L&D professionals urged not to fear Generation Y
By Martin Kornacki (02-07-2009)
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L&D professionals should not fear Generation Y as they share many similar values to previous generations, according to the award-winning head of people development at British Telecom.
Caroline Waters scooped the HR Director of the Year Award at the HR Excellence Awards this week and says Generation Y, considered to be people born between 1980 and 1995, have fundamentally similar aspirations to Generation X and the Baby-Boomers - but use different ways to communicate and learn that must be adapted to.
“I don’t understand why there is a fear of Generation Y, they are just doing what every other generation has done and they are saying my preferred way of communicating, my preferred way of learning is like this,” said Waters.
“They are the PG generation – the post-Google generation – they have grown up with technology and they are absolutely going to use the full benefits of web 2.0. That doesn’t make them difficult, it makes them different.
“If you’re a progressive employer, if you’re embracing technologies in the way you provide services to your people, the way you engage with them and the way you help them learn and develop, actually that is part of a constant transformation that should be taking place and it is not a challenge that is particularly difficult or frightening.”
Since Waters took up her most recent role at BT four years ago, she has worked to implement innovative approaches to workforce management across the generations, including the promotion of flexible working for all in a drive to improve employees’ work-life balance.
“I think that there’s a lot of evidence that, in the expectations of the workforce, the X and Y generations have an awful lot in common with the Baby Boomers. They are both looking for flexibility, they are both looking for challenges and they are both happy to be measured on their ability to acquire skills and apply them throughout their lives,” she said.
“I think it’s about creating a workplace that allows everybody to be themselves and also to bring their own unique perspective. The workplace has to allow people to learn through lots of different mediums, so I think actually there isn’t all that great a difference between the generations; they are just using different tools. It is nonetheless critical that, with the growing ageing population and fewer young people around, we create a workplace were everybody, of all generations, can engage.”
Waters, who joined BT when she was 16 years old, added that Generation Y job applicants are some of the most highly skilled young candidates she has seen and that employers bemoaning a lack of talent need to diversify and widen their recruitment nets.
“Talent isn’t scarce, it’s ubiquitous. If you are prepared to look in unconventional sources to reach out to groups of people who have been traditionally neglected, like people who have a disability, different ethnic minority backgrounds, women in engineering and so on, the talent is out there,” she said.
Caroline Waters scooped the HR Director of the Year Award at the HR Excellence Awards this week and says Generation Y, considered to be people born between 1980 and 1995, have fundamentally similar aspirations to Generation X and the Baby-Boomers - but use different ways to communicate and learn that must be adapted to.
“I don’t understand why there is a fear of Generation Y, they are just doing what every other generation has done and they are saying my preferred way of communicating, my preferred way of learning is like this,” said Waters.
“They are the PG generation – the post-Google generation – they have grown up with technology and they are absolutely going to use the full benefits of web 2.0. That doesn’t make them difficult, it makes them different.
“If you’re a progressive employer, if you’re embracing technologies in the way you provide services to your people, the way you engage with them and the way you help them learn and develop, actually that is part of a constant transformation that should be taking place and it is not a challenge that is particularly difficult or frightening.”
Since Waters took up her most recent role at BT four years ago, she has worked to implement innovative approaches to workforce management across the generations, including the promotion of flexible working for all in a drive to improve employees’ work-life balance.
“I think that there’s a lot of evidence that, in the expectations of the workforce, the X and Y generations have an awful lot in common with the Baby Boomers. They are both looking for flexibility, they are both looking for challenges and they are both happy to be measured on their ability to acquire skills and apply them throughout their lives,” she said.
“I think it’s about creating a workplace that allows everybody to be themselves and also to bring their own unique perspective. The workplace has to allow people to learn through lots of different mediums, so I think actually there isn’t all that great a difference between the generations; they are just using different tools. It is nonetheless critical that, with the growing ageing population and fewer young people around, we create a workplace were everybody, of all generations, can engage.”
Waters, who joined BT when she was 16 years old, added that Generation Y job applicants are some of the most highly skilled young candidates she has seen and that employers bemoaning a lack of talent need to diversify and widen their recruitment nets.
“Talent isn’t scarce, it’s ubiquitous. If you are prepared to look in unconventional sources to reach out to groups of people who have been traditionally neglected, like people who have a disability, different ethnic minority backgrounds, women in engineering and so on, the talent is out there,” she said.
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