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The other day, I was slicing and dicing our workforce data only to realise that nearly 30 per cent of the employees at Coca-Cola India belong to the Gen Y workforce. Those that say "BRB" (be right back) boss in response to text messages enquiring where they are? The boss in all probability is a Gen X person.
If variety is the spice of life, diversity is definitely the sugar. In the last few decades, companies have been giving a lot of emphasis on putting together a diverse and multi-generational workforce. Having such a workforce is not particularly a new thing; a major challenge that organisations face these days is of the differences in the values and work culture of these different generations.
Salary not enough
While a job was mainly viewed as a source of income by an older generation in India, for the youth of today a job is just not a monthly pay cheque but also a means of fulfilment. Not satisfied with just their career growth in an organisation, young employees are looking for avenues to gain as much experience as they can. For many of them, work is just one of the means of expanding the horizon of experience. Along with that they also expect to be entrusted with decision making power. Recent studies show that there might be a lack of engagement and commitment among young employees if they are not trusted with the power to make decisions.
Generation Y has many - and different - aspirations from their jobs and workplaces. While one of them is the craving to have more and more work experience, young people also tend to get disappointed with workplaces as their aspirations from the job may not be fulfilled easily.
According to a recent survey of over 2,800 Indian students conducted by the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania, the "aspirations of students are largely misaligned with the needs of the Indian economy." It is said the construction and automotive sectors are expected to require the largest chunk of skilled workers over the next decade, but "only a very small proportion" of students want careers in those fields. The ambitious young man or woman also seeks swifter upward mobility, and feels disappointed when that might not be forthcoming.
In this scenario, the big question organisations are facing is how to provide a mix of stability that the older generation of workers have valued together with the range of experience and excitement that younger people look for. For many people, job security is still something that cannot be taken for granted. For others, a job by its very definition needs to be done in more than one organisation.
Balancing needs and aspirations
Human resources managers in a whole host of firms are faced with these questions. While there is little systematic study around the methods that HR managers could use to balance the needs of different age groups working together, addressing the needs and expectations of workers of various age groups can help organisations reap the benefits of extracting the best from their most talented employees. While employees in their 40s and 50s have a set of preferences even as they look forward to working for another 20 years or so and plan retirement accordingly, the younger lot of the workforce may have a different set of preferences.
Baby boomers, aged 41-59, make up almost half of the US workforce. They grew up during an era of relative economic prosperity and experienced the tumult of the 1960s at an impressionable age. Baby boomers tend to be optimistic, idealistic and good team players. They are driven, love challenge and build stellar careers. On the other hand, Generation X, aged 28-40, make up just 29 per cent of the workforce. Raised during the times of double income families, many of them got a child's-eye view of work-centric parenting. They value flexibility, work/life balance and autonomy on the job and appreciate a fun, informal work environment.
Back in India, the picture is not very different. Both in public and private sector organisations, young, agile, tech-savvy and energetic workers looking for challenges are joining the ranks of a growing workforce. There are currently around 600 million people who are younger than 25, and nearly 70 per cent of India's 1.2 billion population is under 40. It is an unprecedented demographic condition in the history of modern India, and in absolute numbers it is unprecedented anywhere in the world.
It also comes at a time when much of the developed world and China have aging populations. Nearly 40 per cent of India's population belongs to what is termed Gen Y. With these Gen Y-ers forming a major chunk of the workforce in companies across sectors, the challenge for an organisation is to ensure that the young recruits are both capable of taking decisions and are trusted to do so. Many organisations these days have begun to thrust greater responsibility on young recruits. Greater responsibility also entails taking decisions.
While traditionally experience counted in decision-making roles, there is a growing realisation in organisations that youth doesn't mean they are not ready to take decisions.
Experience versus trust
More than skill, young people are generally expected to bring zeal and energy to the workplace. For many young employees there is nothing more disheartening than seeing themselves making no positive change, or not being relied upon in matters of significance for the firm. Real engagement comes when there is trust and the young recruits are allowed to take decisions with the resources they have at their disposal. Rather than discouraging or styming the initiatives of young employees, organisations should support them in their endeavours. Typically, Gen Y will be less enthusiastic about implementing decisions that affect their work but which are taken by senior management.
Given the plethora of opportunities available and Gen Y's drive to explore bigger opportunities without great concern for geographical distances, firms also need to plan to retain promising young staff. This would necessitate changes in the attitudes at workplaces as also in traditional structures. Workers should have access to collaborative networks in order to plan and implement projects. Horizontal networks across the firm should make diverse areas of expertise easily available to the young worker. There should also be greater flexibility in the organisational hierarchy so that depending on the situation and demands of work, formal lines of management can be transcended in response to the needs of the market.
All this requires change - an attitudinal shift - even among those who have worked long and hard and risen within an organisation. Ideally, the performance of senior management should be assessed even by subordinates so that there is a well-rounded feedback of the contribution of each person in a team. This may prove cumbersome but there are organisations that offer 360-degree appraisal, allowing an employee to assess a manager who impacts his or her work.
The changes that must be made to make Gen Y happy at work may have the biggest impact on the older people in the organisation. A firm must be sensitive in dealing with the people who might find themselves discomfited by the arrangements made to cater to the young. There is a constant need for re-skilling and revision of roles, and the ideal management would consider the skills and experience of its workforce and deploy these to the benefit of both the individual concerned and the firm.
Sameer Wadhawan
VP, HR & services, India & South West Asia, Coca-Cola India
