How to reduce energy at school – world class example

I am involved with a project management company called SEDS – Sustainable Energy Design Solution. The focus of this company is to help organisations of all types to save energy, save money and secure our future. They have a very clever four step model for doing this, involving measuring current usage (and establishing targets which are widely communicated), empowering and educating people (with a view to long term, sustained behaviour change), upgrading facilities (with clear returns on investment), and reporting (both compliance reporting, assessments and audits, as well as PR, communication and triple bottom line reporting to all stakeholders).

SEDS is making a real difference – see their website (although maybe wait a few days, as they’re about to do a significant relaunch of this site).

The point of this post is to highlight one of the schools SEDS is connected to. The headmaster of Ashley Church of England Primary School in Surrey, UK is so passionate about climate change and global warming, that he has made it a focus of the school. Using an innovative product, ecoDriver, he displays the energy usage of the school live in the reception area, and encourages the pupils to reduce their usage. So successful is the scheme that the school has reduced costs of energy by half in the past year. The money saved is ploughed back into the school – and students have a say over how it is spent. This is motivational for them, and they’re fully on board with the scheme.

Even better, the whole issue is integrated into the curriculum. The ecoDriver software allows the energy usage data to be pulled onto electronic whiteboards for use in the classroom teaching, as one example.

Last week, the school was awarded the presitigour Ashden Award for Sustainability, by HRH Prince Charles. Read about it here. If you’re interested, read more about the Ashden Awards in the Guardian’s report.

Well done to Ashley CofE Primary. It shows that we CAN make a difference!

Brrr is kewl in South Africa

Thanks to my friend Bev from SimonSays Communications for this link.

The Sunday Times announced it’s ‘Times Generation Next’ cool brands survey results on 28 May 2009.

5000 tweens, teens and young adults between the ages of 8-22 were polled on their coolest brands, and Coke came out on tops with it’s Brrrr campaign.

Bizcommunity.com covered the results, and one interesting comment relating to the attitude of this segment and the economic downturn according to Jason Levin (MD of HDI Youth Marketeers) was,

“Young South Africans, unshaken by economic downturn, are as brand conscious as ever. Although there were some interesting shifts in the top rankers in some categories, we see growing similarity in votes by region, gender, race and sometimes even age around the coolest brands.”

For the rest of the results read the full article here. Nokia, Samsung, Nike, Puma, Sun City, Edgars, SAA, Mango, D&G, Levis and others all had a mention in achieving top spots or moving down the list from previous years.

Millenials reversing the trend

It’s always difficult convincing an adult audience, that from a Generational perspective, the so-called ‘Millennials’ (Gen Y, Echo Boomers) are going to be more civic minded, more conservative (whilst being more aware), and focus on rebuilding the planet (amongst other things). Mostly because their example of a Millennial is often one of their own kids. And let’s be honest, what parent thinks their own kids are going to be some of those things? Their kids are teenagers, and generally speaking teens are going through a life stage in which pushing the boundaries and experimenting are part and parcel of what they have to do in order to develop into healthy contributing adults.

So it’s with a smile of satisfaction that I point you to some research coming out of Canada (Project Teen Canada headed up by Reginald Bibby, a University of Lethbridge sociologist) that shows that today’s Millennial Generation are reversing some trends that you probably wouldn’t expect them to. Sex, Drugs, Family Values, having children, smoking.

This reversing trend has been captured beautifully in a short video clip entitled ‘Lost Generation‘. If you’ve not seen it, it’s worth a trip to YouTube see get a first hand view.

There are some thoughts about the role parents are playing in the reversing of these trends, but the article is summed up like this:

In the end, the kids will likely follow their own instincts. While they might be taking silent cues from their parents—and might even seek help in times of crisis—they’ve little time for adult authorities who worry about their futures. Jesse Lupini, the 17-year-old from Victoria, summed up the sentiment in a recent guest column for his local paper. “Adults have generated a number of teen stereotypes,” he writes. “Teens are irresponsible, untrustworthy, rude, sexually obsessed, loud, inclined to drink to excess, take drugs, eat badly . . . ” But how about the adults who lie, drive drunk and do drugs, Lupini asks? What about the corporations run by adults that market junk food and sexualized clothing to youth? What about the parents who buy that stuff for their kids? “Frankly,” he concludes, having worked up a rather adult-sounding rant, “it’s a wonder we’re coping as well as we are.”

TomorrowToday has been researching, exploring and communicating Generational Theory through our edutaining presentation ‘Mind the Gap‘ for 7 years now. We’re still as convinced as ever that it’s a framework every organisation needs to include in the multiple frameworks it uses to understand people dynamics and interactions.

Top tips for mentoring the next generation of talent

In tough times, people matter. Ensuring your staff are passionate and focused is a critical leadership task right now. One of the most effective techniques for motivating your younger staff in particular is to provide ongoing development for them, especially providing access to senior leaders and mentoring. Here are some tips to help you make the most of such mentoring relationships.

• • Mentoring takes time. Today’s “I want it now” young people need to understand that it takes the time it takes to do properly. Make sure you do some expectation management right upfront about how often you can meet, what you think is achievable, and what you’d like to offer.
• • Be clear about the purpose and boundaries of your mentor relationship.
• • Today’s young people don’t open up immediately. They need to get to know you, and they need to know they can trust you. Persevere with them and don’t give up too easily if they make it tough for you – they’re actually just checking you’re willing to go the distance with them.
• • Consider digital mentoring as a component of the relationship. Be prepared to answer emails and text messages, and initiate some of this contact yourself. But don’t let them go totally digital – face to face time is vital for good mentoring.
• • Mentor the whole person, not just for the job description. Do some of the mentoring away from the office environment. Spend some of your time focusing on non-work related issues. Show an interest in their hobbies and non-work activities.
• • Try and include some on the job, practical content, ensuring your mentoring is not all theoretical.
• • Don’t forget to “reverse mentor” too. Young people have grown up helping their parents work out how to use the remote controls, and sorting out the household technology. Let them mentor their bosses on technology use in the office.
• • Get them to mentor each other – make sure they have a “buddy”, and not just at their own company. They have to be taught how to network effectively – it doesn’t come naturally to them.
• • Keep mentoring them, even when they leave your company. This sounds a powerful message to the remaining staff that you really care about them as people, not just as workers.
• • Never assume that the mind you’re talking to is closed. Just because young people dress or act differently from you doesn’t mean they’re not taking in what you’ve said.
• • Explain WHY. Don’t just tell them what to do, and how to do it. Tell them why it works. Knowing why makes all the difference for today’s young people.
• • Have fun.
• • Keep at it! Not every attempt to connect with young people will have immediate results.

Can advertising be too effective?

Here is a great marketing case study. Swedish Airport Coaches conducted a study and determined that a bus trip save the equivalent of 50 car trips. They built an outdoor advertising display comprising of a bus built out of 50 disused cars. The advert has been hugely successful. It touches on carbon emissions issue which is topical, but more importantly the display is cleverly put together and became such an entertainment and item of interest, that it resulted in traffic jams! This advert touches at the heart of how to connect with younger generations. Here are some marketing tips for connecting with Gen X and Millennials which this advertising campaign does well:

- entertain them
- create campaigns that make them think
- dont make the message obvious
- use juxtaposition – and make things appear not as they are
- use humour and paradox

You can watch the video here: 50 cars or 1 bus?

PWC “Millennials at work” survey

The “Millennials at Work” research to be published by PricewaterhouseCoopers later this year is based on survey responses from over 4200 graduates in 44 countries (click here to see last year’s survey). The headline results include some interesting insights into how this younger generation thinks about ethics and their company.

Young members of staff especially want ethical employers and training, and will work for less pay if treated well. While 61% of employers worldwide say they have challenges recruiting and keeping young employees, new research shows that the young – far from being the self-centred job-hoppers employers depict them as – are idealists who want ethical employers.

In a key finding, 88% of young staff say they want employers with corporate social responsibility (CSR) values that reflect their own. Additionally, 86% would consider leaving an employer whose CSR values no longer reflected theirs. An employer’s policy on climate change is seen as important or very important by most graduates globally (58%).

Everybody’s singing this song

Candle – earth hour

Great TV ad for Earth Hour. Gets everything right from a Gen X and Gen Y perspective… connects with their values, entertains and keeps them intrigued…(which is important because as adverts go it is long…a 90 seconds ad!) leaves them hanging on to find out more, very good use of music. Well done leo burnett and WWF… getting fab customer reviews on you tube too

click here to view advert

Gary Hamel on Generation Y

Gary Hamel, the best selling author and global guru on innovation, has turned his attentions to the impact that the next generation of young people is having on the workplace. Hamel’s latest book is on the Future of Management, and he believes that the recession is simply adding force to some major changes already underway in the world of work.

This is from his blog on the Wall Street Journal website: Gary Hamel’s Management 2.0: A look at new ways of managing. Read it online here, or below.

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Pupils to study Twitter and blogs in primary schools shake-up

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TomorrowToday does extensive research on the impact of changing societies, institutions and technologies on the new world of work and what is called the connection era.

There are signs that one of the UK’s largest institutions, its schools, are changing and realising the importance of preparing kids for the new world of work and the connection era. A new school curriculum proposes that children will no longer have to study the Victorians or the second world war but will be required to master web tools such as Twitter and Wikipedia.

This is bound to be controversial but one of the problems the current curriculum faces is that the top 10 jobs in demand in 2010 did not exist in 2004. The current challenge for today’s school curriculum is to prepare kids for jobs that don’t even exist today.

you can read The Guardian for the latest report on this issue.

How to get kids to look at great art (and enjoy it)

A good friend of mine recently asked me why a self-professed social liberal reads The Spectator magazine. It’s simple really – as an author, I enjoy reading great writing, and I don’t think there is better use of the English language in popular print than The Spectator. I also don’t believe you should only read things you agree with, and I enjoy – and appreciate – learning from any intelligent, intellectually coherent and passionate person; even if I disagree with their end point!

So, without apology, here is the first of two posts from last week’s Spectator magazine.

This first one relates to the content of my latest book, “Future-Proof Your Child” (get it at Amazon or Kalahari). We have failed our children by not teaching them to use their intuition and emotions – and to enjoy doing so for its own sake.

If you have children, or believe that we need to develop more emotional intelligence in the world, then you’ll enjoy this article. Read it at The Spectator, or below.

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What Gen Y Really Wants – And Why We Should Care

A nice post from some young people who really do know what their peers would like at the workplace. Read the original here. Or an extract below:

While conducting research on the work-life balance outlooks of crème de la crème Gen Y-ers (highly educated young people around the world, what we like to call Gen Y-Fi), we asked forty American college students and young professionals what kind of benefits they were looking for from potential employers. By far the most common response was simply “health insurance.” When we asked a similar cohort of Gen Y Europeans the same question they came up with a whole score of desirable work-live benefits: flexible working hours, in-house child care facilities, freedom to work from home or a different country even, respect for family life…the list went on. Why were responses from America’s college-educated youngsters so uniform and unimaginative, while their European counterparts could shoot off an entire wish-list?

A recent survey of graduating college seniors by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) sheds some light on the matter. The NACE survey reports that out of fifteen possible job attributes, the top three chosen by American students were: opportunity for advancement, job security, and a good insurance package. Assuming young grads would choose attributes stressing flexibility and creativity (especially since work-life balance has become a “mantra for characterizing Generation Y”), researchers were perplexed that Gen Yers were so zealous about job security. The NACE report concludes that Gen Yers are looking for a company that provides steady salary increases along with life-long benefits — think General Motors circa 1950. Unfortunately, that kind of employer no longer exists, as the current economic recession has made abundantly clear.

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Flexibility can offer alternatives to downsizing

Cali Yost, author of Work+Life, and Fast Company blogger, contends that “using strategic work+life flexibility can help organizations avoid at least some layoffs. Reduced schedules, sabbaticals, telecommuting and flexible scheduling are not just isolated, downsizing tactics. They are part of a broad, coordinated growth and cost-cutting business strategy with multiple benefits that include, but are not limited to, creative downsizing.” A study of 100 Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) co-sponsored by her company reveals that CFOs are using strategic flexibility to reduce their workforce without severing ties with employees.

According to Yost, “…nearly one third of CFOs used flexibility as a workforce reduction strategy, allowing them to stay connected to employees through contract project-based work, reduced hours with full-benefits and sabbaticals with full benefits.”

Yost urges employers to consider working flexibly before considering layoffs. She shares an example of a company that found a creative way to deal with dwindling budgets and minimize employee suffering. In 2008, Sigma, a full-service advertising agency in New Jersey, asked its employees to consider part-time hours or monthly sabbaticals as a way to avoid layoffs. “When given the choice, Sigma found employees were more than willing to take time and a reduction in pay, rather than leave the company,” said Yost.

These are tough times. None of us wants to take a pay cut. But earning less may be better than earning nothing.

Extracted from original at Business Lexington website.

Will Gen Y be loyal (if they get what they want at work)?

Young generation may be demanding but they’re willing to stay in one place for their entire careers – at least that is what a survey conducted by DECODE, a Toronto-based research firm, said The survey is http://www.decode.net/fromlearningtowork/. More than 57% of the 27,000 post-secondary students surveyed across Canada said they were looking for an organization where they can spend their whole career.

Survey respondents said they wanted to stay at one company for their entire career because they want a stable income and an even work/life balance. They told the survey the top companies they want to work for are the Government of Canada, Health Canada, Google, provincial governments and Apple.

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Graeme Codrington and Paul Bridle interviewed for MPI

Graeme Codrington will be speaking at Meeting Professionals International European conference in Torino, Italy, from 1-3 March (see event details here).

See an interview with Graeme and fellow speaker, Paul Bridle, talking about the impact of the current economic downturn as well as the arrival of a new generation of young people into the industry. Click here to see the video.

Online video – Graeme speaking about Millennial generation and school leadership

Graeme Codrington recently spoke at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust conference in Birmingham, England. The audience was over 2,000 head teachers of secondary schools in the UK. He was asked to adapt his “Mind the Gap” presentation for a 20 minute keynote on the implications of the Millennial generation for leaders in schools.

The session was videod and is available online here.

Generation Y studied by Economist Business Intelligence Unit

One of the most common criticisms of generational theory is that it is nothing much more than pop psychology. While it is true that many people use generational theory in its crudest forms, applying it when all they know about it is what they heard in a one hour keynote session at a conference, this does not mean that the theory itself has no substance. It is also true that some people use it as a “blunt instrument” – applying it with no regard to other dynamics and segmentation models. Again, just because some people use it badly, doesn’t discredit the theory itself.

There are many formal research projects on generations, and almost all of them confirm the basic theory and its findings. A recent study now focuses on the younger generation, known as Generation Y. The global survey was conducted by the Economist Business Intelligence Unit and Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company. It looked at how consumers born between 1982 and 2001 will impact the customer experience, asking C-level and senior executives from around the world how they are creating a customer experience to attract and retain Millennials. Of the 164 executives who took part in the survey, 29% came from North America, 31% from Europe, 30% from Asia-Pacific and 10% from the rest of the world. Participants represented 19 different industries. One-third of respondents’ organisations had annual revenue greater than US$1 billion and just over one-half (51%) had less than US$500 million in revenue. Board members and CEOs comprised 30% of respondents. CFOs, CTOs and other C-level executives made up an additional 19%. The remainder was split among other senior and middle management functions.

The headline results and executive summary of the findings is very interesting:
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The Net Generation: The kids are alright, OK?

In the latest edition of The Economist, there is a news of a massive research project recently completed on how the Net impacts kids.  It’s well worth reading, and supports the conclusions my co-author, Nikki Bush and I put in my latest book, “Future-Proof Your Child“. 

The net generation
The kids are alright

Nov 13th 2008
From The Economist print edition

WORRIES about the damage the internet may be doing to young people has produced a mountain of books—a suitably old technology in which to express concerns about the new. Robert Bly claims that, thanks to the internet, the “neo-cortex is finally eating itself”. Today’s youth may be web-savvy, but they also stand accused of being unread, bad at communicating, socially inept, shameless, dishonest, work-shy, narcissistic and indifferent to the needs of others.

 The man who christened the “net generation” in his 1997 bestseller, “Growing Up Digital”, has no time for such views. In the past two years, Don Tapscott has overseen a $4.5m study of nearly 8,000 people in 12 countries born between 1978 and 1994. In “Grown Up Digital” he uses the results to paint a portrait of this generation that is entertaining, optimistic and convincing. The problem, he suspects, is not the net generation but befuddled baby-boomers, who once sang along with Bob Dylan that “something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is”, yet now find that they are clueless about the revolutionary changes taking place among the young.

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Catching Gen Y with pizza delivery

I’ve been reading a lot of commentary recently about how differently companies need to be targeting Gen Y (people born in the UK after 1988), both as an employee and consumer. The Harvard Business Review has great commentary on the subject, and I’ve just come across a good example by the The Economist who is targeting college students in the US using pizza delivery boxes. Pizzerias around college campuses received Economist branded pizza boxes detailing world production stats on the students favourite pizza ingredients such as cheese!

It’s novel, entertaining, educational and clever…all the things that Gen Y expect from a marketing campaign.

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Another – new – reason to take Generation Y seriously

There is a mountain of media wordage about “generation y” at the moment. This group of young people has been variously defined as those born from 1978, 1984, 1989 and 1990 until present (or year 2000). However you define them, this is the youngest generation of employees and customers impacting the world of work at the moment. Their earliest generational memory was of the momentous shifts that shook the world in 1989 (Tiananmen Square, the Berlin Wall comes down, Romania is freed from dictatorship, the Communist Party is banned in Russia, America invades Panama – just to name a few. Oh, and Nelson Mandela was released from jail in February 1990). The Internet and mobile phones have been ubiquitous in their lives as long as they can remember, and the world has become increasingly “hot, flat and crowded” in their lifetime.

So, it’s vital to understand them as potential employees and customers. A Google search – or reading entries on our blog – will get you started. You can also check out our presentation on Making the Most of the Millennials.

But, and this is important, there is one other VERY important reason to take them seriously. They are already starting their own businesses. They are likely to be the most successful young entrepreneurs of all time. And you need to be aware of who they are and how they will compete with you over the next few years.

Probably the best article written on this comes from Inc magazine’s October 2008 edition. Read the article, Cool, Determined & Under 30. This is how they describe the piece: They are running businesses in fields as diverse as Wi-Fi and fashion, blogging and music. Combined, they manage nearly 600 employees and have raised more than $100 million from investors. They have graduated from (and, on occasion, dropped out of) some of the very best schools in the country. They are collaborative, creative, and — above all — confident. And here’s one more fact: All of them were born after October 31, 1978.

To be boring or to be entertaining?

Most conference exhibitors have a stand with panelling depicting the corporate logo, a few pretty pictures, TV screen and giveaways…pens, stress balls, playing cards etc… the problem is that all the corporate exhibitors do the same thing! Unless a customer knows what you do and who you are, all exhibitions tend to blend into the same ol same ol pot! Where is the innovation? Why spend thousands of pounds trying to connect with customers at a conference but then create no unique or memorable connection?

The task of getting greater connection has become even more difficult as Generation X and Millennials become decision makers for corporate companies…mainly because people from these generations demand an experience out of your marketing…they understand the rules of the game, they know you are selling to them, so if you are going to take up their time their attitiude is you had better entertain me!

I’m at the IFP conference today at the Celtic Manor Hotel in Wales where my colleague Graeme Codrington is presenting our Mind the Gap presentation on the different generations. Two companies stand out as exhibitors who are connecting with their customers. Investec Private Bank has a virtual golf simulator…clever because the Celtic Manor Hotel is the host of the 2010 Ryder Cup and because allowing conference delegates to come and swing a club enables them to make a lasting and memorable connection, the selling is left until later.

The Santander Group is leveraging off of their sponsorship of the McLaren F1 team. They have part of a life size F1 racing car replica which you get to sit in and race Lewis Hamilton…neat…staff crewing the stand are also dressing in F1 t-shirts creating a relaxed atmosphere.

No clues for which of the two stands out of about 50 or so at the IFP conference are getting the most interest and the most people connections!

The Millennials in Journalism

I was recently sent this article by email. I tracked it down to a journalism website, The Communicator. It’s a pretty good summary of the Millennial generation, with some insights into how they are changing media newsrooms. Interesting.

Cover Story: The Millennials

From: The Communicator, September 2007

Members of the next generation are graduating college and taking jobs in newsrooms. Who are they? How do they think? How do you manage them? How do they manage you?

By Stacey Woelfel

News director J.J. Murray has a battle on his hands. It’s a battle of wills and a battle of wits that he fights constantly with the job seekers and new hires he encounters at KIMT-TV in Mason City, IA, a newsroom that sees a lot of entry-level talent straight out of college.

The young journalists are bringing a great deal of skill to the newsroom but often give the impression they think a diploma proves they’ve learned all they need to know about the craft. He tells the story of one reporter who argued the finer points of copy editing in the middle of his first script review; when Murray told the reporter that he preferred to have people’s titles precede their names, which is common style for script writing, the reporter continued to disagree. “Some—on the first week on the job—have battled me on what they think is right and wrong,” Murray says, “instead of being here to learn.”

These journalists are part of the Millennial Generation, a cohort that thinks and behaves far differently from what Murray has previously seen in his two decades of news management and teaching. It’s not that this group of twenty-somethings makes for better or worse journalists than previous generations, but that they have to be managed differently. Generational researchers say news directors have a lot to learn about what attracts and motivates most of the applicants they will see in the coming decade.

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Marketing with a WOW factor

Radiohead have used some fantastic new technology to record their latest single. Creativity-online.com says this about the new video “Radiohead’s latest video, for the track “House of Cards” from the In Rainbows album, uses real time 3D recording instead of cameras, utilizing highly technical structured light and Lidar laser-enhanced scanners to model lead singer Thom Yorke and provide an otherworldly narrative accompaniment to the song.”

This is cutting edge stuff and if any marketers want to do something to impress Generation X and the Millennial generation then this is it. But don’t wait as it is notoriously difficult to impress these two generations and it won’t be long before the use of this technology becomes “so like yesterday.” Act fast the application of this technology has some WOW factor something that is very difficult to create in marketing these days.

Have a look at the video

How to get young talent to notice your company

There is a lot of talk about targeting the next generation of new talented, graduates called Gen Y or Millennials. And for good reason, they are supremely confident, well educated, know exactly what they want and how to get it. This is presenting some unique challenges for today’s businesses.

This past Friday we were asked to shed some light on the issue and presented at the annual Bright Futures conference, an excellent organisation that helps students and companies connect. A number of top employee brands were present including HP, KPMG, L’Oreal etc. Dr Graeme Codrington presented to both corporate companies and students on Being Talented and Winning the Talent Wars.

One of the key challenges that the companies were raising at the conference was how to attract young talent and alert them to job opportunities. One of our clients a Big 4 accountancy and consulting firm is doing innovative work in this area. They are promoting their employee brand by going to the spaces where young people are congregating such as FaceBook, MySpace and YouTube. Deloitte is interviewing and videotaping employees about how great it is to work at their company in a fun light hearted way and using the clips to promote job opportunities and attracting Millennial talent. Have a look at what Deloitte is doing on YouTube.

The Age of the Millennials – a CBS video

CBS have released a really excellent video of a special insert they did on the Millennial generation. I cannot find a way to extract the video from their website – so you have to go there to see it. It is really worth doing so. Find it here.

Generation comparisons

I am a huge fan of Eric Chester, an American author, speaker and consultant who focuses on understanding what he calls “Generation Why” (what a cool title!! I wish I had thought of that first). You can see his excellent work at http://www.generationwhy.com.

He has a nice summary of the three generations now in the workplace. The dates on his summary reflect the consensus among American researchers. My own dates (Boomers 1946-1965; Xers 1966 – 1985 and Millennials 1986 – present) reflect more of an international bias, recognising that different countries arte slightly ahead or slightly trailing these median date ranges.

Read Eric’s summary at his website (and spend some time looking around while you are there), or see below.

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Research into Generation Y

Someone sent me the executive summary of a report by the Bank of America, entitled “Generational Differences: Managing the ‘Gen Y’ Associate.”

Here are some of the findings:

• They’re not hungry. They are not ambitious for advancement if it comes at the expense of their personal lives and goals.

• They expect more control. They expect more authority and more discretion about how they spend their time at work.

• High self-esteem. They grew up basking in the “decade of the child”, with self-esteemed laced parenting and education.

• They want everything now: technology, training, feedback and recognition.

• Tech-savvy. Gen Next exhibits greater knowledge and skill using computers and digital tools. Because Gen Next was born with technology – - bred on YouTube, Google, Napster, Facebook, MySpace and other innovations – - they assimilate it better.

• Variety. Gen Next doesn’t like to be on one assignment too long.

• Not here for long. They don’t expect to stay on a job, or even a career, too long.

Millennials as Social Citizens

I subscribe to Google alerts for a number of issues, including discussions on “Generation Y” or the Millennial generation.

In today’s alerts, I received a link to a post about how the Millennials are volunteering around the world. Read it here (or a summary below). There are some great links to reports on this. This certainly links in with our experience and research. These young people are going to change the world!

For information about volunteering in the UK, check out DirectGov and Worldwide Volunteering as examples of companies and governments encouraging volunteering among young people.

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Solving the Ten Most Common Generation Y Workforce Challenges

I was pointed to a website recently that offers a place for people to post free content for reprint. In between the rubbish on the site, there are some real gems. Here is one related to the Millennial generation at work. It’s fairly obvious stuff, but succinctly written, and a nice starting point for discussions in the workplace.

Solving the Ten Most Common Generation Y Workforce Challenges

by Bea Fields

We are at a very important time in history. Over the next five years, approximately 62 million Baby Boomers, who have helped form our business world for the last 20 years will be retiring. As they exit out of the workforce approximately 40 million Gen X, born between 1965 and 1977, and 72 million Generation Y, born after 1977 will fill their shoes. In this day and age, our businesses cannot thrive without young talent. And, if our businesses are not thriving, the economy will become more and more anemic. There is a huge force at play in this equation, and that force is Generation Y.

Many organizations and businesses are asking how they need to change in order to attract and then retain Generation Y. When I answer this question, many people don’t seem to like my answer, because my answer is this: If you want to attract young talent into your organization, you will be called to not just change but undergo a metamorphosis that will keep Gen Y interested and excited about working for and with your company. And, if you try to sit on them, keep them or make life difficult, they will leave in a heartbeat.

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The Multitasking Generation

Every now and again, TIME magazine has a seriously excellent, long and in depth, feature article that grabs my attention. I am not a subscriber, but always check TIME editions out on the newstand. These features are well researched and worth keeping.

I missed one about 2 years ago, and was recently given a copy of it by a friend. I found it online, and it is available here. It is about the generation of young people that are growing up with pervasive technology, and the impact of multitasking from a young age.

It’s long, but it’s worth a read. Extracts are available below…

The Multitasking Generation
TIME magazine, Mar. 19, 2006
By CLAUDIA WALLIS

It’s 9:30 p.m., and Stephen and Georgina Cox know exactly where their children are. Well, their bodies, at least. Piers, 14, is holed up in his bedroom–eyes fixed on his computer screen–where he has been logged onto a MySpace chat room and AOL Instant Messenger (IM) for the past three hours. His twin sister Bronte is planted in the living room, having commandeered her dad’s iMac–as usual. She, too, is busily IMing, while chatting on her cell phone and chipping away at homework.

By all standard space-time calculations, the four members of the family occupy the same three-bedroom home in Van Nuys, Calif., but psychologically each exists in his or her own little universe. Georgina, 51, who works for a display-cabinet maker, is tidying up the living room as Bronte works, not that her daughter notices. Stephen, 49, who juggles jobs as a squash coach, fitness trainer, event planner and head of a cancer charity he founded, has wolfed down his dinner alone in the kitchen, having missed supper with the kids. He, too, typically spends the evening on his cell phone and returning e-mails–when he can nudge Bronte off the computer. “One gets obsessed with one’s gadgets,” he concedes.

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Five Ways Generation Y May Reinvent IT

I was sent a link to Baselinemag recently, that took an interesting look at the Millennial Generation from an IT industry perspective. Read the original article here, or see a summary below.

They’ve been called everything from narcissists to “Generation Me,” but those wily post-Gen X employees might just show their elders how to revamp an enterprise.

They depend too much on their parents’ money, they need constant hand-holding, they have no job loyalty, but do show remarkable acumen for demanding more than they’re worth, showing disrespect for older employees, and displaying stunning naiveté about corporate culture.

The backlash against Generation Y seems to be in full swing while the ink on their college diplomas is still drying.

Much discussion has centered around the expectations and work habits of this particular generation, with some pundits fretting about whether their casual attitudes will sink enterprises in the long run.

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