Younger workers more likely to leave, but can be enticed to return
14 October 2008 11:08am
Generation-Y workers are harder to retain, according to a personal development expert, but if you treat them well when they're with you then they're likely to return - with an arsenal of new skills.
"If you're nice to them," Helen Macdonald of Macs Results told the recent CPA Congress in Sydney, "if you're looking after them while they're with you, and you let them go with love and with best wishes, then they will come back."
Generation-Y workers (that is, workers born in or after the early 1980s) are more likely to change careers than workers from any other age group, according to Macdonald.
"They may have as many as five career changes - not five jobs - five career changes in their lives," she says.
They are impatient and curious, she says, and expect rapid gratification or promotion within an organisation. If this is not achieved they will quickly move on. Unlike previous generations, Generation-Y workers do not, in general, feel duty or loyalty-bound to remain with a particular employer.
A smart organisation, therefore, recognises that the tenure of a young worker is likely to be relatively brief, Macdonald says, and endeavours to maintain a connection with high-calibre staff it would like to eventually return.
To encourage this, she notes, "some organisations are creating alumni, where previous employees can stay in touch with one another and find each other again and maintain relationships."
If the worker is leaving in order to travel, some employers make an effort to connect the worker with related or affiliated industries in other jurisdictions or countries, Macdonald says.
As a result, the worker may feel inclined to return to his or her previous employer equipped with the new qualities, skills and life experience acquired in his or her pursuits.
This is what Macdonald calls a "tornado career". The worker "starts low", she says, changes to another organisation, returns at a higher level, departs again, returns at an even higher level, and so on.
Multigenerational understanding is key to retaining staff
According to Macdonald, understanding what makes Generation Y and other age groups in the workplace tick is key to creating a multigenerational workplace that is successful, and to retaining quality staff.
Identifying the varying needs of each generation is an essential component in creating "an organisation that attracts people to do their very best", she says.
While the gap between the generations is "not that big a deal", she says, each generation seems to engage in the workplace and respond to recognition in slightly different ways.
The way you "lead forward a group of Baby Boomers is going to be ever so slightly different to the way you lead forward a group from Generation Y", she points out.
Baby Boomers respond to milestones, and are often satisfied with the recognition they receive in annual performance reviews, while Generation-Y workers, on the other hand, are far more dependent on regular praise before they can feel engaged in the workplace.
It may also be necessary to tactfully temper the enthusiasm or impatience of these younger workers, Macdonald says.
"As managers of those people we need to help them to understand that all their ideas are great - but just not all at once."
Macdonald notes that ultimately all generations want the same thing out of work, and it isn't money.
"One of the biggest motivators is the sense of being part of the group and that 'what I'm doing is making a difference'," she says.
