Many companies today recognize the need to attract and retain Generation Y employees. They are the employees who are born in the age of computers, are tech savvy and know how to function in a connected and digital world. Many corporate leaders as well as head hunters have posed to me the question. How does one motivate employees of the current generation? Most of them try out corporate life and after a few months drop out, often with notice, but sometimes without.
Recently, my daughter Wina, launched her book of short stories, published in the US, entitled “Paper Weight” before a motley crowd of a hundred or so artists coming from different colleges and universities. The site is a hole in the wall place aptly called “Exile from Main Street”, near De La Salle University. The place was crowded, the audience composed of enthusiasts cheered the singers on and applauded as my daughter read one short story after another. Everyone was happy over the delicious, reasonably priced food but most of all being in the company of artists. I took the opportunity before the launch to interview 5 randomly selected generation Y artists: Ram, Joelle, Jeff, Wina and Lia.
WHYS, BEHIND GENERATION Y
Tita: What is driving the young people these days? How do you characterize your generation?
Ram: We are less concerned with the traditional concept of careers. We want to express ourselves, leave behind a legacy. Each individual has his own definition of success…some looking for threir own personal happiness. Like this book launch, this serves as a stepping stone, a milestone for Wina. But for us it serves as an inspiration.
Tita: Why would you launch in a small place like this? Are you trying to make a statement by choosing this place?
Ram: We don’t depend on publishing companies… we like the concept of wikipedia… we are willing to give to the world without asking for much. Give free things to the world because you want to. Money is not main driver, it is mainly for sustaining our ability to produce products.
Tita: What is your art?
Ram: I am what you would call a dabbler. I try my hand at art, writing, poetry, scriptwriting. I used to work with IBM, now I want to pursue my dream. All or nothing.
Joelle: I think people are tired of marketing gigs and following trends. Young people are now more inclined towards products or services that are interesting to them, something different. If the product is interesting it does not have to cost much to sell, more word of mouth amongst like minded individuals.
FINDING TIPPING POINTS
Wina: For this launch my partners and I computed our costs. We want to sell out everything that we printed. Partnering with a real big name, makes your art inaccessible to those people who truly care for your art. We don’t give it out for free, but at an affordable cost, because we have got to eat. We actually compete with many people specially writers who got there ahead of us. Building a readership base takes time. It is a myth when people say digital is easy.
Joelle: She is talking of tipping points of the thoughts of Malcolm Gladwell. We are excited to experiment, to see what works.
Jeff: The dream of generations before us is to get married and settled down. Young people are not primarily concerned with settling down at once, they want to prove success first in their activities. Be prepared to give the best for your children.
Joelle: If we achieve what we want to achieve, then time to settle down.
Ram: I remember a song from ABBA the musical . One character likened winning to a game of chess. I was impressed by the statement “Domestic bliss is a shelter for their failings” . I don’t want this said of me, I succeed first then I settle down.
WORKING TOGETHER
Tita: Do you artists work together? Or you come together mainly for occasions like this?
Joelle: Artists like working with other artists. Van Gogh and Monet worked together. Their style cross germinated and they developed their own individual style. We want to work together. It is a myth that artists want to work alone all the time. Why do I want to be part of the artists group? Artists have to support one another. I am in the visual arts, more impressionist in style. I am actually attending a workshop now. I left college to pursue my art.
CORPORATE CHALLENGES
Tita: Why did some of you give up on corporate life so easily?
Jeff: Young people tend to have short attention span, they get bored easily.
Joelle: We want to look around more, we want to explore.
Ram: Corporations work like a machines, cogs that can be replaced. Give us room to grow, people are organic, we are more like plants. Don’t deal with us like machines. The internet gives us so much information we know when we are not treated right.
Tita: If you are back in corporate what would you propose as an improvement?
Ram: How to do better? Less meetings. You are focusing on your work then they call meetings that disturb your trend of thought. It is like waking you up in the middle of a nice dream. Enhance the level of inspiration, while leaving us to do our work well.
Joelle: Heard a material in Ted Talk. People get more work done outside the business meeting. All these meetings distract. Focus is like sleep. There are different phases phases, light sleep, then the dreaming phase. People can’t get into the right phase where they can do great work, their superiors cut off their focus. It takes time to get to most productive zone.
Ram: I watched the Film on Lincoln work. Lincoln treated everyone as equal. The people in his cabinet are not yes men they can speak their minds. Instead of yes, we ask why. Get different opinions, get best course of actions. Don’t give us simply answers.
Lia: My first job was as a secretary. After 6 months, I left to study fine arts. But now I don’t know I may have been too idealistic. With my new course it is difficult to find another job. I think I want to go back to old discipline. More on sales and marketing to networking.
Joelle: In any creative field, there will always be a business side, we have to pay our dues. No matter how we want to go into our art, we have to learn how to manage people.
Jeff: In Google, they only work on results of the projects rather than looking at the time. They give you a deadline then you get down to work. They share what they are doing with everyone. Get everyone together.
Lia: I know of some companies that have game rooms during dead hours.
Ram: I know a company where they don’t have managers, the one who shows the most initiative will be the leader, to determine level of incentives people do a peer review and they decide who gets more. Assess for competencies like innovation. Young people are used to talking it out among themselves and arriving at consensus. Since all the employees in this company are developers, they outsource support functions.
Tita: Thank you for the valuable insights. Enjoy the launch.
I think human resource leaders have to rethink practices to retain Generation Y. Then again there is no stereotyping them. Each one maybe different.
[Tita Datu Puangco is the President and CEO of Ancilla Enterprise Development Consulting, an innovative provider of Enterprise and Organization Development solutions in the ASEAN region. These solutions include strategy planning and execution, leading change breakthroughs, managing corporate academies, executive assessment and coaching, value and culture development and setting up of human resource systems. For your letters/ feedback, kindly email: tita.datu76@gmail.com, For other inquiries, please call 8810-3129/0920-9218332/0917-8348176]
