Here’s how a local TV station covered my half-day workshop, Leading the Facebook Generation, in Medicine Hat last week.
What the Meeting Planner Said
“This event more than doubled any other event we have ever had so we were very pleased. The feedback from the evaluations provided was very positive… Everyone enjoyed Tod’s sense of humor and the way he gave the presentation. On a more personal level I enjoyed working with Tod thoroughly from the beginning with calls and emails as I was getting prepared for the event and when I met him. Tod was very accommodating and helpful. I have organized events for many years and I can honestly say that Tod has been one of the most accommodating and friendliest speakers I have ever had the pleasure to deal with.” – Vickie Keeley, Medicine Hat HR Association
What The Audience Said
“I just wanted to let you know that I was at the Leading the Facebook Generation seminar [in Medicine Hat], and being 22, I thought you were hilarious and pretty much right on the money. I look forward to seeing another seminar should you ever come back to town!” – Julia Jordan, Medicine Hat AB
“I really enjoyed the presentation. It was one of the best presentations I have ever been to, the information was great and you have an amazing ability in keeping the audiences attention. I have already taken a lot of what you said in your presentation and used it in my day to day communication with the older generations in my life. You are awesome. Thanks for making the stop in small town Medicine Hat!!!!” – Lacey Amen, Medicine Hat AB
VANCOUVER, Sept. 16 /CNW/ – Social media expert Tod Maffin says companies are about to face a mass exodus of employees due to a kind of perfect storm brewing within two key generations of employees.
“With the Baby Boomers set to retire en masse, companies are going to have to find ways to replace them with younger employees,” says Maffin. “But that particular crop of employees – the ‘Facebook Generation’ – is as likely to walk out the back door as easily as they came in the front.”
“The first wave of employers to experience that kind of laissez-faire attitude was the service-driven industries – such as fast food restaurants – who were literally having to close their facilities at times because they couldn’t find and retain enough young workers to flip burgers and serve customers,” said Maffin.
Maffin says these twenty-something employees present an entirely new set of challenges for employers – and that companies need to take an entirely new approach to managing their needs and retaining their services.
Here are Maffin’s top five tips on how to do that:
Give Them Your Trust: Young people born between 1980 and 1990 were raised by Generation X parents who gave them unprecedented levels of trust. Misguided attempts at increasing productivity, like blocking Facebook and instant-messenger programs, scream “We don’t trust you!” to this group of workers (it’s like blocking telephone calls).
Focus on Team-Based Solutions: That’s the way they were taught all through school – it was all about group projects, not individual reports. Engage them in group projects and let them play an active role in that process. Consider giving them a box of their own personalized business cards on day one.
Skip the Annual Review: Generation Y requires instant feedback – don’t worry, they can take criticism, as long as it’s justified, immediate, and gives them an opportunity to work on correcting bad habits or misguided efforts.
Nix the Coffee Breaks: Eliminate scheduled breaks entirely. Let them take breaks when they feel they need it. Given this level of trust, most generation-Y workers will return the favor in spades by devoting extra time at work, often unpaid.
Invest in Technology: Your technology must at least keep pace with what this generation uses at home. That doesn’t necessarily mean the latest bleeding-edge turbo-machines, but a patched-up computer from the secretary pool won’t cut it.
For further information: Tod Maffin, tod@todmaffin.com, (604) 618-2861
This Tuesday in my newsletter, I’ll publish my report on how smart companies are changing the way they do business to better reflect the way new workers think and work. You’ll be able to read five specific case studies who had great ideas that turned into higher retention and more satisfied workers.
How a national accounting firm let employees pick a guided career track to progress along — for instance, pace of career (from accelerated to decelerated), role (from leader to individual contributor), workload (from full to reduced), and more.
How a U.S-based pharmacy chain kept more baby boomers in place (to help mentor and train the new workers) by offering “snowbird benefits” — essentially a work travel exchange program, promoted to appeal to their staff’s season preferences.
The clever online result-based rewards program offered by one Marriott hotel, where employees can give points to colleagues they think performed the best, giving those workers the opportunity to spend those points online for real merchandise.
How one multinational finance firm’s graduate deferral program gave new employees the option of delaying their start-date for 12 months, as long as they devoted the time to community service or acquiring new skills. For specific initiatives, it also offered to pay half the base salary and a stipend for health insurance.
“Generation Y employees will quit their job just to go snowboarding.” (More likely, they were being ignored or treated like a cog at work.)
“Generation Y workers are used to having everything handed to them on a silver platter.” (Quite to the contrary, this generation’s work ethic is very strong, provided there’s just a little bit of recognition for a job well done.)
“Everyone in Gen-Y are experts in technology.” (Not true. Many more than you’d think don’t have Facebook accounts, only use email that much, and couldn’t care less about anything Steve Jobs talks about.)
But one thing the pundits mostly have right is this:
Generation Y employees want to change the world.
They want their time working for an employer to be much more than helping to pay “the man’s” mortgage, or that of some shareholders. And by “world,” it could be that they want to change their community, or they want to change how the office runs, or they want to volunteer for a company-supported charity. But they want to have some direct impact.
Employees today no longer are happy with just getting a paycheque in exchange for their time. They want something to contribute to something that aligns with their personal values. And those values have changed over the decades.
1970s: Stability
Back in the 1970s, office workerbeers focused their work ethic toward achieving simple stability. Who could blame them? Times were uncertain: It was the age of Kent State, Nixon’s resignation, the fall of Saigon, and uprest in Iran. Financially, things looked gloomy — interest rates were pushing past 18 per cent.
Back then, the average office worker was happy to have a job, stay there for their entire career, and take the gold watch as they entered retirement. What these people sought was predictability, stability, and “staying the course.” Survival and prosperity of the company was paramount and individual goals were put at rest.
1980s: Money
Perhaps as a response to the measured, conservative work ethic of the previous decade, the 1980s saw a radical reversal of this spirit. Suddenly, people put the focus on themselves and their personal prosperity, often at the expense of the collective.
The primary concern for workers in the 1980s was themselves — it sometimes was even referred to as “The Me Decade.” Stability be damned; this was the era of high risk and the promise of high profits. Books with titles like “Make millions without lifting a finger” came out of the woodwork (and still, sadly, do today).
The media were rife with stories about the personal entrepreneur striking gold. For the first time, quirky, egotistical business executives became celebrities in their own rights (DeLorean, Steve Jobs, etc.). Pop culture became fascinated with themes of personal wealth, gluttony, and prosperity (Dynasty, Trading Millions, Ferris Beuller’s Day Off). Think about The Cosby Show — arguably, the most popular show in the 1980s — which starred a character who had a beautiful home, a perfect family, and never seemed to go to work!
Mid-1990s: “Balance”
Then came the Gen-X decade (commonly called “slackers” by the media) who demanded balance. Workers, especially in startup companies and technology firms, began pushing back against the long hours they exchanged for the promise of future profits.
“Balance” was a moving target. Technology and video-game executives heard “recreation” and created on-campus volleyball courts. They heard “family” so they started in-building daycares. All of which, of course, sent the message that workers should stay at work, rather than go home and enjoy the fruits of their labour.1
Today: The Search for Meaning
Generation Y workers, though, don’t feel the need to work mindless hours in the pursuit of personal fortune. They want to work long enough to enjoy life and use their time for something bigger.
Today’s young realtors want to know how that young family that they sold a home to is doing.
Today’s young financial planners may very well pick up the phone to see how their client is doing — just because they genuinely care.
In a recent study of 4,700 people, more people said “fulfilling work” was the most important factor to staying with an employer — well ahead of job security (70s) and personal advancement (80s).
So as a result, if you expect to recruit and retain these people, your organization must articulate meaning — the actual difference that their time will make in their community, in the world, in the country, within their family, on their block.
I fell victim to this flawed executive thinking as well, In the late 90s, I was co-founder and CEO of a successful publicly traded artificial intelligence firm. Most of our staff were highly skilled programmers — the kind of “microserfs” Douglas Coupland wrote about. They worked hard, played hard, and were top of their game; many drew a higher salary than me and other senior executives. When they asked for balance, I created an aromatherapy room. Honest to God. We had this unused area that was meant as a photocopy nook so we put a door on it, painted the room black, put glow-in-the-dark sticky stars and planets all over the wall, brought in comfy chairs, and hid an aromatherapy diffuser in the corner. “Relax?” it told our employees, “Feel free. Just please don’t leave the office.” [↩]
Forget the recession — the biggest challenge companies will face in the next five years is yet to come: A mass exodus of employees from the workforce. Baby boomers have already begun retiring en masse and scant few organizations have any kind of succession plan in place to recruit and groom future leaders.
It’s not like they haven’t tried. Managers have hired legions of so-called Generation Y workers to fill offices, only to watch in disbelief and confusion as scores walk out the back door as easily as they came in the front. Understanding the fickle needs of workers in their 20s — the “Facebook Generation” — is a moving target, but indicators are emerging pointing to why young workers hit the bricks.
They Feel Mistrusted: Young people born between 1980 and 1990 were born to Generation X parents who gave them unprecedented levels of trust and room “off-leash” as compared to their baby-boomer parents. Thus, the Facebook Generation expects to be trusted in all aspects of their life, including on the job. Misguided attempts at increasing productivity, like blocking Facebook and instant messenger programs, scream “We don’t trust you!” to this group of workers. After all, you don’t block the telephone in case your employees make personal calls. To the Facebook Generation, blocking other modes of communication like social networking sites are the same thing.
They Feel Like a Cog: Generation Y employees want to feel like a part of the team from day one, not something they have to earn after months of employment. If you’re holding your new workers back from participating in a project simply because they haven’t cleared their three-month probation, you are, in essence, telling them that they were hired for their ability to fill a chair, not play a valued role in a firm. Remember, this generation was told by their parents that they “can do anything they set their mind to.” Holding them back from that potential in the workplace will confuse and eventually frustrate Generation Y workers. (Quick tip: Hand them a box of their own personalized business cards on day one.)
You Give Them Annual Reviews: In past generations, workers were evaluated once per year in a horribly demoralizing session known as The Annual Review. This review was, in essence, the recitation of a list of things that employee did wrong in the previous 365 days, then an opportunity for them to beg for a raise. It doesn’t work any more. Generation Y workers require instant feedback — don’t worry, they can take criticism, as long as it’s justified, immediate, and gives them a fair opportunity to correct it. Corrections should happen when needed, not held for a year-end meeting, and should start with the words: “Let me know how I can help support you better so this doesn’t happen again.”
[quote]Your Technology Sucks: Young people in their 20s simply do not know a world without immediate access to information like the Internet and email. And yet, so many corporate offices still slog by on computers that groan and chug slowly when asked to perform basic tasks like opening a spreadsheet or launching a web browser. Your technology must at least keep pace with the computers this generation uses at home — this doesn’t necessarily mean the latest bleeding-edge turbo-machines, but it doesn’t mean a patched-up computer from the secretary pool, either. (Um, you still have a secretary pool?!)
You Don’t Give Them Unstructured Time: Often, companies attempt to increase worker output by restricting the time available for watercooler chat, coffee breaks, and so on. First, eliminate scheduled breaks entirely. Let them take breaks when they feel they need it. Paradoxically, given this level of trust, most Generation Y workers will return the favor in spades by devoting extra time at work, often unpaid. This time gives them the chance to “cross-pollinate” ideas across projects or departments, share news between divisions, and otherwise break down the traditional “silos” that hamper an organization’s agility. Remember, this informal connection time is the way they were taught to work through school — group projects, not individual reports. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to spot the abusers of this generosity clearly.
You can audit your own organization’s ability to retain Generation Y workers today. Start with the easiest two:
Are you rewarding, not just encouraging, sharing information and ideas across the company?
Do you have updated computers and have a “just don’t go overboard” policy when it comes to your workers using web sites like Facebook and Twitter?
Are employees in the first three months of employment involved in important and exciting projects?
Now that economic recovery is ahead, the days of workers competing for jobs will once again sunset. Soon enough, they’ll be back in the driver’s seat. If your company isn’t prepared to respect the needs of this new generation, you may find yourself struggling for relevance in the new economy.
What do you think? Can you add other reasons Generation Y workers bolt from their employer?
Tod Maffin and Malcom Gladwell have been selected as the two keynote speakers at the upcoming F5 Expo in Vancouver. Hear Tod's story of how he went from being an always-on multi-millionaire dotcom executive to crashing into depression and addiction. A story of hope and recovery, with a lesson to everyone in business, Tod will outline his five key tools to surviving in the techno-busy lifestyle.
“I just wanted to let you know that I was at the Leading the Facebook Generation seminar [in Medicine Hat], and being 22, I thought you were hilarious and pretty much right on the money. I look forward to seeing another seminar should you ever come back to town!”
“I really enjoyed the presentation. It was one of the best presentations I have ever been to, the information was great and you have an amazing ability in keeping the audiences attention. I have already taken a lot of what you said in your presentation and used it in my day to day communication with the older generations in my life. You are awesome. Thanks for making the stop in small town Medicine Hat!!!!”
