Gen Y’ers facing tough options

What is Generation Y? When we talk about “Generation Y”, we mean those young people who were born during the Eighties and are now entering the job market. This is the generation that grew up in the era of Information and Communication Technologies, was weaned on the Internet and iPod, and is now experiencing the contradictions of a labour market offering flexible jobs and no security, in sharp contrast with the experience of the preceding generations.

Who are these young people, and what are their values, motivations and expectations? How can their impact with a tough job market be alleviated? How can one meet the needs and aspirations of these new entrants, whose attention to the work-life balance far exceeds that of the earlier generations? How can training processes be structured to pass knowledge and practices on to young people who feel ill at ease in classrooms and are more used to MP3 readers than books? How can development programmes be devised to instil a sense of stability in young people living in a general context of unstable economies? And finally, how to attract and retain young high potentials who see their ties with a company more in terms of opportunity than loyalty?

“Gen Y’ers” at work
The arrival of Generation Y in business puts a heavy strain on traditional human-resources policies and makes it necessary to adopt a segmented approach through all phases of personnel management: from recruitment and selection to training and assessment, all the way to career development plans, reward systems and, ultimately, communication from an employer branding perspective.
Moreover, the presence of “GenY’ers” brings out the generation mix issue in an organisation. Dealing with this problem takes on different connotations than in the past: cycles become shorter all the time and the acceleration of social change processes tends to deepen the gap in terms of values, attitudes and behaviours separating workers of different generations, thus heavily impacting on personnel marketing logics. Whilst in recent years this subject has received wide attention mainly focussed on the management of seniors, the analysis of the generational segment comprising those born between1980 and 1990 has now taken on greater relevance.

Objectives of the Research Programme
Starting from these considerations, our “Permanent Research Programme on the relationship between young people and the job market” pursues the fact-finding goals of ascertaining and monitoring over time the distinctive traits of Generation Y. These amount to the anticipations for their own future, the meaning they attach to work, their notion and expectations of an organisation, and their orientation and mentoring needs in the transition from training to work.

In order to achieve such goals we have tried to build a composite image of Italy’s Generation Y by sketching its distinguishing features. At the same time, our research has investigated the evolutionary trends in human resources management methods and tools in view of the arrival of Generation Y in business and the concurrent needs of meeting the specific demands of this population while managing the integration of different generations in the workplace.

How this research programme is run and for whom
Our methodology adopts a combination of tools typical of quantitative research (an extensive survey carried out by administering a structured questionnaire to a population of young students) and qualitative research (a cycle of focus group sessions geared to share and probe into some of the main themes that emerged during the extensive survey).

Our research involves a plurality of actors:

• young Y’ers with an interest in discovering the traits that differentiate their generation from the previous ones and keen to understand some of the changes that are under way in the labour world and in human-resources policies; this allows them to discover logics and practices they will be confronted with once they enter active employment;
• Human Resources professionals who, on a daily basis, deal with both problems and opportunities linked to Generation Y and puzzle over the need to implement segmented policies to address intergenerational diversity;
• trainers and other professionals who, in various capacities, act as a liaison between the world of education and the business world, and who, especially in the current climate, are inclined to deeply rethink their role to better cope with the changes in both labour supply and demand.

The research programme in numbers
Since 2008, our research programme has consistently aimed to explore different issues typical of the relationship between young people and the labour world. This, in turn, has produced three research reports:

• Young people and the labour world: searching for meanings between flexibility and belonging (2008);
• Generation Y: Web surfers enter the job market (2009);
• Young people and new technologies. Their impact in the workplace (2010).

To date, the fourth research report is being finalized. It contains an in-depth analysis of the issues surrounding the arrival of young people in business (and the policies that organisations implement to properly manage this delicate step) as well as the complex dynamics resulting from the coexistence of groups belonging to different generations within the same company.

This programme was made possible by the support of leading Italian and multinational companies who have joined forces with Fondazione ISTUD on this research effort: Air Liquide, Amplifon, Angelini, Autostrade per l’Italia, Brembo, Chiesi Farmaceutici, Coca Cola Italia, Coesia, Edison, Enel, Engineering, Eni CU, Generali, IKEA, Intesa Sanpaolo, Iveco, Pirelli, Telecom Italia, Valtur, Vodafone.

Between 2008 and 2010 our research programme has tapped into the following resources:

• 2,291 young students and graduates who completed our questionnaire;
• 180 young people who participated in focus group sessions at various Universities;
• 10 Universities who hosted focus group events and/or agreed to administer our questionnaires;
• 203 young people who participated in focus groups sessions at partner companies;
• 37 senior managers in partner companies who were interviewed or joined in focus group discussions;
• 361 senior managers who completed online questionnaires.

 

 

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