Partner Article

Gen Y at the workplace – How to manage a generation of demanding high-performers

People segmented as Gen Y is increasingly becoming a bigger part of our workforce and dynamics have fundamentally changed with a demand for faster, more innovative and flexible experience/service delivery mechanisms. In fact, Fortune magazine deemed Generation Y as the most high-maintenance, yet potentially most high-performing generation in history because its members are entering the workplace with more information, greater technological skill and higher expectations of themselves and others when compared to prior generations.

With such a high potential and “differently oriented” workforce it’s high time the art of management went through a fundamental overhaul to swap command-and-control methods with democracy and collaboration. The good news is that there are organisations rewriting the way of how we work together, encouraging leaders to demonstrate new management traits.

Here are some practices I think are worth investing in:

Get ’Social’: First things first, a manager needs to do is to use the technology platforms Gen Y uses – from social networking forums to mobile apps and devices. Managers and organisations need to work out how to integrate these technologies in the workplace as Millennials prefer organisations that embrace channels of communication they have grown up with and allow access to the technology they use in their personal life. At HCL for example we have developed a social networking application called MEME that allows employees to interact with their colleagues in a ‘Facebook’ kind of a virtual medium.
Be collaborative: Unlike the Industrial Age where a manager assumed superiority through hierarchy, today he has to be just as much accountable to the team as the team has to be to him/her. Today a team leader has to deliver value beyond just giving orders and doing performance appraisals. Managers have to include employees in decision-making processes and enable them to increase the value zone between the company and its clients, creating a culture where empowerment and engagement drive performance and not reporting hierarchies.
Enhance your Emotional Quotient (EQ): In the past, it was considered inappropriate to let emotions be seen in the workplace and we were all tutored to remain “strictly professional” in the office. Today’s Gen Y however is confident to “get personal” and carry their emotions and opinions about their work on their sleeves. As they are inspired by the deeper purpose and meaning in work than it just being a way to make a profit or earn money, they have a higher sense of ownership. A manager is expected to know and be cognizant of people’s personal priorities as much as their professional talents. Social scientists like Daniel Goleman are going so far as to call our times the ‘emotional economy’!
Install ’big windows’ in your cubicle: A colleague once explained the reason of having big windows at his home as a reminder to keep the house clean. The more its visible to people, the cleaner we’ll want to keep our house. I believe it’s time managers installed these ‘big windows’ in our cubicles too. The Gen Y workforce, born in the age of Facebook, is driving a wave of participative-culture change, where transparency is a top priority. These youngsters put their entire life’s ‘timeline’ on the public domain; and they expect nothing less from their employers. Honesty, openness and consistent communication will be cornerstones of management going forward.
Get out of their way! Just let go. The more you try to micro-manage the Millennials the less you can harness their talent. Create processes and resources to enable them instead. For example, rather than asking them why a certain task wasn’t done or when it will be done, ask them what you can do to help them meet their client’s commitments. Help them connect to the right subject matter experts, solve the bottlenecks in the system for them, share your knowledge with them.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Prithvi Shergill .