Finding, hiring and keeping Gen Y talent – An insiders view

As someone who is a very young Baby Boomer - or an ancient Gen X - it's great to share with you an article written by a colleague of mine from Atos Consulting. Tasha How describes herself as a typical "80's child" who pretty much follows the Gen Y blueprint. What is interesting, however, are Tasha's thoughts and reflections of a new generation building their - and her career. She concludes with some top tips. Over to you Tasha...

I faced a disappointing realisation today…. All this time I’d thought I was individual and unique but, it turns out, perhaps I am just a typical ’Gen Y.’

Born in 1983, I have grown up with a PC at home, various games consoles and a mobile phone since I was about 15. I check my Facebook account every couple of days and I’m more likely to plan my social life by text or email than on the phone or in person. I can’t tell you the last time I thought to look at a map – if the Sat Nav isn’t working then at the very least the online Route Finder will get me to where I need to be! I expect convenience and to be able to access services when it suits me – after all, I barely really remember the days before Sunday trading, my local supermarket is open 24 hours a day and I do all my banking online.

So what does all this mean for my career, my expectations in the workplace and how my employer can best retain me?

Recruiting Gen Y
For a start a prospective employer needs to find me (note, they need to find me at least as much as I need to find them! I genuinely believe I have power in this relationship).

So, how to recruit a Gen Y?
I secured my current job simply by putting my CV online - then the job found me! My CV was picked up by an agent and within a week I had a couple of interviews lined up and had accepted my role within a month.

Gen Y will undoubtedly look online as their first (and sometimes only) port of call, so at the bare minimum the position needs to be readily available online and the company would definitely benefit from appearing using the common search engines. But to recruit people like me, that probably isn’t enough. The onus becomes on the recruiting employer to be the active party – searching for candidates on business networking sites, getting referrals from your current employees and using a good recruitment agent will be much more likely to put us in touch than waiting for me to reply to a well hidden advert! Mind you, that’s not to say I’m lazy; if I know of a top company in the industry I want to work in, I’ll get in touch with them irrespective of whether their advertising for jobs – after all, I’m confident I can add value for them.

It’s also worth remembering that if you’re trying to recruit a recent graduate, they may well be out of the country – Gen Y’s have grown up with foreign travel and think nothing of taking 12 months out to find themselves. It’s worth thinking about whether someone sat in an internet café in Australia could easily find, apply and be screened for the job you’re advertising.

Retaining Gen Y
Apparently, the fact that I get bored easily is just another part of being a ‘Gen Y.’ Perhaps it’s down to having so many options available to keep me entertained as a kid, or perhaps its not; but whatever the reason, the fact is I need variety and challenge to keep me interested in my job.

My first job was on a grad scheme that promised 3 different placements over a 2 year period plus studying for a professional qualification; Impatient as I am, I decided to compress my 3 placements into 18 months and then moved on to a new role in the organisation with its own series of new challenges! I now work as a consultant, the main attraction of the job being the opportunity to change projects, roles, teams and even companies (clients) virtually every 6 months.

The most important factor to retain me in a job is to keep me challenged and I have friends who have left their jobs with nothing lined up to go to, simply because they were bored at work. If the work isn’t challenging in itself, then at the very least I need a tight deadline to give me a push! So job design and line management are both massively important to make sure the challenge is lasting and the job is richly varied. While Gen Y aren’t known for their corporate loyalty or ‘job for life’ attitude, variety within a career can still be an option within a single organisation for a reasonable amount of time.

Going back to believing that I can add value to organisations, it’s important to me that I can see how my employer is helping to add value to my CV. On the job learning and investing in personal development are like hygiene factors for Gen Y – if they can’t see how their gaining transferable skills then they may well leave before their CV is too heavily eroded.

In terms of reward, money is important to the extent that living is expensive – joining the property ladder in recent years with a 100% mortgage plus a student loan, often a car loan and an active social life means that a Gen Y, undoubtedly like many generations before, will have certain needs and expectations about their basic salary. But equally the concept of ‘total reward’ is fitting for retaining Gen Y. Work like balance is important and the ability to fit work around life in general – perhaps it’s a reflection of the levels of convenience we’ve grown used to.

When I think of my friends, money is a big motivator for some, but the one who is the most motivated in their job doesn’t earn the most money, or have the best pension (many of us aren’t thinking that far ahead and, to be honest, question whether a pension will even be worth the paper it’s written on by the time we’re eventually able to retire), or even have the most holiday allowance… it’s the one who has fun at work, socialises regularly with her team and her boss, and who recently won a trip to an exotic island with other top performing team mates. It may be a coincidence that she also happens to live close the office so has minimal travel time, cost or hassle, but there’s no denying that having time to go to the gym after work and still be home in time for Eastenders is a plus point!

So what?
That’s the burning question. So what?

The reality is Gen Y are joining the workforce now and will continue to be an important part of your employee base for the next 40 years or more. In the UK we have an ageing workforce and so organisations must find effective ways to balance the hugely different needs of the various different generations on which they rely as employees and current and future leaders.

As a Gen Y myself, these are my top five tips for recruiting and retaining Gen Y talent:

1. Make sure jobs are well designed to be challenging and varied
2. Ensure line managers are given adequate training to be capable of keeping their top performers motivated and stretched
3. Offer opportunities for individuals to hold a variety of roles within the company over a number of years
4. Make sure you provide developmental support that the employee values for their long term career plans and not just to meet the needs of their current role
5. Remember that Gen Y’s believe they can move on at any time: become complacent at your peril – they won’t necessarily be loyal enough to wait for the organisation to turn around the next corner!