As a company grows, the need to hire new personnel arises. To ensure continued success, companies need to have good management practices that will hire the right person for the job. This includes factoring in customer expectations and considering how to best leverage each employee’s unique background and experience to meet those requirements.
With this need in mind, I attended a multi-day, industry-neutral Changing Faces in Management Conference. I wanted to look at the business process from our customer’s point of view. There was an emphasis on teaching each conference attendee to be aware of the many roles that each employee and customer embodies. For example, age and job description wise, being a baby boomer manager, I am in the majority. As a female VP of Technical Service, I am a minority.
One conference segment had us contribute business management ideas, then asked each of us to comment on ‘What I really liked,’ ‘What offended me,’ and ‘What would work in my company.’ We voted on the best and worst idea presented within our group. These comments were then presented to all the attendees in the daily general sessions. The variety of comments underscored the diversity of thought, expectations and generational differences within the work force. The stage was set to learn the good, the bad and the ugly of a wide variety of management styles and worker and customer thoughts.
Following are some key business management ideas that were presented.
Leveraging Diversity
Having geographically designated sales or service territories is a lazy person’s way of assigning work areas. The proverbial saying, ‘People don’t care what you know until they know that you care’ should be considered before sending the 250 pound 5’6” gay baby boomer sales rep to a boxing gym. Just as inappropriate is it to send the 25 year old former beauty queen, valley girl sales rep, who is known for constantly texting, to a senior center. Often when management tries to be impartial and fair-minded, both the customer and the employee are put in an uncomfortable, and ultimately unprofitable, situation.
People normally buy from people they like. In most cases, neither the playing field nor the players are equal. Great managers use diversity to their advantage. Managers and workers should optimize the similarities of individual members of their work force to match the uniqueness of their customer base. Parallel backgrounds, generational experiences and gender appropriate matching create successful business partnering and opportunities.
Managing Gen Y New Hires
The managers who have the final decision on new hires spoke out unequivocally about the lack of practical business skills in the majority of new college graduates, especially those with advanced degrees. Several human resource professionals and hiring managers repeatedly shared stories of Generation Y applicants texting or repeatedly glancing at their cell phones during their interviews.
Entitlement was a universal term when dealing with 20-something year old job seekers. This included expecting a private office, a generous expense account, 4 weeks paid vacation, variable work hours and an opportunity to travel. There seemed to be a direct ratio between the fewer their practical job skills, the greater their expectations. Many of today’s college graduates have absolutely no work experience. At age 25, their sole means of support has been relatives, government programs or student loans. The concept of M-F, 8-5 for the next 40 years is incomprehensible.
The goal for businesses to revitalize their aging baby boomer work force with social network savvy young workers is being quickly derailed. As the older generation struggles to broaden their post internet view of the world, the Gen Ys have no historical base or desire to view the past. Today’s managers must proactively deal with the merging of generations. Reviewing written, specific work standards during a 2nd or 3rd interview is crucial to both the employer and the future employee.
Information gathered by the Society for Human Resource Management when surveying more than 450 human resources professionals stated only 53 percent of U.S. employers plan to hire recent grads in 2013. Among the reasons listed for this low hire rate was that many newly graduated job seekers have limited work histories. Parents or easily obtained student loans, not part-time jobs or personal savings, have financed their education. There is an overwhelming attitude of entitlement to all desirable things in life. And, after years of education they deserve a great beginning salary with bonuses and frequent raises.
Statistically in 2012, first year turnover of the newly hired college graduates was over 40%. Turnover of newly hired workers with advanced degrees was over 50%. One of the reasons was unrealistic expectations of what having a full time career requires. For example, absentee rates of the newly hired college grads were 4 times greater than employees over age 50.
Other stated concerns of the surveyed group include recent college graduates have a lack of professionalism, work ethic, writing ability, relationship-building skills, initiative, critical thinking ability and basic math skills. They are more skillful at texting than typing on a full size key board. Gen Ys are extremely proficient at multi-tasking, but have a limited ability maintaining prolonged concentration on a single subject.
At the end of the conference the baby boomers were of the opinion that they are able to see the big picture more clearly than the younger generation. It is the older managers who must create policies and procedures that specifically spell out the day to day business requirements of all their workers with specifically enumerated rewards and consequences. Businesses can no longer depend on ‘common sense’ because the work ethic of the 20th century is no longer ‘common’. Each generation has a different set of knowledge, personal history and skill sets. Many Gen Ys are not adequately prepared for the needs of today’s business world. It is the responsibility of today’s managers to either change their expectations or immediately inform and continually monitor younger employees with specific business standards that are necessary for long term employment.
