What to do about Gen Y - appended

I'm going to append my post from yesterday based on a great post from Mike Brennan of Knowledge Infusion.  A quick excerpt:

"...New York professionals - while not a global sample, certainly a representative microcosm - expected, on average, to change careers - not jobs - three times in their lifetimes, and only 28 percent expected lifelong careers. Therefore, it is incumbent upon HR professionals and their business partners to create and manage career paths that help employees match their expertise and interests with the needs of the organization. However, the vast majority of these career paths will not resemble the linear tracks of our parents' generation. Gone are the days of checking in climbing a vertical ladder for 30 years to get that gold watch...

...Given that more and more organizations these days are looking to help mobilize their key talent internally rather than let their most valuable assets walk out the door, it is incumbent upon employers to provide employees with user-friendly access to information and tools that enable them make well informed decisions to manage their careers."

The point here is that it is a bit flippant to say that the evolution toward a Gen Y workforce "should be left to work itself out" (my words).  Organizations must do what they can to keep talented people with the company, to avoid the excessive costs of constantly losing, hiring and onboarding people.  A very important part of this is what Mike refers to above - giving employees line of sight to the jobs and various career paths (even the odd ones) that exist within the organization, so that they are empowered to chart a path that is interesting and meaningful to them, personally.

Ultimately, giving Gen Yers the tools, support, and opportunities they need to manage their careers and grow professionally (at whatever rate they can sustain) is going to pay off much greater than rethinking rewards and remuneration in the traditional sense.  If you want to crack the Gen Y code and really harness the potential of this quirky demographic, I'd say look here.

Comments

[Mark Stelzner]

Interest post(s). My concern relates to the "short attention span theatre" the distracts most employees, regardless of their employers' commitment to talent management and explicit career pathing. The dynamic nature of today's market, and it's impact, is not purely limited to corporations; it also directly relates to the individuals manufacturing, marketing, selling, supporting, financing and operating. In the world of 90-day/quarterly vision, we should not be surprised when employees too express a shift in interest and prioritization that may differ from the corporate mantra. The vast majority of people I know have been in their current role for less than two years and with their current employer for less than four.