Generational Series, Part 2: X-Y Vision
June 08, 2007
Generation X is all grown up, and Generation Y is coming into its own. What does this mean for companies' training efforts today and tomorrow?
By Holly Dolezalek
For years, boomers' preferences and beliefs have dominated the workplace, but that's already changing, and it will only change faster. According to Rainmaker Thinking, a management consulting firm in New Haven, CT, Xers and Yers began to outnumber the baby boomers in 2005, when they made up 50.5 percent of the workforce. It's their development and training that will make the most difference in the coming years as companies begin to lose their older employees.
The two generations are both similar and utterly unalike, and their differences make for an interesting time ahead for training and development. Xers have been in the workforce for 10 to 15 years now, and more and more of them are beginning to move into more senior positions at their companies. Yers are no longer the new kids on the block, and will be moving into positions vacated by Xers—and members of either generation might be supervising co-workers who are 10 to 20 years older than they are.
Here's a side-by-side comparison of both generations so we know who we're talking about. Opinions differ on the dates of each generation—some ending X in 1977 and some extending it to 1980 and beyond. The following data are based on the most frequently encountered beginning and ending points for each generation.
Both generations are savvy and comfortable around technology, but where Xers and technology grew up together, Yers can't imagine life without it, having been born after computers began to be ubiquitous and having come of age with the Internet as an established fact.
Both generations have grown up in an era when both parents were likely to work, but Xers were the first generation of latchkey kids and are widely seen as more independent than previous or succeeding generations. They also are seen as more cynical, having grown up as the employee-employer contract began to fall apart in massive layoffs, and the term, "downsizing," with its attendant euphe-mistic dishonesty, became popular.
Yers, on the other hand, are the first generation raised with the positive reinforcement and self-esteem building that became popular in parenting during their formative years. "Generation Y may need help with accepting constructive criticism and managing conflict," says Linda Gravett, senior partner of Cincinnati, OH-based HR consulting firm Gravett & Associates and co-author of "Bridging the Generation Gap" (Career Press, 2007).
Because Xers and Yers have such different perspectives on work and career than their boomer predecessors it's been easy to misunderstand them. Both generations are known for changing jobs far more frequently than past generations, and for taking a much more cynical, or at least self-centered, view of work in general. But Bruce Tulgan says that Generation X was simply in the vanguard of new attitudes and practices of work in America. "Many things that started out as supposedly traits of Generation X—such as the free agent mind-set—have become mainstream," says Tulgan, founder of Rainmaker Thinking. "Those changes were about changes in the economy and the employee-employer relationship, and now, rather than being a particularly X or Y trait, they're true for everyone. Nobody believes in job security anymore."
That's why both Xers and Yers take the attitude that the way to maintain security is not through a job that lasts, but a resume that rocks. They're always preparing themselves for the next job because they know their current job could become their former job at any time. As the two generations take over the workplace, this has implications both for training and for using training as a retention tool.
Will Training Change?
The right training and development can be a competitive advantage in most situations, but that's particularly true with Xers and Yers. It's not a question of which technology you use to build the training, although that matters. With a generation this savvy about technology, boring PowerPoint presentations and badly photocopied training manuals are not going to fly. "Especially with the Y generation, this cohort is used to more entertainment and technology and bells and whistles," says Robin Throckmorton, co-founder of Strategic Human Resources, a consulting firm in Cincinnati, OH.
The real question, though, is whether the training you offer serves company goals and helps Xers and Yers to get the experience they want to feel secure even in an insecure economy. If it does, you can become an employer of choice. You also can protect your company against the tendency of many Xers and Yers to move around and see jobs as opportunities rather than careers.
Rainmaker Thinking's Tulgan thinks of each employee who begins working at a new job as having a spark. The question, he says, is, "Do you want to pour water on that spark, or gasoline?" Tulgan suggests that onboarding ought to be as quick and effective as possible in explaining to the new employee just how his or her job responsibilities will contribute to the whole.
It also might help to tailor your approach. Although generalizations are always dangerous, in general, Yers are more likely to be interested in frequent coaching and support than Xers, who tend to be more independent. Both want to understand their roles and tasks within the organization. Thus, the most successful orientation will be one that focuses on the objectives, expectations, and available support for each new employee.
When it comes to types of learning, the classroom still isn't dead, but it no longer stands alone. While older workers tend to prefer classroom training and younger ones tend to prefer technology-based training, that doesn't mean either method is the only way to train either cohort. IBM and ASTD collaborated on a study of learning executives and the impact of changing workforce demographics on the learning function last year. The report, "Closing the Generational Divide: Shifting Workforce Demographics and the Learning Function," says the best way to train is not to offer different sessions with different approaches for older and younger workers, but to include some of what each generation tends to like best.
Keep in mind that Xers and Yers' comfort and long experience with technology often translate to a preference for doing rather than listening. They're more likely than their older counterparts to jump in, fiddle, make mistakes, and learn by trial and error rather than to read the manual all the way through. They also like to start contributing as soon as possible. And there's nothing like on-the-job training to show them how they can do that. By assigning them mentors or people to shadow, you can do more to get them up to speed and satisfy their need to jump right in.
Marketing executive Julie Norquist-Roy points out that these two generations have a similar tendency to resume-build and to move on when they feel stalled or unable to get new experience at their current job. "The best thing companies can do is understand that they can't own them," says Norquist-Roy, director of marketing for Cornerstone OnDemand, a talent management software provider in Santa Monica, CA. "Often what they want is new experiences, and to keep them excited about their work, you have to keep giving them new kinds of opportunities." Immediate experience, rather than a week in a classroom or seminar, might be the best way to show them those opportunities are available.
On the coaching side, anyone, regardless of their generation, is able to understand the value of mentoring to their career. And especially as boomers retire, knowledge transfer is going to be key. It's a win-win proposition for companies to match both Xers and Yers with boomers and older workers in the hope of retaining decades of valuable knowledge and insight.
Still, Rainmaker Thinking's Tulgan says that what's important here is not necessarily formal mentoring programs, but mentoring and protégé skills. "Everyone needs organizational supporters, people who look out for you and support you by pushing learning opportunities, projects, and exposure to leadership your way," he says. "But that relationship is special and unique, and often it can't be assigned—you can't just tell someone, 'I'm going to be your mentor.'"
Frequently, Tulgan says, the best mentoring happens when companies make a point of teaching or encouraging good protégé skills and behaviors. When Xers and Yers are encouraged to seek out a mentor, and told how best to select, initiate, and nurture that relationship in a way that is good for their career, Tulgan says, the free market of mentoring can manage itself.
Another way to handle the mentoring relationship, though, especially for Xers and Yers, may be communities of practice. These communities are formed by groups of employees, often across business units, who want to share information with other employees with similar challenges and experience.
Such communities also offer more informal opportunities for introduction and interaction. This is desirable for Xers but even more so for Yers, whose more casual approach to dress and interactions with superiors sometimes gets them in trouble.
In both one-to-one mentoring and communities of practice, concrete experiences and active engagement with any classroom learning will both reinforce what's learned and make the training more valuable for the employee. Author Eric Lesser, an associate partner with IBM's Institute for Business Value, suggests that the three can work together: Classroom learning leads to communities of practice, where participants can meet mentors and get opportunities to job shadow and even take on new projects.
Despite their press, Xers and Yers can be convinced to stay around for more than a year. But now that the old tradeoffs have been withdrawn—pensions, reliable job security, and increasingly, health care—companies have to strike a new balance. Although it sounds counterintuitive, you can mitigate workforce risk (defined here as the risk that a company will be left with a skills and talent gap when older workers retire and younger workers decide to move on) by helping younger workers learn more skills and get more experience so they feel employable anywhere.
To Xers and Yers, security is the free agent mind-set, the willingness to pull up stakes and head to a new job in the interest of acquiring new skills or experience. But if you offer them those new skills and experience, they may not feel the need to move on. "People aren't free agents because they want to be," says Rainmaker Thinking's Tulgan. "They're free agents because they have to be, because the old security is gone. Xers have been in the workforce for some time, and they know you can't put all your eggs in one basket. Keeping your options open is security in today's marketplace."
So how can you swim against that tide? You can make sure your company offers both formal learning and on-the-job experience, both inside and outside your corporation. You can think about how your company's training might be tailored to add to potential employees' resumes, so that it's a win for both.
At United Stationers Supply Company, a wholesale distributor of office products in Deerfield, IL, employees in the company's distribution centers get the usual training in safety and other necessary topics. But they also get high-performance team training in the interest of empowering employees to solve problems and look for efficiencies or opportunities for increased productivity. "We give them training in team dynamics, and we also give them tools in Six Sigma and lean manufacturing principles, and then we give them time to work on the problem," says George Sanders, a vice president in human resources at United Stationers. "The idea is to encourage productivity and cost reduction, but it helps with retention and lets them add that to their resumes, as well."
Knowing Xers and Yers are more interested in work-life balance than their boomer predecessors tended to be, Sanders says the company is trying to offer more flexible work schedule options. In part, that means using technology to allow the workforce to be a little more mobile than in the past, and requests to work from home are entertained more readily. "We accommodate that as much as we can, but it really can't be ongoing," Sanders says. "We can only be so flexible."
United Stationers also redrew its career development opportunities with Gens X and Y in mind. Knowing both generations are interested in acquiring experience, sometimes even faster than boomers, Sanders explains that the company's career banding is structured so employees can move laterally more readily, and obtain new skills, knowledge, and experience without having to wait for a vertical move or to leave the company.
In fact, Tulgan suggests many companies might need to reassess their old-fashioned assumptions about career paths: Xers and Yers might not necessarily want to move up. "Gen Xers in particular want status, authority, prestige, and rewards— but they don't necessarily want their boss' job." For these up-and-coming workers, a move up to more money but less varied experience might seem less secure than a lateral move that makes them more marketable and employable in the long run.
It's a dicey business, getting people to stay by making them maximally employable elsewhere. But by varying opportunities and experience for ambitious Xers and Yers, you simultaneously reassure them they won't get caught without marketable skills in case of a layoff, and give them an incentive to stick around and learn. And in the process of offering the kinds of opportunities Xers and Yers prefer, you might just improve your company's competitiveness in the future.
"Many of our innovations are coming from our X and Y associates," says United Stationers' Sanders. "By creating an environment suitable for the next generation, we're negotiating a mutually beneficial transition to a speedier, better company."
Side Bar: Snapshots of Generation X
Name: Cheri Christensen
Title: Commercial Pipefitter
Company: Metropolitan Mechanical Contractors
Job description: Supervise and install high purity piping for tool installation in a semiconductor production facility.
Time in the workforce: In this field, 6 years. For this contractor, almost 4 years. At this particular job site, 16 months.
Number of job changes in career: I have been on 31 different projects in the last 6 years.
Time at current job: 16 months at the current project. I plan on staying in this field, and probably with this contractor as long as it continues to have work available. I haven't decided if I will continue with the specialty of high purity piping or go back to the HVAC area of my training.
Company training opportunities: No instructional training is provided except for certification on how to use lifts. The union offers class and instructions on a limited basis after you finish the training program. The best opportunity is working with an experienced journeyman.
Learning preferences: I prefer to watch someone doing the installation or look at a previous project. I also like to read trade information about why and how that particular project works with regard to physics and thermodynamics.
Career progression opportunities: These are based on being at the right place and the right time. It does pay off to be a consistent employee, but as a woman in a white male-dominated field, very rarely does management consider me an asset from a mechanical standpoint. I tend to advance because I communicate on a professional level, and can follow written and verbal procedures, regulations, and instructions. I have excelled in projects where these skills, as well as mechanical aptitude, were necessary.
Name: Catherine Downey
Title: Director of Human Resources
Company: Mississippi Market Natural Foods Co-op
Job description: Along with a part-time assistant, I do everything associated with the HR function of a small organization (135 employees). I also change the toilet paper and take out the trash on occasion.
Time in the workforce: I have been in the workforce since I was 16, so 19 years. I have been working for the co-op for 13 years.
Number of job changes in career: 3
Time at current job: Just over 6 years; at the co-op for 13 years total. I plan on staying for a long time.
Company training opportunities: I am able to take advantage of external training, but I wouldn't say we have a great systematic approach to training in general.
Learning preferences: My preference is hands-on learning with a manual or handout as an additional tool. That hasn't changed since I started working, although I think perhaps I used to be more of a visual learner.
Career progression opportunities: I have progressed at the company since I began as a cashier in 1994. However, in my current position in upper management, there are few opportunities for advancement. So, I do feel I have to wait for my boss, who is a baby boomer, to retire in order to advance.
Name: Jenny Thompson
Title: Intranet Communications Specialist
Company: RBC Dain Rauscher
Job description: I manage RBC's employee Intranet Site, InfoNET. This means I am the main contact for the 150-plus publishers within the company who post information from their business group(s) onto the site. I train them, troubleshoot for them, edit their pages for consistency within our formatting and style guidelines, and work with them on any redesigns of their area(s). This position is a combination of communications and information technology.
Time in the workforce: 20 years; my first job was when I was 16.
Number of job changes in career: Since graduating from college three years ago, this is my third job using my degree.
Time at current job: 2 months. I'd like to stay for a while: I like the company, and I like my job.
Company training opportunities: Excellent. I plan to use the tuition reimbursement plan and obtain my Master's degree.
Learning preferences: I am a hands-on learner. I need to just jump in and do it— I learn a lot from my mistakes. That hasn't changed since I first started working.
Career progression opportunities: There are numerous routes for progression within my company; that's one of the reasons I plan to stay here.
Sidebar: Snapshots of Generation Y
Name: Jenna Bluhm
Title: Library Assistant 2
Company: University of Minnesota Libraries
Job description: Half of my time is spent as a student supervisor working with interlibrary loan material. I also help with the day-to-day processing of requested materials such as loaning books, scanning/sending articles electronically, handling problem requests, verifying citations, and training new student employees. The other half of my time is spent working in our collection development unit, where I repair dilapidated books, train new student employees, process donated materials, act as a contact for potential donors, and other daily office management.
Time in the workforce: 4 years
Number of job changes in career: None. I started working for the University Libraries right out of college.
Time at current job: 7 years (3 years as a student employee and 4 years full time). I plan to stay at least for another 5 to 10 years.
Company training opportunities: The Libraries, as well as the University, offer many classes that help expand the skills of their employees. These are usually non-intensive classes offered to advance job skills or aid with career development. The classes are offered on a regular basis and cover a wide range of topics.
Learning preferences: I prefer to have things shown to me/explained and then have a chance to put these new skills to task right away. I'm very much a visual and hands-on learner and generally forget things readily if not allowed to utilize the new skills right away. I've always learned this way.
Career progression opportunities: In my line of work there isn't a lot of room for advancement without earning a Master's degree in library science. Having the boomers retire may open up some opportunities, but usually those jobs are filled by newcomers with an advanced degree.
Name: Tracy Molm
Title: Graduate Studies Secretary
Company: University of Minnesota, Civil Engineering Department
Job description: I assist with all aspects of the graduate program (answer grad student questions; file paperwork; answer phones; assist with graduate application organization, distribution, and response); plus general receptionist and front-office duties.
Time in the workforce: Almost 5 years. In September 2002 I started full time in another department at the U. I started working at 16, part time during high school and college.
Number of job changes in career: I wouldn't call being a secretary being a career. Since 2002, I've worked in 4 different departments (for a while as a temp when I got canned from my second job).
Time at current job: 2 years. I am looking but not in a rush to leave. My plans depend on whether I find something better.
Company training opportunities: In general, the university has many job training, skills, and networking opportunities. But because my position is in the front office, my department limits when I can go to training/networking/skills classes.
Learning preferences: I like learning through hands on. This is generally true from when I started at the U. in 2002, but I have learned that training can be an important first step. I also learned that I need to have something to direct me when starting a new position.
Career progression opportunities: The U. has some 40,000 jobs—many I'm not qualified or interested in—but there are opportunities for advancing and moving into different and better positions.
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