Gen Y: Communication Checkout or Check-up?
In a survey of more than 2,500 senior human resource executives, 78 percent of employees reported that they have six months or fewer to capture the interest of millennial employees before they decide to move on. Twenty-six percent reported they have less than one month to engage new hires.
An article in the November issue of T+D quoted Tim Vigue, executive consultant for Novations Group, which conducted the study, about the reason for the job-hopping: “Impatience is hardly a new phenomenon among employees in their 20s… Gen Y parents taught them they’re special, that they can do anything, and as such should not settle for less than what they deserve…Technology has also helped contribute to their impatience. Gen Ys are the most technology-savvy generation and grew up with immediate access to whatever they needed such as information or connections. They tend to be impatient when told they have to wait and pay their dues.”
(Click here to read the digital edition of the November 2008 T+D.)
Trophies for Showing Up?
So what can you do if you’re working with or leading a team of Gen Ys and they grew up with parents and coaches telling them that everyone gets a trophy just for showing up? Well, if you have unlimited dollars, rewards, or positions, pass them out. All is well.
If you don’t, don’t despair. Communication and relationships are also important to Gen Y employees. In fact, the value they place on time spent on communicating with their bosses was underscored in a recent consulting assignment of mine. The client called because the organization was having difficulty retaining females in their sales force and particularly keeping females in senior management positions.
Although they were hiring both genders in equal numbers, the revolving-door situation seemed to be more prevalent with women than men. After I began to interview some of their senior managers and then their millennials, the missing link became evident: this Gen Y phenomenon and their cross-gender communication styles. Let me explain.
Time Engages Talent
Time spent talking to an employee communicates concern to that employee. The topic doesn’t necessarily matter. The conversation may be about their health, kids, vacation, spouse’s career, in-laws. Eventually, the talk will turn back to business and you’ll get the information you need about the business situation at hand. But leaders who’ve decided to try this approach have reported a much better retention rate and stronger engagement than when spending less time and being less approachable.
“Okay,” so you’re asking, “That explains the Gen Y retention link. If twenty-somethings place high value on communication and relationships and you as a manager or the organization or department as a whole don’t have systems in place to get their input, they leave. But why do women leave faster than men?”
Good question: One of the 22 basic differences in the communication styles of men and women discussed in my earlier book Communicate with Confidence is tied to admiration and affection. Both genders generally want to be both liked and respected. But typically if forced to choose one or the other, women would prefer to be liked rather than only respected. (Men, if forced to choose one or the other, would prefer to be respected.) Women gain a great sense of satisfaction from relationships. To women, communication on the job—particularly from their bosses and other leaders—represents interest in them.
The opposite is also true: The lack of frequent communication—about their family, goals and plans, their work projects, their future—signifies no interest in them as a person.
So Gen Y men and women leave—with the women feeling the lack of communication faster than the men.
If your team is concerned about how to stop the Gen Y job-hop or checkout? It could be as simple as a communication checkup.
