Trends & Issues
Generation 'Why'?
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“Young people in the workplace today are...”
This sentence can be completed in any number of ways. There are many articles and books that try to define and explain the characteristics of each particular generation: the Baby Boomers, Generation X and now Generation Y. This literature suggests that those of us in the generation commonly described as Gen Y (or Millenials, or the Echo Boom) have a catch all description, and that those that fall in the category of Gen X or Baby Boomers also have separate and distinct defining characteristics.
However, every discussion I have had on the topic of generational cohorts has raised the following two points: Does generation really matter, or is life stage more important in determining employee preferences? After considering this, people usually come to the conclusion that attracting, recruiting and retaining youth talent is really about good management. Discussions reveal that what Gen Y employees are looking for in the workplace often echoes what workers in other generations also find desirable.
According to most definitions, based on my age I am on the border of Gen X and Y. However, shared formative experiences and values shape the supposed attributes of each generation. As a result, the concept of what defines a generation does not readily translate across countries or cultures. When my parents immigrated to Canada they brought with them a different set of experiences and values than their North American counterparts. Through intergenerational interaction, I learned about the way my parents perceived Canadian values versus their traditional values. In my household, as a young person, whenever I opposed an opinion by someone in an elder generation this was often pointed out as being an expression of my ‘Canadian’ values.
I have since realized that my parents’ values reflect a less straightforward approach to conflict; dissent is disguised in subtle ways in order to maintain appearances of the status quo. There was also a lot of emphasis on respecting the experiences of our elders, often requiring patience, which appears to be lacking in the individualistic tendencies attributed to Gen Y. My family’s imported values and frequent inter-generational interactions were additional experiences that shaped my formative years. This may explain why my own interest in the generations is centred on multi-generation interaction.
With many first and second-generation Canadian families calling Canada home, I suspect that there are many others who also defy the standard definitions of the generational cohorts. Attracting and nurturing young talent to our organizations and to the non-profit sector as a whole is complex work and I highly recommend maintaining a healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to the neatly packaged definitions of what make us, the younger generation, tick. I do recommend that organizations invest in creating workplaces that are receptive to listening to employees and adaptive to the changing needs of both the organization and its workforce.
My perceptions of the non-profit sector have been shaped by my experience working and volunteering in this sector for more than ten years. I felt the need to deepen my perspective and legitimize the experiences I had accumulated by obtaining formal education in the field of non-profit studies. Prior to beginning the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Management Certificate program at Ryerson I had some university education, progressive work experience (both paid and volunteer) and served on a board with a community-based organization. Despite this background, I felt that others viewed my decision to pursue a career in the non-profit sector as less worthy than a career in the private or public sectors. Usually, when I told someone that I was working for a non-profit organization they would ask me if I got paid at all! The very fact that a university was offering specialized training in non-profit management immediately felt like a step in the right direction. I welcomed the opportunity to look at the sector through a different lens. Since completing the program, I have an expanded set of tools on how to approach the complexities that arise in non-profit organizations.
My studies made me realize that most people don’t find sustainable careers in the non-profit sector. My Ryerson instructors were a good example of this, as they worked as consultants to non-profit organizations or left the non-profit sector for better jobs or better wages while staying involved through their volunteerism. This trend poses its own set of challenges for recruitment and retention of employees in the sector. It also reinforces for me that an analysis of generational characteristics will not suffice to address HR issues in the sector as a whole. It tells me that non-profits need to understand recruitment of young people as part of the continuum of HR issues that broadly affect the sector. For example, workers tend to earn less in the non-profit sector not just because wage scales are lower; employees sacrifice the fair value of their work in support of their passion for the cause. HR management practices must address these issues in order to build the sector’s success in attracting and retaining workers.
As encouraging as it is that organizations are paying so much attention to considering the needs of my Gen Y peers, I think we would all be doing ourselves a disservice to overlook the depth and breadth of knowledge that come from our predecessors. In discussions on workforce and recruitment issues pertaining to Gen Y, I always think it is important to welcome perspectives from the generations that precede us. Earlier this year I participated in a workshop on retaining youth talent and I was heartened to have some ‘mature’ workers join the conversation. Organizations can only stand to gain if we better respect, understand and utilize the knowledge and experiences of mature workers in the sector and if this knowledge is passed on to the next generation of leaders. The more that the question arises of whether generational differences really matter, the more I believe that we should look at the knowledge base that our sector already contains – our established and outgoing workforce.
We need to commit to reflection and dialogue – not an easy task. We need to unpack some of our perceptions about the non-profit, private and public sectors, as well as what the generational cohorts mean to us. I have heard workers of all ages in all sectors say that they seek meaningful work, challenges and learning opportunities. It is important to recognize that we are recruiting from a wide talent pool, the same one from which the private and public sectors recruit. That being said, I am sure that more can be done to raise the profile of the non-profit sector as desirable place of employment. We need to identify and promote what makes non-profit workplaces attractive and also must be prepared to offer adequate compensation for the work. Some organizations may find this challenging given the long held notion that passion for the work trumps fair compensation.
Before the focus of organizations shifts too far towards how to best recruit and retain youth talent to the sector, perhaps the question needs to be asked how to best recruit and retain new talent to the sector. To answer this, I firmly believe that a coordinated and ongoing dialogue needs to take place with representatives from all generations and all sectors at the table. After all, new talent is not just about young talent, it is also about people returning to the sector, or those of all ages joining it for the first time. By focusing too much on any single cohort of workers we run the risk of creating bureaucratic, time-limited solutions rather than developing and adapting effective human resource management practices with which to respond to the ever-changing landscape in which our organizations operate.
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