The workplace expectations of Gen Y

Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm, and American Express, a global service company announced results from a groundbreaking study entitled, "Gen Y Workplace Expectations". According to the study, both managers and Gen Ys are on the same page when it comes to workplace success.

* The skills managers look for when promoting Gen Y: Managers and Gen Ys both agree that soft skills are the most important, followed by hard skills and then digital/tech savvy skills (social media). Sixty-one per cent of managers and 65 per cent of Gen Ys believe that soft skills are the most important. Both managers and Gen Ys agree that being a subject matter expert is important to career advancement. Sixty-five percent of managers and 66 per cent of Gen Ys say it's either important or very important.

The top three most important skills that managers are looking for when promoting millennials is the ability to prioritize work (87 per cent), a positive attitude (86 per cent) and teamwork skills (86 per cent).

* Social media's role in and out of the workplace: Gen Y employees feel that they should own the rights to their own social media profiles even if they use them during work hours. Fewer managers agree that their Gen Ys should. Out of the managers, 54 per cent said that Gen Ys should have the rights to the profiles, yet 69 per cent of Gen Ys said they should have them.

Only 16 per cent of managers and 17 per cent of Gen Ys view using social media profiles to actively contribute to online industry conversations as either very important or extremely important.

* The manager and Gen Y relationship on social media. When it comes to Facebook, only 14 per cent of managers are either very comfortable or extremely comfortable being friends with Gen Ys. Twenty-four per cent of Gen Ys said the same. When it comes to connecting on LinkedIn, 32 per cent of Gen Ys and 24 per cent of their managers are either very comfortable or extremely comfortable. Gen Ys (38 per cent) are more comfortable making social media introductions than managers (19 per cent).

* Gen Ys don't get enough feedback at work and want mentors: Both managers (48 per cent) and Gen Ys (46 per cent) give and receive annual performance reviews. 20 per cent of managers and 19 per cent of Gen Y's don't give or receive any type of formal review.

Fifty three per cent of Gen Ys said that a mentoring relationship would help them become a better and more productive contributor to their company.

* In-person meetings and email trump technology at work: Despite new technologies like Skype and social networks, traditional forms of communication are still the most common ways that both managers and Gen Ys interact.

Sixty-six per cent of managers say that in-person meetings are their preferred way of communicating with Gen Ys and 62 per cent of employees feel the same way about how they communicate with their managers.

The second most popular way of communicating between managers and Gen Ys was email. Twenty-six per cent of managers and 25 per cent of Gen Ys prefer using email.

The author is Dan Schawbel, managing partner, Millennial Branding. Re-printed with permission. Link: http://millennialbranding.com/category/blog/page/2/