Today I read chapter three of Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How To Manage Generation Y titled “Get them up to speed quickly and turn them into knowledge workers.” Again, author Bruce Tulgan provides an easy to read, step-by-step plan on making Gen Yers great employees.
Day one for a Gen Yer is the most important day, Tulgan’s metaphor is to plan for a Gen Yer’s first day of work like you would plan for your child’s birthday party.
Gen Yers want to hit the ground running but they don’t want to be put in to sink or swim situations. They want to hit the ground running with lots of support and guidance every step of the way.
Gen Yers are excited to show up for work
Gen Yers are probably going to show up excited and eager to contribute. It might be exhausting for managers but tap in to their excitement in order to keep your good hire from going bad
Liken a Gen Yer’s first introduction to a new job the way Marines have new recruits complete boot camp. This does not mean yelling in their ear and make them do push-ups but do provide solid training with someone who is totally connected to the company that will turn these new recruits in to well trained and ready-for-anything workers.
Replicate Marine Boot Camp’s intensity, the feeling of shared experience and belonging to a group, the steady learning and constant challenge.
When you invest in a great training program for Gen Yers, it’s no good to then deposit them in a low-morale, no-challenge, no-support workplace.
Connect a Gen Yer and a company veteran
Take on a Gen Yer as your protégé, teach them about the workplace and mentor them. They’ll probably return the investment by becoming a die-hard dedicated player on your team and will break their backs for you.
Gen Yers want to move into meaningful roles as quickly as possible but often times employers say these “meaningful roles” take two, three, four or more years of experience to be ready for. What to do? Tulgan suggests you break complex roles down and rebuild them giving Gen Yers one role at a time with training along the way.
Technology is important
Give Gen Yers the technology they want. The latest and greatest gadget isn’t a toy to them, it’s the way the live – it’s like breathing. Tulgan say for Gen Yers, the information technology imperatives are simple:
1. Constant connectivity with whomever they want
2. Immediate access to whatever information they want
3. Total customization of their information environment
4. The ability to learn from and collaborate with experts in real time
Web-based seach, online resources, social networking and wiki tools are just like the telephone and fax machine were to an older generation. When you tell Gen Yers you don’t use their technology it’s like telling them you live in the Stone Ages.
Knowledge is key
Everyone in a successful organization needs to be a knowledge worker. Knowledge work isn’t about what you do but how you do whatever it is you do.
When a Gen Yer comes to you with a new idea or a fresh perspective, help them channel that idea into the job they do. If you hire someone to move boxes around, you need to encourage them to come up with better ways for moving those boxes around, the same way you’d encourage a nuclear scientist to come up with better ways of doing their job.
Have them keep a journal
Consider getting new hires to keep a learning journal. Key parts of a learning journal include:
1. Map our their responsibilities
2. For each responsibility ask them to make a list of their learning resources
3. Require them to make learning goals for themselves that directly relate to their specific responsibilities
4. Journal their efforts
Encourage them to write down their good ideas, sit on it for a couple of weeks and revisit it, if it still seems like a good idea to them, ask them to think of what it might take to implement it and come up with a plan.
The key to keeping them motivated after they’re hired is to give them the technology and tools they need to do their job, help them focus their energy and ideas on the task at hand and then plug yourself in to their enthusiasm.
