CEOs talk

‘How Can I Motivate My Gen Y Employees?’

“How can I motivate my Generation Y employees?”
If you’re a CEO over 40, this question has probably perplexed you in recent years. You are seeing new, young and clearly talented employees integrating into your companies. Yet, they’re different than any other generations of employees you ever had to deal with.
Between 16 and 31 years old, “Generation Yers” (or Millennials) are typically described in the hundreds of workshops my company has conducted over the years as unengaged and entitled, while technological savviness seems to be the sole positive.
Below are a few concrete steps you can take to reap the benefits of a younger force:
Review Process
According to the Labor Department, the average Millennial has a two-year tenure with his or her current employer — meaning, these are employees that aren’t likely to stay with you for an extended period of time.
Therefore, using a yearly review process with a hypothetical raise 12 to 14 months after the date of hire makes more sense to a boomer, whose average tenure is around nine years, than it does to a member of Generation Y.
And let’s face it, business cycles are faster today than they ever were before, so a quarterly process will be more attuned to the current needs of your company than a yearly one.
SurveyMonkey has a built-in 360 tool (http://blog.surveymonkey.com/2011/01/360-employee-feedback-survey-example/) that, for a few dollars a month, will do the leg work of a cumbersome paper-based review, while providing you with valuable information on your employees, and yourself too.
Instant Rewards
Do not hesitate to carry a few $20 Starbucks gift certificates and reward them on the spot for a job well done. This will appeal to the instant gratification Millennials are used to.
Office Environment
Open-floor plan, low-walled cubicles, plenty of meeting rooms both formal and informal (cafeteria or employee lounge) — that’s how to get the most energy flowing into your company.
Without remodeling your office, you can still break the monotony of office life by having “Dress-up Mondays” to encourage employees to come with their most formal attires, or “No internal e-mail Fridays” to encourage employees to talk to each others, either directly or via phones.
Technology
Your average Generation Y employee is using e-mail with close to unlimited storage, and has constant access to all of her or his pictures and personal files via mobile phones and tablets. They don’t expect less from your company. It goes beyond looking uncool or dated. It’s about harnessing that social collaboration and transform it into productive, work related collaboration beneficial to your business.
Cloud computing will allow your business to deliver such collaborative tools without the up-front capital costs and probably lesser monthly expenses than you can manage on your own.