The Young and the Restless

I had lunch with a friend who manages a team of highly technical developers.  I munched my salad while he lamented the loss of one of his high potentials.

I nodded wisely, having read (and produced) reams of literature about What Generation Y Really Wants.  ‘Did he feel like he wasn’t getting enough communication or development opportunities?’

My friend shook his head.  ‘Nah, he liked what he was doing and thinks the company’s great.  But he’s in his early 20s and his girlfriend just got a job in New York.’

Oh, right, that.

A recent Mercer What’s Working survey found that although younger workers have a higher satisfaction rating than older workers, they are also more likely to leave their current jobs.  This may seem like a paradox but it isn’t. 

There’s plenty of advice out there about managing Millennials: provide regular feedback, encourage social networking, give them development opportunities… you know the drill.

It’s all fine advice, as long as you keep in mind that nothing you do can compete with the thrill of something new.  Let’s face it, if you’re just starting out with no kids, no mortgage and no set career path, you can afford to try things.  You can afford to fail.

The good news is that trying new things and failing is what you should be doing in your 20s because it is from failure that growth comes. 

What does this mean for companies trying to attract and nurture young talent?  It means this:  Go ahead and put a high potential program in place but realize that that your most talented high pos probably won’t be around in 5 years no matter what you do.  And if they are still around, they probably aren’t high pos anymore because they haven’t cross-pollinated or taken any risks. 

They have failed to fail.

By all means, nurture your millenials but expect them to move on.  In fact, encourage them to do so and stay in touch.  Who knows, they may be back in a few years with valuable new experience and perspectives.

The upshot is that from a workforce development point of view, Generation X is more interesting than Generation Y in the near term.  In this ‘middle’ generation you will find:

• People at the top of their game who are frustrated by lack of growth opportunities. 
• Productive working parents whose kids have just left for college, leaving behind a vortex of untapped attention and capacity. 
• People with a wide variety of transferable skills who aren’t planning to retire any time soon.  
• Mentors who are ready and eager to fine tune their leadership skills. 
• People with mortgages, the golden handcuffs that cost the company nothing. 

Let's be clear about this: I’m not talking about career executives who move from promotion to promotion, because at some point someone will offer them more money or a better title and they’ll be off with a deafening shot of displace air.  I’m talking about basically loyal people with years of experience who are looking for new jobs only because they feel unappreciated and dead ended in their current jobs.

An excellent HBR article by Sylvia Ann Hewlett 'Don't Dismiss Your Gen X Talent' describes Generation X as 'the bench strength for leadership, the skill bearers and knowledge experts corporations will rely on to gain competitive advantage in the coming decades.'  She also offers ideas for keeping them engaged.

My advice?  Don't overfocus on Gen Y while Gen X quietly sends out resumes.  If you do, you risk losing your best talent in both generations.

Picture courtesy of dailypicksandflicks.com.  It has nothing to do with the post, I just liked it.

Laura Schroeder is a global talent specialist at Workday, headquartered in Pleasanton, CA.  She has nearly fifteen years of experience envisioning, designing, developing, implementing and evangelizing global Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions and holds a certificate in Strategic Human Resources Practices from Cornell University.  Her articles and interviews on HCM topics have been published in the US, Europe and Asia.  She lives in Munich, Germany and enjoys cooking, reading, writing, kick boxing (well, kicking things) and spending time with friends and family. If you want to read more from Laura, check out her talent management blog Working Girl or follow her on Twitter @WorkGal.

Comments

[E. James (Jim) Brennan]

Well said, Laura. HR/comp folks are under constant pressure to retain critical talent; but slavery is outlawed. Some managers need to remember that people tend to have minds of their own and have their own lives to lead. Better to let your voluntarily departing personnel go gracefully rather than make a distasteful scene, so you gain goodwill rather than the opposite.

[Kathy]

Great article! People talk about Gen Y, Gen X, and Boomers as if they're different species, but many of the things that were true of Boomers when they were 25 and 40 are true of Gens X and Y now. A big part of the difference is one's place in the life cycle.

[Kickboxing Classes in Johnston]

This article is certainly a mind opening feeder. More to come please.