Senior staff members, listen up; the younger generation expects more
Since my retirement last year, I have been doing some business consulting with a few small agencies. One of the trends I see emerging is an increasingly disturbing statistic related to retaining newly hired employees. It does seem that new employees place a high priority on their “free time” and are unwilling to sacrifice that for the job—something my peers and predecessors did readily in the past, often to prove our loyalty and dedication (i.e., come in early, leave late, work through lunch, etc.) That type of sacrifice seems long past. Their attitude seems to be that capability at the job is proof enough of their dedication. In short, “I got the job because I am qualified. It is a mutually beneficial deal.”
To that end, these employees seem to be treated with greater tolerance in many companies. Much like the formula for handling “difficult” staff members, the way to create a work environment that new employees want needs to include some of the following:
Supervisors need to show a great deal of respect to new staff members. Their lives and interests should be topics to be discussed often. The new age seems to have blurred the lines between personal and company time and “personalities.” In the same way employees might work on a spreadsheet in the evening at home, they may want to show you a video on their phone from last night’s concert or dinner party. Their lives as a whole need to be respected. The supervisor should engage this social side of the employee and open himself/herself up to learning new things and considering different lifestyles. And be sincere. They can smell a phony a mile away.
