According to a study conducted by BIGinsight, Gen Y is more likely than other generations to view the upcoming super bowl as a big party – while 40.4% of Gen Yers said the game was most important to them, 25.6% indicated socializing with friends was the main priority, compared to 15% of Boomers and 19.4% of Gen Xers.
Other fun facts the study revealed:
- Gen Yers (42.9%) are the most likely to attend a party that day, twice that of the number of Boomers (21.5%).
- Gen X is the most probable to host a party (23.1%), just edging out Gen Y (21.8%).
- Bring on the taco dip! Eight in ten (79.9%) Gen Xers are planning to buy food/beverages for game day, slightly more than Gen Y (76.6%) and Boomers (70.7%).
- File this under ironic: although the least likely to vote ‘the game’ as the most important aspect of Super Bowl Sunday, 16.6% of those in Gen Y plan to show their team spirit by buying new apparel or accessories, more than any other generation.
For more information, click here.
The 2012 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland has wrapped up. As in other years, the forum engaged the world’s intellectual, business, arts, cultural, and social giants. The many issues of our troubled world were discussed. One in particular stood out to us the most – the acknowledgement of the power that world youth have in shaping the global agenda. In fact, seventy young ‘Global Shapers’ – as Maxwell Hall, Senior Media Manager, calls them – helped set the agenda at the World Economic Forum this year.
In a news release, Hall explains the profile of the Global Shapers, they are: “aged 20-30, with great leadership potential across all sectors of society.” Furthermore, he stressed that “half of the world’s population is under the age of 27, making it vital that young voices are heard” at the annual Forum. These Shapers come from 36 countries around the world and are connected to their peers online via their own private social network. Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum noted, “Global Shapers are ‘digital natives’ who grew up with the Internet. They have vision, think laterally, act quickly and make connections across networks in order to successfully solve problems. This community is of vital importance and we see tremendous opportunities for Shapers and today’s leaders to learn from one another.”
A video playlist of Global Shapers can be found at http://wef.ch/Ytsz.
Besides recognizing that Gen Y has grown capable of shaping the world’s future economy and businesses by implementing new methods, David Aikman, head of the Global Shapers Community at the World Economic Forum said, “young people don’t need today’s leaders to empower them. They are already empowered through their passion, ideas and access to information and technology.” Furthermore, Global Shaper Manju George from India noted that Gen Y’s aspirations are higher than ever and that in order to realize them for themselves, their countries, and the world, it is vital to include Gen Y in any conversation that will shape the future.
For more information on the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2012, click here.
In a study by Millennial Branding, it was discovered that Gen Y uses social media profiles as an extension of their private and professional personality. While socializing with their friends and family, Gen Yers also frequently add co-workers and employers to their friend groups. This recent trend allows professional contacts to have access to Gen Y social lives and personal information that would otherwise not be exposed.
“Gen-Y needs to be aware that what they publish online can come back to haunt them in the workplace. Gen-Y managers and co-workers have insight into their social lives, which could create an awkward workplace setting or even result in a termination.
- Dan Schawbel, Founder of Millennial Branding, Gen-Y Workplace Expert & Bestselling Author of Me 2.0
This laidback attitude of Gen Yers toward allowing co-workers access to their social media profiles is complicated by the fact that 64% of Gen Y fail to list their employer on their profiles. While Gen Y demonstrates a lack of loyalty to their employers, they have great loyalty to their schools as 80% list at least one school entry on their Facebook profiles. The Millennial Branding study suggests that this may be due to the fact that most Gen Yers only spend an average of two years at their first job and spend most of their careers job-hopping. Even more, Gen Y has been identified as an entrepreneurial generation and thus listing “owner” has become the fifth most popular job title on Facebook among Gen Yers.
To address Gen Y’s stance on sharing information about their social lives with co-workers, employers should set clear boundaries. Just as with other issues at the workplace, Gen Y needs clear direction in order to succeed. When it comes to social media etiquette, Gen Y should be made aware that any inappropriate activity publically displayed on Facebook could lead to consequences at the workplace such as job termination.
For more information, click here.
On Tuesday night during President Barack Obama’s 2012 State of the Union Address the ‘American Dream’ was once again put front and center on the world’s stage. Though Obama referenced it as “the basic American promise,” his true meaning was clear by this description of his grandparent’s post WWII belief that, “if you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement.” Obama brought up the subject of the American Dream to reflect on the current state that it is in, and according to the President, it is in peril due to current economic trends and the state of the US economy.
While the faltering economic condition of the United States has been at the center of many hearts and minds for the past four or so years, my own thoughts became preoccupied with Obama’s description of the America Dream. The President’s description made me stop and consider how the concept of the American Dream must have evolved over the years. The American Dream that Obama described was certainly compelling to the Baby Boomer Generation and even to many from Gen X, but I have to wonder if this description is as compelling to Gen Y and younger generations?
In doing research on the current state of the American Dream I came across the man who originally coined the term in 1931, John Truslow Adams. In his book The Epic of America, Mr. Adams described his 1931 American Dream to be:
“…that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.”
While the idea of the American Dream surely existed long before Mr. Adams penned the above phrase, I think that his statement has a compelling modernity about it. For me, a member of Generation Y, Mr. Adam’s version of the American Dream is a much more compelling vision than the “American Promise” described last Tuesday night.
Besides my own opinion, there are other reasons that I have my doubts regarding the future applicability of Obama’s version of the American Dream. Those other reasons come out of the work that our company, Culture Coach International, does around the four different generations in America today. Specifically, we work with companies on the topic of generations in the workplace. One of the reasons that so many companies come to us with requests for consulting and training around the issue of generations is because of the fact that each generation has such distinct “generational personalities” that workers from different generations often times come into conflict with one another and this affects productivity, teamwork and employee engagement. These conflicts arise from the different values, communication styles and work styles that workers from different generations possess.
Given this logic and my understanding of the basic profiles of the different generations, it stands to reason that the post WWII American Dream as described by Obama in his State of the Union Address, might not be as compelling to the Millennial and post Millennial generations as it is to Gen X and the Baby Boomers.
After all, Gen Y is challenging many ideas in the American workplace that are considered to be sacrosanct by the Baby Boomers, such as long meetings and hierarchy. Not to mention the dramatic social changes ushered in by Gen Y such as Facebook and smart phones. Our groups of friends now span the globe and we rarely speak to anyone on the phone – two social changes that have dramatically affected the way Americans live their lives. So would it be any more surprising if Gen Y started to challenge what are considered to be the essential elements of the American Dream?
Interestingly enough a 2011 survey by Xavier University’s Center for the Study of the American Dream found that the top five most important elements of the American Dream are as follows: “a good life for my family”, “financial security”, “freedom”, “opportunity”, and “the pursuit of happiness”. On the surface these five elements do not seem to challenge the version of the American Dream as Obama depicted it in his State of the Union address. Though I could not locate a breakdown of this survey data by generation or age groups, it would be interesting to see if there are differences in the rankings according to age group. Would Gen Y and Baby Boomers have a significantly different order for their top five most important elements of the American Dream?
While we can survey and analyze the current state of the American Dream as well as look back and chart what has become of it over the years, we can only wait and see how current and future generations will come to define it. Will it continue to look like the American Promise that Obama described last Tuesday? Or will Gen Y and the Post Millennial Generation take the American Dream in a different direction? Only time will tell but given the way that Gen Y is already dramatically reshaping the reality of American life I would guess that in another five years we will hear a markedly different version of the American Dream being described during the 2017 State of the Union.
For more information on the State of the Union Address, click here.
Every Chinese New Year, Petronas (Petroliam Nasional Berhad), the Malaysian state owned petroleum and gas company, puts out an advertisement (TVC) for the celebration of Chinese New Year given the diversity found inside the nation. It is always a touching message about culture and family that is sure to provoke self-reflection of what one really values in life.
I was most moved, however, by the 2011 Petronas Chinese New Year ad as it struck me as not only a message about the importance of culture and family in Asia, but also shed light on how the prosperity of the Asian nations has led to a noticeable gap in the way the younger generations rank their priorities in life.
In the advertisement, all of the young adults are so busy working that to take time out of their day to spend more time with a loved one seems like a burden. While the same Generational labels (Generation X and Generation Y) have been shown to be pan-global, the corresponding characteristics are slightly different in Asia as compared to the United States. It is noticeable through the advertisement how the younger generations in Asia value modern comforts and money more than their elders, who value a slower lifestyle and quality face to face time with their children. In the United States we are witnessing the younger generations, particularly Gen Y, moving away from monetary compensation as their first priority in favor of a healthier work-life balance.
As the year of the dragon is ushered in promising to bring an entire year of good luck and fortune, these ads remind us that all of this would mean nothing with family.
Happy Chinese New Year, 恭喜發財!
If you are interested, here is a link to the 2012 videos, which are part of a 6 video series on Petronas’ Official YouTube account.
By Melanie Shreffler
www.Business2Community.com
January 10, 2012
Gen X workers introduced the mantra of work-life balance. They wanted their employers to give them flexibility in their job so they could still devote time to their families and personal wellbeing. Millennials have morphed that idea into work-life blending. Instead of switching between professional mode to personal mode like Gen Xers, Millennials are always in both.
At work, Millennials want to have the freedom to access social networks, take personal calls, chat with friends via IM, use their own tech devices, etc. Outside the office, they’ll take work calls at home, check their work email as often as their personal email (even during off hours), and view coworkers as friends.
This new view of the workplace is reflected in the findings of a new study from Millennial Branding and Identified.com. The survey, which examined the profiles of 4 million (90% American) Millennials’ Facebook pages, found that, on average, Millennials are connected to 16 coworkers on Facebook. “The day is over and they’re still connected to work,” says Dan Schawbel, Founder of Millennial Branding. “They’re negotiating a new employee contract” to incorporate work-life blending.
It could be this demanding attitude that has other generations labeling Millennials as entitled, but they have some leverage to get what they want. They’ll represent three-quarters of the workforce by 2025.
To read more of this article click HERE
Jan
In his article, Five Keys to Managing Generation Y, Mike Knapp outlines five helpful reference points to managing Generation Y:
1. Set clear expectations – For many, the line between work and social environments blurs easily so it is important to set expectations from everything from basics like dress code and communications styles, to professional items like timing and follow-ups.
2. Show the big picture, but make tasks bite size – Gen Y wants to feel like they are contributing to something bigger and by introducing them to big concepts, they will be able to think beyond their next task. In order to keep Gen Y focused, break down tasks into small pieces.
3. Celebrate accomplishments – By recognizing Gen Yers’ success (no matter how small) will increase their engagement. Reinsure your support by frequently checking in with them.
4. Understand their values - Gen Y values flexibility; engaging them in cool projects and understanding what is important to them will help you retain and engage them.
5. Keep Gen Y connected and communicating – Gen Y has grown up with constantly evolving technology and in a way depends on it. Forward-thinking companies will allow them to engage with communication tools like facebook and twitter to connect with their businesses.
Check out the whole article here: http://www.growthpointgroup.com/articles/five-keys-to-managing-generation-y/#more-219
Jan
Over the last few years, the influx of new workers from Generation Y has caused the topic of “managing Gen Y” to become a growing concern for managers and employers all over the world. If you have struggled to see eye to eye with someone from this generation (approximately born between 1977-2000) in the work place, then you know what we are talking about when we say that Gen Y is pushing the envelope in so many ways when entering the workforce that many employers are scrambling to keep up.
Differences in work styles between Gen Y and other generations result from many factors. One of these factors is the comfort that Gen Y has with technological advances. In general, Gen Y has embraced such changes that allow them to do more in less time and giving them a leg up on older generations. In order to make the transition into the workplace more successful for Gen Y, companies need to understand their drive for success and their ability to multitask, which can be a difficult process for managers from different generations. The key is to develop specific strategies to manage Gen Y within the workforce and transform them into valuable assets for your company.
Dec
Great website:
Great article
http://under30ceo.com/10-things-gen-y-wont-pay-for/
Great article about how to market to Gen Y:
http://www.nbnnews.com/NBN/issues/2009-11-16/Downturn/index.html