Engaging Gen Y Carve Mll

Attracting and Engaging Gen Y

Paul Harrison

Gen Y

• Also known as....

• Born after 1980

• Characteristics?

On the „negative‟ side..

• Impatient: Raised in world dominated by technology and instant gratification.

• They distrust / are sceptical of politicians, media, brands, companies

• Blunt and expressive: Self expression is favoured over self control. Making their point is most important.

• They are image-driven: Making personal statements with their image is very important.

• They are still young: Although they have a “seen it all, done it all” air about them, lack of life experience means that they don’t know everything yet. They are aware of this and are not afraid to ask questions. For this generation, it is better and more time-saving to ask questions, than to waste time trying to figure it out.

On the „positive side‟

• Adaptable: Generation Y is used to adapting and being comfortable in various situations.

• Technologically savvy: Growing up in the age of technology and taking advantage of it.

• Ability to grasp new concepts: This is a learning-oriented generation.

• Efficient multitaskers: They will do it faster and better than their competition.

• Tolerant: Generation Y will make the increasingly diverse workforce feel at home and comfortable.

Tomorrow‟s People?

Already forcing organisations to change the way they think about reputation, corporate communications and control..

Morrisons

• At least 15,000 employees (or ex-employees) members of Morrisons’ Facebook groups – reach of 0.25 million

• Vast majority of content inappropriate / at odds with employer brand proposition

Virgin Atlantic

Attracting & Engaging Gen Y

• In terms of messaging and engagement, it is critical to understand that Gen Y / Millenials value authenticity and are highly cynical of any attempts to manipulate their emotions, or indeed patronise them.

• -This is not to say that Gen Y insist in making their own decisions – increasingly there is evidence that their opinions can be strongly influenced by strangers – pointing to the use of shared authentic experience as a ideal viral / referral channel

• These are “Digital Natives” - they have lived and breathed technology and use social networking sites, IM, mobiles as second nature. The successful strategy has to be based on these elements ( not just encompass them ) – anything half-hearted will invariably be viewed as tokenistic and possibly patronising.

• Similarly, authentic content must come from the „bottom up‟. Giving a voice to Gen Y dovetails with their need to make their point / be heard.

Attracting & Engaging Gen Y

• Be Open – to questions ( that need to be answered fast) and ideas (and even to criticism)

• Ensure that flexibility / training are given strong prominence – and that “things move fast in our organisation” ( meeting impatient characteristic) in terms of both getting job, getting first pay packet, training, promotion,

• Look at ideas including “crowd-sourced” ad campaign ideas

• Companies should emphasise the “social” aspect of working in there

Attracting & Engaging Gen Y

10 ideas for today

(or tomorrow)

1. Start Listening

• Variety of free & paid-for tools out there

• Identify possible environments

• Consider the context of what you’re hearing

2.Get involved.

3. Hire a „Twintern‟, develop a

reverse mentoring programme

4. Personalise EVERYTHING.. And

enable “Hand picked jobs for

me”

5. Follow, don‟t lead

6. Dialogue comes from the bottom

up..• Access

• Guidelines

• Tools

• Trust

Authenticity is the key...

7. Get ready to say the hardest word

8. Think mobile

9. Crowd source – candidates,

feedback, ideas, classifieds?

“Your entourage in

their pocket..”

10. Get ready to say the change

everything.. Even “burning the boat

that brought you”

When a 14 year old kid canblow up your business in hisspare time, not because hehates you but because heloves you, then you got aproblem.

Open IDs and Corporate Social

Networks as Operating Systems..

Thanks

* CarveConsulting.com/blog

* Slideshare.net/CarveConsulting

* LinkedIn.com/in/PaulHarrison

* Twitter.com/CarveConsulting

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