This post is on the back of a conversation I have had with a number of companies, over the last couple of weeks. It is one that I didn't think I would have been having nine months ago.
So what am I referring to? Generation Y'ers
Nine months ago they were going to be the salvation of the global workforce, weren't they? Do you remember all the interest generation Y created?
Companies were looking to change their long standing recruitment policies, workforce management strategies and career management paths etc.....just to satisfy the gen Y'ers, and make themselves more appealing to them. They were trying to compensate everything (or so it seemed) just to position themselves to attract the gen Y'ers to their companies.
Quite simply, if you were a gen Y'er (good or bad in many cases), you would likely have been in a position of not only having the choice of three or four jobs, you would also have been in a position to dictate your terms at interview as well!
Things were really looking good, expectations were high, and quite literally, they were really top of the tree. So everything they had been told by their teachers and their parents - they could be anything they want - really looked like coming true.
....and the world of the gen Y'er fell off the cliff!!
Now, nine months later, they are not even on the pile, they are firmly entrenched underneath it!!
With the worldwide recession hitting so many countries so badly, the demand for the gen Y'ers hasn't just slowed down, it has pretty much disappeared. No choice of jobs, no high salaries and certainly no dictating contract terms!!
It is a very simple equation for many companies when they are hiring - and yes there are still companies still recruiting - do they go for someone with genuine experience, recently laid off, or do they go for a gen Y'er with little or no experience? The problem is that the people made redundant, are now accepting lower salaries than they would normally have done just to secure work, making them even more appealing to employers!!
I just can't blame the companies for talking that route, especially as these individuals will require less training and won't come with all the perceived gen Y baggage.
So is that it for the gen Y'ers for the foreseeable future? Are they really destined to finish their career before they have even started? Will the employment world be better or worse off for this happening?
The bottom line is that we must not either give up or ignore the young gen Y'ers. For me this is a very dangerous time in their career development, and one that might have long term implications for businesses globally.
Gen Y'ers have grown up never being wrong, always seemingly achieving (getting certificates for turning up, awards for just participating etc) and more importantly never knowing failure. They have been brought up in society to believe they will always succeed. And this is the real nub of the problem - they are now in an environment where failure is all around them. They are suffering rejection after rejection in their job hunting. The problem is they are just not 'wired up' to deal with failure, and have no knowledge of how to deal with so much rejection.
I would also say that the gen Y'ers have less social skills that than their competing job seekers, and therefore can't portray themselves so well at interviews - not because they are not any good, but just because they don't have the social and work skills to do so.
So what do gen Y'ers AND society need to do to help them?
Firstly we need to remember back nine months. They haven't changed - they are still as good as we thought they were then, they still have the same potential and the same creative mindsets. They know the new web 2.0 world and they know how to interact within the world of social media.
Yes they might have a few shortfalls in certain areas, but with some help, coaching and mentoring they could well really raise the calibre bar for the future in many companies.
The Government has the answer (!!) - stick them all in apprenticeship schemes and they will help pay for it. Yes it will help some, but it won't help the majority. I am not sure there is a defined answer just yet, but I do know that we must not let this talented generation drift off the map and become a lost generation.
