On Demand: Meeting the Requirements of Gen Y Employees in the EMEA Region
In the European region in recent years, there has been much ado about the need to adapt human resources policy to accommodate the changing demands of the younger generation of employees in order to encourage ambition, ongoing development, and the retention of knowledge within the organisation. Experienced heads have argued that nothing has changed in actuality, and that HR’s prime driver has always been to recognise which categories of employees need to be attracted to the organisation and how best to motivate and retain them. Primacy spoke to a range of clients based in the EMEA region to ask for their own experience of recruiting and retaining Generation Y employees over the last few years.
First, we asked how HR specialists would define the characteristics of the younger generation of employees. A cross-section of Primacy clients noted the following key differentiations:
- Independent mindset and broader global view
- Less appreciation of hierarchy or respect for authority
- Increased desire for work/life balance and readiness to demand it
- Higher levels of education
- Creativity and confidence in self-expression
One common feature noted by a broad range of HR specialists was the demanding nature of the younger, recent graduate population.
“I am sure we all wanted to work from home at some point,” said the graduate recruitment advisor of a large pharmaceutical company. “But a few years ago, no one would have dared ask for a 50/50 split between the office and home, even before the job offer had been confirmed.”
Working from home was one of the most frequently experienced demands heard by HR specialists, but other benefits were commonly requested and often provided, including:
- Comprehensive coverage of relocation expenses upon joining the employing company, including paid trips home, up to twice a year
- Guaranteed bonus payments, in addition to performance-based incentives
- Four to five weeks of holiday from year one of employment
- Benefits such as medical insurance from the first year
- Subsidised transport
However, the demands of Generation Y from their employers have not been limited to financial or fringe benefits. They also expect to be challenged with fresh ideas, roles, and projects on a regular and frequent basis – quite a challenge in itself for the mature and traditionally structured business.
How did employers ensure that their recent graduate recruits remained excited and motivated by their roles? The responses were not uniformly positive.
“There is a limit to what any employer can do to keep a young employee interested, especially when they are so information-savvy and aware of the other job opportunities on the market,” said one HR professional. “It is easy for them to be lured away by seemingly more exciting offers.”
“At the end of the day, we assume that we will lose up to 25 percent of our annual intake within two years.”
Others were more positive. “It is part of our culture as an organisation to expect our people to find the solutions to their own problems,” said one employer.
“If they request new challenges, we challenge them to create new opportunities in their existing role, and then support them in their new endeavour.”
Perhaps most interesting in our review of client approaches to developing their Generation Y workforce were recent shifts in attitude, driven by the new economic climate and its effects on the recruitment market overall. There appeared to be a feeling in some quarters that the confident and exacting nature of the younger generation of employees was the product of an unprecedented period of economic growth and wealth. As this period draws to a close, the ability of employees to state their own terms of employment would fade away. The credit crunch and incipient recession in the United States have yet to impact most major European businesses, but no one doubts that it will happen in the very near future.
Generation Y employees have been characterised as demanding a work environment that allows their self-expression and personal needs to be respected.
“These are the concerns one might expect of the wealthiest generation the world has ever seen,” said a senior HR professional at a major investment bank.
“With the much predicted slowdown now a reality, and layoffs very much on the agenda again, such niceties as offering work-life balance may become irrelevant very soon.”
Ultimately, organisations will always compete to attract and retain the best of the latest crop of graduate talent, however buoyant the economy at the moment. It is safe to say that the desires and motivations of Generation Y have spread beyond their own age group to have an impact on the working culture as a whole. The day of the employee-defined work environment may be drawing to a close in the face of overarching financial necessity. However, it is true to say that effective companies will continue to develop strategies that will reassure the new employee that their abilities will be given room to grow and that material investment will be made by the employer in that growth.
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