Corporations or startups: This is what the work force will require of you.

November 10, 2008
Posted by Ryan Graves

Corporations or startups: This is what the work force will require of you.

Image by Cia de Foto via FlickrWhen I worked at my consulting job in Chicago about 2 years ago I had a conversation with my boss about how Gen Y will affect the workforce and how our attitudes towards career will affect growing businesses. I’ve had my opinion about it for quite sometime but it is tough for a successful business owner to hear from a 20 something that they need to change their hiring strategy. The right thing to do is to ask “us” how we feel about certain issues, but the hard thing to do is listen.

Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures was interviewed for BigThink a few months back and recently posted the interview on his blog. A topic that came up in the middle of the interview stuck out to me because Fred shared the exact advice I gave to that boss a couple years back.

Fred said:

“This generation is going to be a different kind of workforce than the ones businesses have known in the past.”
“This generation will be a lot less loyal. They will be interested in maximizing the value of their career vs. the value of stock of the company they work for, unless they own or control that stock.”

“This is a mercenary workforce.”

“This transition is already happening in tech industry. Software engineers are being poached similar to the way a film star would be offered a better contract to work for someone new.”

“That mindset about talent is what this generation is all about. They are going to be building their own personal brand, own personal career, and portfolio of what they can do, then they will put themselves out to the market to the highest bidder.”

If you aren’t in the Gen Y category you’re probably thinking, “Those spoiled brats with their entitlement issues!”, and you may be right… However, whether we are right or wrong in our thinking this is definitely the sentiment among us. The reason this is so important is because YOU HAVE TO ADAPT! It is absolutely critical for any company whether you are GE, Google, TechCrunch, or startup XYZ to know where the workforce is going and what your employees will want from you. Without them you will not have a business so the fact is, they are more important than even your customers.

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The Early Adopter Generation | THE DREAM IN ACTION

[...] last year I started thinking a bit about gen-Y and what my generation means to the workforce. I wondered how we would affect the way businesses [...]

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Generational Dynamics, Redux

[...] future marketplace.u00c2u00a0 In light of my previous comments, as well as some comments that I took from Ryan Graves, I thought this was a good continuing discussion that will have increased relevance going forward, [...]

Nicole

Great article Ryan, thanks for sharing. Nice running into you on the blogosphere...first time since college!

ryangraves

Thanks for sharing Mark.

Mark

Ryan, I have a follow up post on this subject where I incorporated some thoughts from a new Deloitte study. They're apparently looking into this topic extensively. http://adjix.com/4jp

Taylor glad you shared the post/comment.

This topic really has gotten a lot of attention! Talk to you soon..

Taylor Davidson

I've started to see a lot of great conversation about Gen Y and their impact on the workforce. I agree with Daniel that the Gen X and Boomer generations are misinterpreting "entitlement" and "empowering", and that Gen X and Boomers bear as much of the burden of needing to learn how to communicate with and adapt to Gen Y to keep them motivated and productive.

There was a great comment on my blog a week ago from a Gen Yer that I found pretty interesting on this subject: by Pablo De La Rosa:

"I'm lucky enough to have been hired by an organization that I see as contributing something positive to the world. Because of that, I'm willing to bend over backwards and relearn whatever habits or expectation I have so that I can feel my talents are useful even when that means less pay and working with older people I don't really understand.

I think all this means is that companies who are not doing all that much for society will have a harder time finding young employees which isn't so unfair. And young employees who can't get past their distorted expectation to use their talent for the good won't have much luck getting hired which also seems pretty fair."

Full comment at http://www.unstructuredventures.com/uv/2008/10/...

(and I really don't mean to self-promote, I just liked the comment Pablo left and thought it added to this conversation...)

Daniel - Rypple looks like a great product! I agree that the feedback
portion is HUGE to satisfy the relatively demanding needs of a Gen Y
employee....I'd love to chat more about your product and company sometime if
you're free. Shoot me an email graves.ryan[at]gmail.com

Daniel Debow

Great post. One way to reconcile the GenY / Boomer / X clashes is to realize that Y's are not so much "entitled" as "empowered". They understand that corporate loyalty is minimal and therefore view each and every task as something that either advances their career or doesn't. They therefore ask "why" often enough to frustrate their older managers.

One simple way to reduce friction is to simply tell people what they are going to learn with a given job/task/assignment in addition to asking them to do it. Often, this simple practice will reduce the reluctance of Y's to take on tasks they would otherwise view as un-interesting.

Another area to reduce friction is feedback. GenY has an insatiable desire for feedback, which Boomers/X's can find frustrating. As you say - they have to adapt.

Our new service, Rypple, is designed to help GenY (and everyone) to quickly and easily get more feedback... Check it out at www.rypple.com

Mark- Please comment your thoughts...I'd love to keep this conversation
going here on the blog!

Great post, Ryan. I have so many thoughts on this, I don't know where to start. Either way, I've been trying to explain this generational change to some people for a while now. I'll have to use some of your points.

HAHA Ian, those are the ones I feel bad for.

The self chosen path is one that needs to be trail blazed and in the process
of blazing trails one will get burned...
The reward...it's their path.

nocky100

Great post, and as applicable in the UK as to the US however as a percentage, I see less than 20% of 20-35 year olds that I have managed taking the most active involvement in setting out their own career - so many see the approach but do not realise that they have to put as much (if not more) effort in creating your own path as walking someone elses. Many have used the entitlement culture to layout that making your own path should just happen, and does not require effort.

THE DREAM IN ACTION

By Ryan Graves

Corporations or startups: This is what the work force will require of you.