“COMMUNICATING WITH GENERATION Y IN WORKPLACE”
my essay yg selesai SKS. :D
“COMMUNICATING WITH GENERATION Y IN WORKPLACE”
1. BACKGROUND
“It’s so hard talking to a child, mba,”
one of staff in our team once told me while I checked her how was the progress
with the employee event. I assigned her to organize an employee event and purposely
asked her to collaborate and engaged with other colleagues especially the new
comers, the fresh graduates. She disliked the fact that the new comers who
mostly in their early twenties (while she was in her late twenties) were negative,
offensive, and having so much complaints about the organization but less
action. But surprisingly, she added, they produced extremely new, fresh and creative
ideas that would stand out if we put into execution.
I remember back then when I was looking for an intern to help our communication
team. The Recruitment department offered me candidates, students from prestigious
universities in Jakarta with Communication major. I went through several
interviews with the students. And it was the first time I began to take
interest with this new generation after knowing that they have different ways
to communicate and completely different in thoughts. You can find the differences
start from the look of their resume to the interview moment.
Completely different than me who is grouped into Generation X, these
Generation Y do not afraid to lose or if I may say, they do not care if they
have to lose if it is not their liking. Even though the consequences they will lose
the opportunity. We believe in the phrase: Opportunity doesn’t knock twice.
Well, they don’t.
There I had two resume in my hand. Both are coming from the same
universities, same major but different grade. I decided to accept a boy whose
resume met my criteria and shown good attitude during interview. I offered him
the opportunity as intern. He accepted and mentioned me the join date. We both
agreed then I prepared any logistics that would be needed such as computer,
access, etc. Closer to his joining date, we called him to ensure him he would
show up on time. He didn’t answer the phone, not reply email as well for days.
That was unacceptable and unlikely. A student refused an offer from a big
multinational company.
I then moved on the next candidate. She showed good attitude but since
I had been experienced with her friends previously, I intentionally told her my
disappointment. She apologized on behalf of her friend and told me that not
every students the same. She wanted to be an intern in my team. Then I accepted
her. She joined with our team and performed very well. She lasted for 4 (four)
months in our communication team. Does my story end here? No. My boss
told me I can get additional head count as an officer not only intern. She
noticed that and without doubt, asking me whether I might consider her to be in
the position. I told her all the circumstances, such as it would be different
being a formal employee than as an intern, the responsibility, the pace of
every assignment, and so on. She was fully aware and yet still willing to
accept the job. Then, I began my training with her. I treated her not as an
intern but to prepare her as an employee of communication department. And surprisingly,
not long after she began on-the-job training with me, she told me that her
campus did not allow students working full time in a company before graduate.
Her revised decision uttered few days after she made mistake and got scolded
from me and my boss.
The second refusal did not surprise me. I began to seek more information and get
connected with studies, essays, and books on how to deal with these millennial
workers. I don’t have much experience yet with this generation other than what
I have been experiencing the last years in my current company but this essay hopefully
would help us as communicators while we are doing our internal communication
function to assist management in creating a conducive workplace, engaged employee
thus reduce employees turn-over.
2.
DEFINING THE
GENERATIONS[1]
The term of these generations originally comes from researchers in
America who classified today’s workers into four types of generations; Veteran,
Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. Researchers have identified a set
of specific, yet broadly based characteristics for which they use to describe
and separate the groups from one another. Does this term can be applied in
Indonesia? Yes, it does. Each generation both in America and Indonesia facing
almost similar and can be described alike. And thanks to the internet; culture
invasion, diffusion of styles, and trends happen in a blink of an eye. I can say there almost no difference between
the generation Y in Indonesia and the other countries due to the rapid
information transfer across the globe. I
quoted below definitions from other sources and make adaptation according to
Indonesia.
Veterans (born 1945 and
earlier) have experienced a life that has been marked by social and economic difficulty
and upheaval. The Great Depression, two world wars, invasion from two super powers
country, Netherlands and Japan, and the changing of two government era. This
generation knows hardship and as such has built a life centered on being
frugal, demonstrating loyalty to their employers and possessing a desire to
keep working well into retirement. Conformity to the organization and society
as a whole and not individualism was seen as being a virtue. Higher education
levels among the Veterans cohort is generally limited. Retirements among
Veterans were often the result of extenuating circumstances such as health
reasons and not for personal enjoyment.
Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964)
are the largest generation by sheer numbers. The Baby Boomers avoided the World
Wars and the hardships of the Great Depression, however, were instilled with
the lessons and memories of those events from their parents about their
experiences. Unpopular impeachment during two powerful government eras,
abduction of activists, the subservience of state employees to the ruling
authority caused deep wound. Nevertheless, this generation experienced great
prosperity and affluence. Loyalty to one's employer was a central theme and a
pattern of workaholics emerged as the Baby Boomers sought to get ahead and keep
up with the neighbors. Retirement was seen as a right for that loyalty;
however, socio-economic factors have begun to cast a shadow of doubt on the
possibility of retirement and many Baby Boomers are delaying and questioning
that decision. Higher education levels among Baby Boomers began to flourish.
Generation X (born 1965-1980)
began to question the idea of employer loyalty, having witnessed the rampant
outsourcing of jobs, corporate downsizing, corporations going bankrupt and the
loss of jobs during turbulence in the chaos in year 1998 and forth. These
generation experience prosperity shorter than the Baby boomers. During year of
1998 when citizens dethrone the ruling power, break down of the riches,
citizens disintegration; cynicism to one ethnic, chaos; this generation
experience these painful memories in their youth. The return of personal hardships as a result
of economic difficulties and collective tragedies, Generation X began to accept
the idea that loyalty was a commodity best reserved for one's self and family.
Willing to change jobs often and viewing the world with skepticism, Generation
X has learned to rely on themselves. Often raised as "latch key children,"
parenting skills within this generation have been described as being
overprotective. Higher education was an expected passage that the generation
was instilled with. Many within Generation X are facing skepticism with the
idea of retiring due to personal high-debt burdens and low savings records.
Generation Y (born 1980-2000),
described by some researchers with the use of the negative connotation "generation
me" group; these individuals are generally described with negative
connotations such as being self-centered and unmotivated. However, this group
has emerged as the most educated, technology savvy generation ever. To this
generation, work is seen as an elective activity to further one's personal
goals rather than a necessity. This generation has been instilled with an
attitude of equality, teamwork and collective success. Opposing the status quo
of the traditional business hierarchy has inspired Generation Y belief that
traditional role acceptance may not suit them as it did their elders.
3.
GENERATION Y IN WORKPLACE
The literatures and articles commonly
agreed with distinctive characteristics in Generation Y. This group described
as being highly educated, internet savvy and being inspired to volunteer with
those social causes that its individual members can relate to. However, this
generation has also been described as having a lack of respect for authority,
self-centered, a sense of entitlement, demanding, selfish and job hoppers with
little loyalty to their employers. Like it or not, the fact is that numbers of
this generation has evolved and ready or not, now entering our workplace with a
complete package of nature as Generation Y.
Some said that Generation Y entering the
workforce at difficult time. Companies or state governments still loaded with
Veteran and Baby boomers who pleaded with loyalty and believe of obedience
leads to growth. The hierarchy structure adds the obscurity. Moreover, compounding the difficulty for
Generation Y finding long term, full time employment, the previous generations,
who are also effected by the current economic conditions, are not leaving the
workplace. These factor contribute in the the number of unemployment rate for
this Generation Y.
Another difficulty Generation Y has to face
is that the probability that they are alone is high. Meaning, in the workplace
that still employed Generation X and also a minor of baby boomers, they are
alone. Generation X and Baby boomers have slight similarity in how they value
the work and life. These two generations resist internal changes from the
status quo; especially from those employees who are just arriving. For those
Generation Y members who have high expectations of the work environment being
similar to their academic or there life experiences with their extracurricular
activities, this could result in a "culture shock". This
"culture shock" creates an environment from within the organization
which can result in organizational conflict, high turnover rates, mistrust and
lower productivity among the younger workforce. How we can prevent this turmoil
to happen?
4.
THE
ART OF COMMUNICATING WITH GENERATION Y
As the
globalization of work and workers continues and teams become more and more
diverse, becoming acutely aware of the cultural, experiential, skill-set and communication
differences between generational groups is critical in order to connect with
not only colleagues but also clients, customers, and other stakeholders. I would say it has never been
easy communicating with the next generation. And communicating with the next generation Y
is essential.
A survey conducted in Asia Pacific by Kelly
Services (2009)[2]
shows that more than 70%
of employees across Asia Pacific are making a conscious effort to adapt their
communication styles to colleagues from a different generation.
Generation
Y is technologically sophisticated multi-taskers, capable of significant
contributions to tomorrow’s organizations, yet deficient in communication
skills. It includes their way to mixed English and bahasa language, ignoring the
grammar and bluntly using their own language (alay words) as their official texting style. Unconsciously, it
leads to disruption of good practices in using bahasa Indonesia. And it becomes
one of factors they are not good in words, in writing but best in using colors,
graphics, pictures, and other visual aids other than words or sentences. It’s aching both in eyes and heart when I read
H4! uD4H l4mA nDa KtMu, p4 Kb4R nA! to ask how are you (hi, apa kabarnya?).
The use of Alay language in daily conversation almost destroy the
originality and the essence of Bahasa Indonesia.
Liz Male, a
PR consulting in United Kingdom, stated that in UK, English grammar has not
been taught well in schools. So, she asked us not to be surprised if Gen Y in workplace
need help to improve their writing skills, and to learn the need for
professionalism in even casual communications[3].
The similarity of Generation Y across countries
is no difference. They need a leader to teach them the correct use of a
language. They need you.
5.
THE
RIGHT COMMUNICATIONS TOOLS?
5.1
Face-to-face communications
Kelly
Survey (2009) shows face-to-face communication is the most preferred method of
communication across all three age groups in Asia Pacific, despite the
availability of instant messaging and email platforms.
Although
the survey doesn’t represent the whole population, it shows that communicators
should be able to utilize the similarity of these three groups. In Singapore, Kelly found that while three in four people in Singapore will adapt their communication styles
to colleagues from a different generation, it is the Generation X (aged 30-47) and Baby Boomers (aged 48-65) whom
are more willing to do so than the Generation Y (aged 19-29) counterparts.
These phenomena studied by human resources the last few years and resulted in a
recommendation commonly persuaded the previous generation to take more patience
and understanding in dealing with the next generation. Best to recommend the managers to get out,
walk, be visible and connected face-to-face with staff. Accessibility, personal
connection with staff and willingness to chat seriously but informally on a
wide range of business issues are important3.
5.2 Social
Media
Social
media is an unavoidable thing in this life nowadays. Often it is a dilemma for
communicators to allow the utilization of social media in the work place. It
can be positive but able to destroy reputation if corporation doesn’t uphold
the regulation such as SOP of social media.
Many
big companies nowadays inserted digital media management (for internal) in
their annual budget. This is an internal websites and social media that would
connect each colleague across functions and regions. In my current company, Headquarter
office launch intranet with SharePoint as its communication platform and
utilize Yammer as official social media tools. With the intranet, forums are
open for global employees, timelines updated with employees comment on recent
topics raised by other employees across functions and market. In yammer,
although not as popular as Facebook, some employees use it to networking with
other colleagues for any kinds and purposes. The organization also manages Facebook
and twitter for external use. To control the abusive use of social media,
company has set and enforced social media SOP that applied not only for
colleagues in their activities with social media, but also for the contractors
who engaged with the company. Colleagues
and contractors must follow the rules set forth in this SOP to avoid creating
undue risk for the company and themselves when engaging in covered social media
activities. Violation of the regulations may be subject to employee
disciplinary actions.
5.3 Other Communication Tools
Focus Groups, employee outing, town
hall, Cozy Friday, are few examples of Internal Communications program owned by
organization that facilitate interactions between management and employees and
between colleagues. When corporation deliver messages that employee should
know, researchers suggest using this events method. A clear, straight talk, to
the point conversation; a typical that gen Y prefer to acquire from their
management. Gen Y appreciates much if
the corporation involves them in collaborative events and let them expresses
their ideas. They dislike rituals and without hesitation will act based on what
they perceived. Therefore, communicate
your corporate vision, mission, and values clearly from the start. Begin with
storytelling, pictures, videos and other visual aids then put it into words.
Another thing, Gen Y loves to be involved in corporate social actions, employee
voluntary, as do things like community involvement.
We are now in the Information Age era, where digital technologies
allow accelerated changes and vast increases in the rapidity of information
growth. The rituals, old way tools are less attractive for them. So, if our
internal communications systems are all based on a staff newsletter and monthly
team meeting to cascade information, expect they will look for other ways to
shortcut the system so they can get the news much quicker. It would be
disadvantageous if they get it from unreliable sources!
6.
CONCLUSION
Communicating with Gen Y is not that scary.
But I would say that it will not be easy.
Researchers, practitioners point out that the previous generation should
be the one who willingly adapt with the next generation. Similarly, if you want
to be understood and get your message across you need to adapt your
communication style to the preferred method of the listener. And as a communicator in our roles, make sure
that all communication tools we use are applicable and allow multi generations
interaction appropriately. In my experience, as a Gen X who still abides with
the Boomers but has to deal with Gen Y in daily interactions, my position has
never been easy. Try to engage and collaborate with human resource functions in
your company so corporate messages that
us in Corporate Communications deliver is no different than with the managers
deliver to the staff.
Internal Communications with the next
generations’ era and beyond will be exciting, worth to learn, and in the
future, there will be no right communication style!
[1]
Wynn, Eric (2012) Generation Y Within the Workforce: The Potential Conflicts of
This Cohort and Its Impact on Organizations. Retrieved from
http://voices.yahoo.com/generation-y-within-workforce-potential-conflicts-11931145.html?cat=3
[2]
Kelly Global Workforce Index (2009); Retrieved
from http://easypr.marketwire.com/easyir/msc2.do?easyirid=95BBA2C450798961
[3]
Male, Liz (2009) Communicating with Generation Y. Retrieved from http://www.lizmale.co.uk/blog/post/Communicating-with-Generation-Y.aspx
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