4 Things Managers Must Know About Gen Y Talents

“You are an echo boomer.” Echo what?

For those like me born in 1980 and up, the names people use to describe us is nothing short of hilarity: echo boomers, nexters, generation Y, millenials. Heaven knows how many more names will be invented to distinguish us from the older generations.

Sadly though, the nomenclature does very little to express who we are, what we think, and how we view the world (frankly, what does “nexter” mean? The next generation? How lame! Haha!). Thus, we are usually misunderstood: we are “problem child” to some; a “puzzle” to many; the “misguided bunch” to purists. If only people take time to really understand us and accept that in this 21st century, things have changed—including people—then perhaps we will no longer be judged as the reckless, careless, thoughtless generation.

So allow me this indulgence: I will describe some of the attitudes and values of this new generation (whatever you call us) and why our expectations are giving a new shape and a whole new meaning to how the rest of us will live and work.

1. Loyalty is not just a number.
Loyalty to us is not the number of years you spend in a company, but the quality of productive work you poured in during your stay, no matter how brief. What good are 30 years of dull, mediocre results? Compare that with a few years of sterling performance with truly significant results. So pardon us if we don’t seem giddy with that loyalty award—we like the award, but we don’t consider it a reward.

Cristina Simon of the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, Spain is right in her study titled “Generation Y and the Labor Market: Models for HR Management” when she said that the old concept of loyalty is losing ground because the “motivational focus of new professionals is now away from the corporation and towards themselves.” Believe me it’s not about being selfish.

Even Hardvard Business School, in an article titled “It’s Time to Rethink What You Think You Know About Managing People” published in 2006, said that this new concept of loyalty may be attributed to the value that the new generation places in the relationship between workers and managers over their relationship to the larger organization. This brings me to the second insight.

2. We love bosses with a healthy balance of IQ and EQ.
The surest way to de-motivate us and eventually make us decide to leave the company is to be under a dumb supervisor, especially if he/she tries too hard to look and sound smart. An intelligent boss, on the other hand, amuses us, but if he/she demonstrates poor emotional quotient (EQ), we are disgusted. We think he/she is the know-it-all type who knows everything except the ill effects of his/her own people skills—or the lack of it.

The research finding of the British Psychological Society is so true: managers are key to developing and retaining Gen Y talent, but they need to understand and deliver on the changing needs of the young workers. It added: “Gen Y employees want to work for bosses who are open-minded, experts in their field, organized, teachers, trainers, and mentors; not intimidators; respectful of their generation and understanding of their need for work-life balance.” Amen I say to this!

3. Money rocks, but we also value psychological income.
Sure, we like cars and position titles, but that’s because we know what we want, when we want it; we work hard to deserve them anyway. Simon’s study reveals that young people prefer strong performance-based cultures where results count more than job security or personal appearance. That sounds very logical, doesn’t it? This is why, as Harvard Management Update says it, we want responsibility with decision-making that moves us on—not stagnant, routine responsibility.

And please, give us immediate, honest feedback. If we mess up, tell us in private face-to-face. If we do well, don’t just tell us, make us feel it—because there’s a great difference between letting us know and making us feel that our good work really counts.

Many of us like a job that’s socially significant—fighting the good fight, contributing to nation building, or helping to preserve the environment. But don’t force the issue to us: we know it if a company pays lip service or is genuinely responsible, which brings me to the next insight.

4. Goodbyes are really not hard to do.
The traditional model still holds true: when the boss sucks and the pay sucks, we pack our bags and leave the company. But we find many other reasons to say goodbye: a culture that’s all lip service to values and ideals, a management style that’s painfully antediluvian, an IT infrastructure that prohibits social networking the modern way (yeah, wikis, blogging, podcasting, even the simple chatting!). And if there’s a better opportunity elsewhere, we don’t think twice of leaving.

We also believe that career shifts are healthy—mentally and professionally—in the long run. We are, after all, in a borderless world, in a global economy, so why limit yourself in one career, one organization, in one lifetime? The British Psychological Society said it well: “Gen Y are more aware of a greater choice in the marketplace and more likely to move jobs or career if their needs aren’t met.” Amen again.

I wrote this post because for the longest time, new and young employees have always been advised to adjust to their managers because “at the end of the day, he is your boss, and he will rate you, and he will fire you.” Not so true anymore. If you’re a manager who wants to survive 21st century workplace dynamics, start with understanding the new breed of talents—especially the most promising of them—whose mantra is: you are the boss, and therefore, we will rate you, and if you fall short, we will leave you for a new boss, a new employer, a new opportunity, sooner than later.

“We always talk of how the youth of today will one day make their mark in society. We never talk about how society will one day make its mark on the youth of today, especially the most promising of them. Easy to think when you are young how you are going to change the world. Not so easy to see how the world is going to change you.” - Conrado de Quiros