience to audience. Decide what delivery styles would they consider to be appropriate for the content. Offended people do not listen. Are they a crowd that needs a lot of facts, or do they expect to be motivated?
7. Consider their needs. I have gotten letters that start out, To whom it may concern. Those letters leave it up to the recipient to determine if the letter pertains to them or not. Perhaps they are one of the concerned ones, perhaps not. When we communicate, we want everyone to feel concerned. We want them all engaged with our content. When doing an audience analysis, I like to put myself in the place of an audience member and ask myself, how does this pertain to me? Or, what do I expect to get out of this? Perhaps, Why do they need my content? Asking these kinds of questions helps us determine their needs. People do not like being sold, but they like having their needs met. An audience analysis can reveal those needs and perhaps help the communicator show the audience why they need it.
8. Consider their previous knowledge. Nothing bores people quicker than having someone talk above their head or using terms that are outside of their past experience. Sometimes they are not only bored, they become angry because they feel stupid because they do not understand. Analyze their previous knowledge of the subject, and then definitions can be a part of the content so that the audience has access to the information and feels respected.
9. Consider their emotions. Analyze what the audience needs to feel about the content. Analyze what they need to feel about you as the presenter or author to believe the message. Non-verbal communication is often the vehicle that taps into the emotions. A clear understanding of what they may or may not feel because of the presentation style or the context can help us develop content that is affective (emotionally effective).
10.Consider their limitations. How much information can they absorb at one setting. A friend used an oil metaphor with me when I was talking about a speech I was preparing. He said, “If you do not strike oil in 20 minutes, quit boring”. This is less likely to happen if you note in your analysis what you think the limitations are on how much new material you can deliver in your context. If you write it down you are more likely more likely to deliver it effectively.
Now I am going to follow my own advice. In my analysis of online audiences, the limitations for reading an article is about 1,000 words. I am at 1023, so, I will stop here and hope that this information will help you deliver communicate your content more effectively.
Rick Hubbard studied Organizational Communication at the B.A. level and e-Learning/Instructional System Design at the graduate level. He works in instructional technology at a Florida University and does consulting in communication and instructional design. http://www.ALeadershipRevolution.com