The members of Generation Y are born between 1980 and 1995. Y stands for "Why?" and could not describe the generation any better. The members of Generation Y want to know exactly why things are the way they are. Rigid hierarchies are called into question. They usually have an academic education and are therefore well positioned professionally. Due to demographic change, they have fewer competitors for a job advertisement and are in a position to make demands of employers. They want to implement special working conditions such as flexible working hours and working from home. The members of Generation Z are those born between 1996 and 2010. The cohort size is even smaller than that of the previous generation and so they can afford to be less loyal to their employer and are less maternalistic. Many even lack the willingness to commit to a company in the long term. They long for a job that fulfills them and do not want to see work as their main purpose in life. It is important for them to finish work early, at 5 p.m., because a good work-life balance is very important to them.
Generations Y and Z are international, geographically flexible and speak several languages. They are online constantly and everywhere via smartphone. And they are digital natives. Y-ers and Z-ers are at home on social networks and both generations use the networks to share voice messages, pictures and videos. Members of Generation Y know that the world around them can change quickly, as they have experienced every crisis in recent years. So they have developed a strategy: The balance between performance and enjoyment of life must be right. Generation Z was born into great prosperity, but is also aware of the great uncertainty caused by globalization. Hardly any other generation has so many opportunities for development, so how are they supposed to decide? They want to live out their creativity at work and perform with enthusiasm. Chasing after a career goal in a hamster wheel is no longer desirable for them. Life itself is what motivates them.
If you want to win over a "generation unable to commit" to the company, you need to strengthen the emotional bond within the team at all employee levels. After all, only employees who feel a strong connection to the company will be highly committed. Only such employees will drive the entire company forward. Those who identify with the team's values and the company's goals can contribute their full energy.
However, not everyone in the company is equally responsible for the emotional bond. The distant general manager is not responsible for the sensitivities of every employee. This is where the socially competent managers in all departments come into play. It is their job to deal sensitively with employees. Does the direct superior now have to shape business life with soft-spoken management methods? Probably not. It is better if the manager has established a good feedback culture. Discussions can reveal any difficulties and wishes of employees in good time. How are the individual employees doing? Are there differences within the company? Feedback discussions bring the background to light in day-to-day business so that managers can intervene at an early stage. If communication with employees is cultivated, an emotional bond can be created that ensures that they stay with the company.
Employers know about the new employee's expectations of the job from the interview. Was the company able to meet their expectations? Reducing the difference between desire and reality can be the task of onboarding. Expectations that have been raised should then be able to be fulfilled in the reality of the job.
Onboarding therefore plays a very important role in dealing with generations Y and Z. Managers in the company can give employees the feeling that they are in good hands and welcome. If managers and colleagues can show that they are happy that he or she is part of the team, a large part of employee retention is already achieved at this point. Employees draw their motivation from the good atmosphere in the company. They also want to live up to the company's expectations and prove that they are an integral part of the team.
Human resource development and wage policy can create important incentives when it comes to strengthening the appeal of jobs. However, if you cannot create above-average working conditions with high wages, numerous vacation days and extensive benefits in kind, you always have the option of creating strong employee loyalty in other ways.
Further training makes working for the company attractive and promoting young talent brings new young people on board. Long-serving employees are rewarded with cleverly purchased incentives. A bright future can be shown with prospects for personal development and employees feel valued. They make personal progress through mentoring and coaching and don't need a new job to do so.
If you don't have too much money to throw around, you also give your employees flexibility and freedom. After all, flexibility and freedom are values that can inspire generations Y and Z in particular. Keywords are home office, remote work and trust-based working hours. The opportunity to take longer breaks from working hours, such as sabbaticals, also represents added value for employees. Modern work happens with flexibility and freedom. You would be surprised at the results you can achieve with a new structure.
Generation Y and Z employees love a culture of mutual trust. They want to spend their working lives in a trusting working relationship and be able to communicate openly with each other without fear of negative feedback on their work performance and behavior.
But how can employee loyalty be further increased? If you want to attract and retain members of Generations Y and Z as employees, you should develop and present your employer branding. The first step in building an employer brand is to analyze the strengths of your own company. This is where your own employees can help. Qualitative interviews are used to ask employees about the strengths and distinctive features of the company. What are the special skills? Experience has shown that marketing employees will answer differently to employees from the IT department. As a result of the survey, the company receives a catalog of strengths and skills, which can even be categorized by target group. For example, a target group classification can be made according to marketing, IT, research & development and controlling.
In the next step, the strengths and characteristics of the company are summarized in short key statements. This should reflect reality as far as possible. You should not succumb to the temptation to generate unrealistic strengths and advantages. The difference between the presentation of the company and tangible reality must not be too great later on. Less is often more here. The analysis of the competition flows into the strengths analysis. What strengths has the competition highlighted?
The next step in employer branding is to formulate the strengths in unique selling points and product promises. Short, concise but individual summaries of the strengths are the result of the text work.
What is the goal of your company? What values do you represent? Employees must be able to identify with them. You can now approach the recruitment market with the right messages. The promises are kept and your own employees confirm the messages to the outside world. With coherent core statements, employees who have gone through the onboarding phase have the feeling that they are in the right place in the company. The dreaded internal resignation is not pronounced. Good retention management work has been done.
Satisfied employees stay with the company. Both employee satisfaction and critical points can be determined through fundamental analysis. If you know your figures, you can implement suitable measures that are individually tailored to each employee. While the best software and hardware is just good enough for the IT employee, the sales employee would like to work from home. And then there are the colleagues for whom only a 3/4 position offers enough free time to achieve a balanced work-life balance. It is precisely these demands that you will encounter more and more frequently with generations Y and Z and you should not cling to rigid, outdated work structures. If you are open to change, you will also be rewarded with long-term employees.
Trusting feedback discussions bring praise and criticism to the surface and bind employees to the company in the long term. Sometimes a quick chat in the coffee kitchen, then an appraisal interview. The discussions are conducted openly, without immediately rejecting criticism. They bring to light information that some managers only dream of knowing. Thanks to the discussions, measures can be introduced in good time. Employees are taken seriously and a good relationship is cultivated. The best basis for retaining employees in your company in the long term and not having to search for new employees every year.
%201new.png)
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
