Social media, #hashtags, sharing, face-time, tweeting, gaming, ‘LinkingIn’ – it’s all terminology that we are rapidly incorporating into our everyday language, as we learn new ways of communicating and sharing. Article by Lucy Beaumont is Solutions Director at Talent Q.
Unsurprisingly, this comes more naturally to ‘Gen Y’ employees who have largely grown up into this world and in many cases are influencing its development too. So, perhaps this language barrier is the first place we should look when understanding whether Gen Ys are really that different in terms of motivation, training and development, or whether there is a large misconception here due to a ‘lost in translation’ occurrence.
Gen Y seems to be this year’s HR ‘hot topic’ and also arguably this year’s biggest misconception. Are Gen Y really that different? It seems bizarre to cluster a whole age group under one homogenous banner, label them as ‘Gen Ys’ and then look for ways to motivate, train and develop them. It’s fair to say that people within this age group have grown up with different social and economic influences. However, we are talking about a diverse group of employees who, in reality, are going to have a diverse range of training and development requirements – just as Gen X have before them and as Gen Z will after them.
Do fundamental generational differences exist in motivation, training and development? Many articles depict Gen Ys as being motivated by autonomy, learning and money, over and above previous generations. Deloitte recently stated that this generation were often described as ‘overly ambitious dreamers, who don’t want to pay their dues and are only concerned about higher pay and more time off’1 however there is very little evidence to support this. Research conducted by the Centre for Creative Leadership shows that many of the characteristics often attributed to Gen Y may in fact be attributes of age or life stages2 and their research has dispelled many of the myths associated with this generation. This is further supported by our own empirical data, which shows that individuals in both age groups have similarly broad motivations, which appear to be person specific, not age specific.
Similarly, Simon Lloyd, People and Talent Director at Santander, recently echoed this sentiment within a training context. He commented that people across all areas of the business showed similar learning styles, and that the introduction of a company-wide training programme has revealed that different employee generations do not have learning styles wedded to their age. From this, it’s clear to see that there is little advantage in grouping employees based on age. In some cases it may in fact be detrimental to learning, when individuals are categorised into a learning style that is not suited to their own learning preferences, as it could in fact inhibit performance.
The return on investment of motivation, training and development
If Gen Y are not fundamentally different to other generations, where does this leave motivation, training and development? Should organisations invest in Gen Y? Or should they actually invest in other generations? Or should they even be investing in training, development and motivation at all? It’s often said that organisations simply cannot afford not to train their employees, because of the direct correlation that has been found between employee training and a company’s financial performance. For example an academic paper in the American Society for Training and Development found that firms that invest $1,500 per employee in training, compared with those that spend $125, have an average of 24 per cent higher gross profit margins and 218 per cent higher revenue per employee4.
What’s more, the impact of training and development goes much further than this, due to the influence it has on employee retention and attraction as well as on brand perception as a whole. Procter & Gamble, for instance, have certainly demonstrated the huge benefits that can be reaped by investing in motivating, training and developing employees. Ranking first in the ‘40 Best Companies for Leaders’ list as well as being named as one of ‘The World’s Most Attractive Employers’. P&G is undoubtedly in a great position to win the war for talent. And, by building their bench strength, they will also be well prepared for the future.
As the buzz of ‘Gen Y’, the ‘digital natives’ and ‘Millennials’ continues, HR should avoid being swept along with the common misconceptions about specific generations and instead look to understand the true differences between each generation. Investing in training, development and motivating employees is certainly critical to future success. However, concentrating on a sub-set of employees poses huge risks. As a result, HR must embrace the individualistic nature of the workforce and understand that people have differing training, development and motivational needs and styles, regardless of their generation As stated by Georg Vielmetter & Yvonne Sell, authors of Hay Group’s Leadership 2030 book, ‘individualisation and value pluralism’ is a global phenomenon in society and one that is impacting on career development too, due to the role it plays inthe quest for self-fulfillment and self-expression.
