3 Tips For Retaining & Motivating Gen Yer’s

Want Gen Y To Work With You Not Just For You?

Does your business embrace a bottom up, top down and meet in the middle approach?
Is your company set in the old ways where decisions, ideas and rules are driven from the top down? Or is it normal for an idea to find legs at the bottom of your organisation? As a manager of Generation Y, is it time you took the foot off the brake to reset, adapt and create the professional future you really want for yourself and your team. Maree Harris, a soft leadership skills specialist recommends that “Managers need to be spending one-on-one time with their team members if they want them to work WITH them, not just FOR them”. Do you give your staff one on one time and what do you do to meet them in the middle?

1. One-on-One Time
Maree thinks “CEOs who spend time with their executive team one on one will then in turn take the CEO’s inspiration down to their teams”. “Only through that kind of relationship can you align your team members’ goals with those of the organisation to achieve the outcomes you both want” states Maree. Consequently managers who prioritise one on one time with their Generation Y staff enable an opportunity to source qualitative data. This data can include finding out the learning styles of their staff so that tailored motivational strategies can be implemented.

2. Create Diversity
Many Gen Yer’s want diversity so where possible ensure your company model facilitates this. Meet Gen Y in the middle and create a structure where staff can rotate into different divisions to give them diversity. Give ownership by GenY staff being able to pick their rotation preferences.

3. Projects to Stretch
CEO’s and Senior Managers should meet Gen Y in the middle and be transparent with what the company problems are. Embrace the intrapreneurial mindset of Gen Yers for problem solving and don’t be intimidated when solutions are suggested. Delegate these problems as new projects to Gen Y and if/when these are resolved, give public credit where due. Be sure these projects stretch them enough to be outside of their comfort zone but not too much that its unachievable and not a match for their skills and knowledge set.

Here are 3 Tips for Retaining & Motivating Gen Yer’s

1. CEO’s and Senior Managers should make time to spend some one-on-one time with their Gen Yer’s to find out what motivates them.
2. Middle Managers should create a rotation system in the organisation to retain Gen Yer’s who crave diversity.
3. Allocate projects to Gen Yer’s that stretch them outside of their comfort zone but not by too much that it’s unachievable.

Follow this link to where Martina Mangelsdorf, founder of GAIA insights, finds out whether Gen Y is destined to succeed as intrapreneurs or not, and what will be the deciding factor.