Bridging the Generations
I visit an ice cream shop near my office to grab a cup of coffee from time-to-time. I enjoy chatting with the employees and managers. There was one young person who would often wait on me and talk about the events of the day. On a recent visit, I realized that she had not been in the shop for a while. When I asked the manager what happened, he explained, "She quit. On the first warm spring day the line for ice cream was out the door. She told me she didn't want to work that hard. She preferred the pace of the shop in the winter when fewer people wanted ice cream!"
Now, is this just a lazy kid or evidence of a trend? Talk to human resource or recruiting personnel and the story is the same. It's hard to find young people for positions ranging from retail sales to management trainees; it's even harder to retain these same people. In fact, about one quarter of all new hires do not make it through the first year, according to an Employment Policy Foundation study. Almost half (46%) are gone at the end of 18 months, according to a three-year study by Leadership IQ.
What's going on? Why can't companies retain new employees? The U.S. Census Bureau provides part of the answer-an increasing labor shortage that will total 10 million people in the US by 2010. But that's just part of the equation. The other issue is that the current generation entering the workforce has different needs and desires than their parents' generation. Those differences are often mismanaged, misinterpreted or just ignored by the same companies trying to retain new employees.
The ice cream shop example is consistent with the values brought to the workplace by the Baby Boomlet, the generation born between 1984 and 2002. From their perspective, the worst thing they could become is "workaholics" like their parents. There is a general feeling, due to the climate of the world they grew up in, that life is too short to "pay dues" in a job-they would sooner work to live than live to work. Often, these young adults saw first-hand where loyalty to a single company got their parents-laid-off as a result of mergers or outsourcing. No way will they be victimized by the same corporate pitfalls!
Leadership Solutions is launching a new course called "Bridging the Generations." With increased attention on managing the differences that each generation brings to the workforce, companies can employ strategies that will help them keep these challenging new employees. So as the weather turns warm, don't be caught short-handed in your peak season. Leadership Solutions can help bridge the gap.
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