Interview meeting at “Dream Company”
(12 noon, Monday)
(12 noon, Monday)
HR Head of “Dream Company” who happens to be from Gen X, meeting
a fresher for an open position in his team.
Extract of one of the questions he asked -
HR Head: Where do you see
yourself in five years from now?
Management Fresher: I want
to be sitting on your chair, clearly to be HR Head of this company or some other
company.
Wondered with this response? For people who come from Gen X and some part
of Gen Y, they may find this response to be impractical and may even label the
candidate with carrying attitude and unrealistic aspiration. But when you look at this from the current
generation perspective, they find it normal as they pretty confident and believe
in themselves and have bigger aspirations. For them job does not mean monthly
paycheck, it is the mean to fulfill and live their purpose. Very recently I met a young fresher who had
quit his company within few months of his joining as he could not find
alignment of his purpose with the job he was offered. This is a big loss for the company. When I went deeper into this issue, I
discovered that his functional leader who belongs to Generation X was not able
to appreciate his aspirational need and wanted him to learn and contribute in
what was offered to him. This difference
in thinking among generations require a good amount of orientation and
sensitization. HR needs to do a lot on
orientation and sensitization of these multi-generational workforce so that
they could appreciate each other’s perspectives and could work effectively
under one roof like a family.
India has more than 65%
population either as Generation Y/Millennials or Generation Z. what does it
mean? It means that this generation will be commanding the future. They are
redrawing the rules of society, corporate world, and indeed politics. Generation Z is about to enter the corporate
world. With this new generation entering the organization, the rules of the
organizations need to be redefined as well.
Organizations must need to gear up to make changes to make it future
ready for its own benefit and advantage. Some of the suggestive changes are
listed below –
1. Purpose based Job: With the enhanced
employability focus in the academia and exposure to ‘learn by doing’ and
‘e-learning opportunities from across the world’, Millennials and Gen Z have
become more aware and clear of their needs and aspirations. Unlike their parents, job does not mean a
source of monthly income to them but they look at alignment of their purpose
with the job being offered. Very
recently, I came across a fresher who onboarded us a couple of months back, he
came back to us and mentioned that he was not liking his job as it was not
aligned to his purpose and he quit.
Probably we would have never imagined this in earlier generations where
somebody would leave their first job citing reasons like this and become
jobless. There is a need for organizations to understand and appreciate the
different thinking and thought process of new generation and offer them
alternatives where they may find alignment to their aspirations.
2. Empowerment on Job: Micro management
will not excite or engage the new generation.
They will soon become disengaged and the price organizations will pay
for this would be huge. Managers need to
be orientated and trained to become more empowering Managers. Accountability shift with responsibility is
imminent. The new generation does not
appreciate Bossy term, they need somebody who could coach them and empower them
and also mentor them so that they are successful.
3. Regular Performance Dialogues: Regular
performance dialogues are essential today.
No surprise feedback conversation at the end of the year. New generation appreciates constant
conversations on their performance. They need instant feedback. I am glad that there are many organizations
which have already moved away from annual review process to regular dialogue
based performance process.
4. Feedback vs Feedforward: Most of the
times, performance discussions are based on what went well or bad in the past
which is feeding the ‘back’ and rarely it moves to feeding the ‘forward’. The new generation requires developmental
discussion where the discussions are happening around how to enable them reach
their aspiration. What are the key and
critical expectations from their job and role in future. How their strengths can further be leveraged
and what developmental support is to be provided to enable them overcome their
improvement opportunities.
5. Promotion vs Growth: Mere career
progression/promotions would not make individual feel happy or satisfied.
Growth means continuous learning and hence companies must need to detach title
progression with growth alone. Limiting
people to same job for long will not help, providing opportunities to people to
rotate their jobs, leading newer assignments, attending career focused learning
programs and conferences will rather be looked as Growth by them.
6. Preferential based Rewards System: ‘One
size doesn’t fit all’, offering standard reward framework to everyone may not
be the right approach. HR needs to
relook at its offering, benefits basis preferences or segments of the
population. One example could be to look at CTC structure and make it flexible so
that within same CTC, people have opportunity to distribute their compensation
to different components basis their liking. This will create a sense of
empowerment and satisfaction among the Millennials and Post-Millennials.
7. Listening vs Active Listening: Sounding
listening through engagement surveys once in a year is not sufficient. They are vocal lot with enormous opinion,
hence would prefer an environment where their voice matters and is heard. So companies need to become creative in
lending their ear out to them through various platforms and initiatives and
this would definitely make them feel wanted.
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