Communicating With Gen Y Employees

Gen Y (often described as those born after 1980) are typically technologically savvy and creative, with lots of energy, strong informal networks and a fresh perspective.  They can be great employees for any organization; however, Gen Y employees have a different set of needs to the generations of employees preceding them.

Communicating with Gen Y From a communications perspective, Gen Y employees tend to prefer technology over face-to-face communication and are good at multi tasking. Other characteristics and preferences include:

Information in very small chunks. Gen Ys prefer to absorb information in small chunks. Concise updates with further information available via hyperlink suit this generation well. Consider scrolling news feeds, short articles in electronic magazines (even better if content is user generated) and short video updates.

Communicate through photos and video. Gen Y’s, as the biggest users of sites like YouTube and Flickr, engage well with images and video.  Turn screensavers into interactive bill boards and bring internal communications messages to life by communicating visually. Stock photography sites provide a wide range of images to convey any type of message for as little as $ 1.

Screensaver messaging tools allow you to embed hyperlinks into screensaver billboards allowing staff to interact with messages and follow links to more information.

Video delivery tools allow you to deliver short video updates directly to targeted staff groups.

Humor and irony.  Use Staff Quizzes to support internal communications messages or to reinforce learning.  Include a humorous option to ensure that Gen Y employees enjoy participating.

Instant rewards. The Gen Y worker typically wants instant gratification. Staff quizzes can also reinforce key corporate messages and to build knowledge and capability. 

Cynical of corporate spin. The unethical behavior of corporate organizations has become more visible online due to the rise of social media.  Everything from a single instance of poor customer service to massive corporate scandals are under the social media microscope.  Gen Y’s tend to be idealistic and judgmental and, as a result, corporate mouth pieces and top down formal communications can be viewed with cynicism.

Avoid polished formal communications with little interaction and provide a more ‘unvarnished’ message with lots of opportunities for questions, discussion and interaction. Sometimes, not having all the answers ready but saying, “we’ll get back to you on this” can make communications seem more genuine (as long as you actually follow up).

Employee discussion forums can be used to back up more traditional communications and provide the means to allow staff to provide feedback, ask questions and have their say around a particular initiative or formal communication.

Need to be consulted and involved. Gen Y employees want to add value from day one.  They like to be consulted and involved.  Two way communication is critical for Gen Y staff who will be turned off by top down, one way communications.  Provide opportunities for dialog, for example a CEO blog needs to have a tone that is genuine and open, where questions and comments are welcomed and responded to.

Alternatively an electronic staff magazine that utilizes user generated content can be a good way for staff to have a voice in a more structured, readable and manageable format than an employee discussion forum.

Value ideas. Create an open environment where young employees feel like their ideas are valued. Involve staff by running quizzes around the naming of new initiatives, projects, products etc.

Regular feedback. It is pointless to gather ideas and feedback unless staff see how the information is being used and making a difference. Keep staff up to speed on progress using tools like staff magazines and scrolling news feeds.

Engaging Gen Y

Many Gen Y employees aren’t as willing to sacrifice as much as the Baby Boomers for their work so engaging them is particularly important.

It’s more than money.  Gen Ys think like entrepreneurs but value relationships over money. Find ways to capture ideas and innovation in formats that allow staff with similar interests to connect. Use staff discussion forums to allow this process to happen. 

Gen Y work hardest for a cause or an end result where they can see how they have made a difference.  Provide staff with regular updates on the progress of projects and initiatives.  Staff magazines that support user generated content can allow teams or individuals to submit their own updates about their own team’s results. News feeds offer a way to provide status updates as a scrolling news tickers that deliver content onto targeted employee computer screens. 

Environmentally conscious.  Of all the generations Gen Ys are the most environmentally conscious.  Sustainability messages can often become buried due to information overload. Raise the profile of sustainability initiatives by promoting them visually using interactive screensaver messages and back them up with appropriate articles in staff magazines.

Benchmark awareness and behaviors around sustainability both before and after an internal communications campaign. Promote and celebrate the shift in behaviors visually using digital signage on screensavers and by getting staff to submit appropriate articles into staff magazines.

The risks of Gen Y:

Gen Y employees bring a great many benefits to employers prepared to take the necessary steps to engage them.  However, there are some risks:

Generation ‘Why Not?’ Gen Y staff are more likely than others to see unethical behavior as justifiable in pursuit of their goals. They may believe it is sometimes necessary to cheat, plagiarize or lie in order to succeed.

Use communications channels which are hard to forward on and offer a means to ‘burn after reading’.  I.e. once sensitive content is read, it can be automatically deleted from employee’s computers. 

Difficult to manage. Middle managers are often ill equipped to manage Gen Y employees.  It is important to train managers in this skill, to gather feedback from their teams and to measure their effectiveness.

Not loyal to their employers. Gen Y are the least loyal generation and it is common for them to leave or change jobs after 2 to 3 years.  This has an impact from recruitment, training and knowledge management perspective as well as increasing the risk of intellectual property leakage.

Tools like staff quizzes can help manage and build capability, and the interactive web 2.0 helpdesks and Q&A channels can help newer staff come up to speed quickly.

Very idealistic.  It’s easy to disillusion Gen Y staff with behaviors that other generations are more willing to dismiss as ‘typical and normal’ for corporates. For example; poor change management, politicking and silo behaviors. Plus Gen Y’s tendency to have unrealistic expectations about career advancement and salary can mean that a Gen Y employee is more likely to leave an organization disenchanted.

Highly connected and vocal online. Once a Gen Y becomes disenchanted, the risk to an organization’s brand is higher due to the fact that Gen Ys tend to be highly connected and vocal online.  Negative messages can spread quickly and be hard to clean up. One blogger can trigger a news cycle which stays in Google’s listings for years.  It is therefore important to gather regular feedback from staff and keep lines of communication open.  It is no longer acceptable to avoid using social media internally with the excuse that “it turns into an online complaints department”. It is important to provide channels such as secure employee discussion forums where people can voice issues and concerns securely (and anonymously if necessary).  This way an organization can address and manage issues internally before they become an external PR nightmare.

Communicating with and engaging Gen Y employees can be a daunting task, but with the right internal communications channels and approach in place, Gen Y employees can offer organizations an innovative, energetic and tech savvy addition to the workforce.