Don’t Leave These Workers Out

 

You probably already realize the importance of pay and development to worker engagement. But if you make a special effort to focus on these factors, you may be leaving out a group of workers that will make up half the workforce by 2020.

Who are they? Generation Y, the newest workers on the block. They value several factors over financial rewards:

• Workplace flexibility
• Work/life balance
• Opportunity for oversees assignments

This is good news. Heck, any motivators other than financial rewards are good news.

And there’s more good news. Workers in Generation  Y, also known as Millennials, also stay in jobs more often if they feel

• Supported and appreciated
• Part of cohesive team
• Flexibility in where and how much they work

As a project manager, you have some control over these people management factors. You have the ability to help make these happen. For example,

• When selecting candidates for a new role, explain to Gen Y candidates about where your workplace is flexible. Explain that they will be working on a close-knit team.
• Need a worker to shift oversees? Look to a Gen Y employee.
• To motivate a Gen Y worker, talk less about further development opportunities and more about how specifically you appreciate their recent efforts to do x.  Ask what they need to continue to complete work they are working on now.
• Avoid asking them to work longer hours to be rewarded with some vague future benefit. Instead, provide them the desired results and let them have more control over what they do to complete that work.

These kinds of practices are fairly easy and will net you workers who stay longer and work harder. And that is a benefit to a project manager in any generation.

The report in PDF format can be found here.