GenY at work: what exactly will change?

Generation Y and its impact on the working environment is one (rather obvious) megatrend I follow closely. There’s much confusion and loads of conflicting surveys about what exactly the impact will be of the GenY entering the professional environment now (Generation Y are youngsters born after 1980 and are defined by the fact that they are first generation with no clue about what a world without Internet or mobile phones look like).

Up to now my list of ‘reasonably certain’ consequences included things like:

• GenY will have different expectations about which technologies they use in a professional environment. They will prefer to use their personal smartphone and tablet computer, and expect their employer to open corporate applications through these.
• Ethics and social responsibility score rather high on their list of priorities. Apparently they’d prefer to work for companies with a clear ‘green’ profile. Their contribution and function within these roles will preferably contribute meaningfully to social challenges. It’s certainly a challenge for employers to present every job as being socially relevant, but it’s not unfeasible.
• GenY workers would prefer not to be bound by any physical location. We know for sure they are geographically more mobile than any previous generation, but apparently they’d want the same attitude to apply on their working environment. This doesn’t mean you’d have to fly them first class from home to work every day. It does mean that they expect to be able to ‘perform’ work from anywhere they happen to be at that moment (and at any time they feel to do some work). Exit 9to5 job, welcome virtual company…

Is there more? Well, yes. According to the consultant in the video beneath, the coaching and management style also needs to adapt to GenY workers. In all fairness, being from GenX, I think I adopt certain attitudes listed in the video as well. But then, I clearly remember what it was to live without mobile phones and internet…

How to Manage Generation Y Employees