Motivating Gen Y’s

a Biblical thought...
I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2)

a Book thought...
A hundred years ago we thought that to participate in a war to protect the tribe was a heroic act. Now we see war as a failure to create peace and that, as Barbara Ward said, we must work for peace in order to prevent war. (p.98).

a Dave thought... www.businessweek.com
Young people change jobs every 18 months. So here's what they want at work: Stability. The only reason Gen Y job hops is keep their learning curve high. No one wants to change jobs all the time. It's scary and difficult and tumultuous. But Gen Y knows that there are no lifetime jobs any more, and we're each responsible for our own careers. The best way to keep yourself employable is to always be learning. So when the learning curve flattens out at work, Gen Y jumps.

1. Focus on mentoring.
Most young people have no idea what they want to do for their lives. They are trying things out. They need a mentor to help them figure out what to try next, and how to make sense of what they've already tried.

2. Create rotation programs.
The hottest jobs for Gen Y are getting into programs that steer you through many departments (Procter & Gamble (PG), General Electric (GE)) or companies that encourage you to move around after a short period of time (Deloitte, Ernst & Young).

3. Don't focus on pay.
Young people expect to be paid market rate. They have easy access to resources like PayScale, where the range of salaries in a given field is listed.

4. Micromanage.
That's right. Gen Y wants to be micromanaged. To other generations this would be insulting or annoying. But Gen Y wants constant feedback and constant attention. That's how they were raised—to be the center of the family. So they expect to be important wherever they go.

5. Get real about teamwork.
For the last 20 years we've been talking about how important teamwork is. Companies that work in teams create better ideas, faster progress, and stronger companies than companies full of lone rangers. We know this, but baby boomers hate teams. They want to be in charge; they want to stand out as being special from everyone else.

Gen Y expects work to be about teams because for them everything is about teams. Which means you can't retain Gen Y if you're not really serious about teams.

Just a thought.