Recruiting: Generation XY unresolved
Potential consultant and author Brigitte Herrmann on recruiting clichés and the agony of choice for younger employees, the so-called Generation XY. How can employers balance quality and work ethic of upcoming generations? A checklist.
Recruiting has never been more complex. Millennials, the cohorts born from 1980 onwards, are difficult to understand and yet they divide some employers into uniform categories.
The situation is not made any easier by research findings from the Jacobs University in Bremen. Scientists there have found that generations Y and Z in particular, i.e. the 1980-1995 and post-1995 cohorts, consider themselves to be very different - but are actually much more similar than they thought. When it comes to careers, for example, both the enjoyment of work and the opportunity to help shape it are most important to all of them. Only in the second step are there differences: the younger ones place more value on further training, while for the older ones professionalism is paramount.
The cliché as an economic factor
But do such statements do justice to an entire generation? Are all "Ypsiloners" really searching for meaning and putting optimal work-life blending at the top of their list of priorities? Do all "tedders" really have fewer ambitions for advancement, want a clear separation between job and private life and downright stuffy regulated working hours? And when it comes to recruiting, does everyone just want entertainment and gaming? What should not be overlooked in the discussion on this last point is the fact that these propagated stereotypes represent an exciting economic factor. Based on employers' fear of not being able to attract young talent in the thinned-out employee market, these stereotypes have the potential to give rise to an entire HR entertainment industry revolving around prototypes Y and Z. It's a pity to think evil of it.
Helicopter children as a challenge
One thing in advance: Of course, young people entering the labor market today or in the future are different from their older counterparts. Never before has the socio-cultural diversity of young people been as great as it is today - after all, it is simply a typical sign of highly individualized societies. And never before have young people faced such great challenges in finding their very own way in an increasingly unbounded world. This perspective is also important. Nevertheless, a challenge of a special kind for employers will be dealing with the offspring of today's helicopter parents.
After all, the lovingly intended parental overprotection and overcontrol poses the risk that fundamental life experiences and skills such as assessing risks, assuming responsibility and making independent decisions, as well as personality development, are simply being neglected. So in the future, employers may have to transform themselves into modern-day governesses. But complaining won't help. After all, every generation is the way it was 'made' by the previous generation, society and the education system. So anyone who complains about the poor quality of applicants today should not hold them (only) responsible, but look for the roots.
First neo-bourgeois, then alpha male?
If you want to attract the right young talent to your company, you should do one thing above all: think and act far away from any stereotypical generational clichés. In fact, other concepts are also available in the sense of increasing individualization. For example, it would be more effective to find out which thought patterns and characteristics the individual brings with him or her. Who perhaps thinks like Y, who thinks like Z? Or who among the young even thinks like the baby boomers? In any case, many experts assume that - in contrast to the frequently predicted successor generation Alpha - the traditional generation concept will dissolve completely. An alternative, which is already seen as a much more sensible solution in the HR sector, is offered by the so-called Sinus Milieus.
The different milieus are not defined by age groups, but rather as a group of like-minded people with similar basic values and principles in the way they lead their lives. In this respect, milieus apply across several generations.
Future trend: Milieu recruiting
With regard to the following generations, the Sinus Youth Study is particularly recommended. It provides a practical and very clear insight into young people's lifestyles and values. Primarily used as a marketing-relevant target group, the different lifestyles identified also help in recruiting to sharpen the view of the different facets and currents within a generation and to define clear target groups within the Y and Z people. It quickly becomes clear here that the characteristics that are all too readily thrown into the big Y or Z pot can be assigned to clear milieus and overlap only partially.
From the conservative middle-class milieu with its traditional values, to the expeditionaries with a strong orientation toward success and lifestyle, to the so-called precarious lifeworld of young people with difficult starting conditions. A generation that, on closer inspection, is just as heterogeneous as all the previous ones and yet has one thing in common. They are all strongly influenced by their respective upbringing, education and the social framework in which they move. And it is precisely this framework that must also be set in personnel selection.
People with special strengths
For HR, it is precisely those details and aspects that make the difference between stereotypical and really good recruiting. After all, if you are not satisfied with an X, Y or Z, but also uncover the facets hidden behind them, you will only recognize the personality, talents and, above all, the individual strengths and potential that a young person really brings with them. And instead of looking in the cliché drawer, this is precisely where the focus should be when it comes to personnel recruitment. Only those who make the effort to meet their counterparts at eye level and without stereotypes or prejudices, and to explore the individual potential of an applicant, will be able to activate it and use it optimally.
Failure factor recruiter
The fact is, employers not only need to rethink their approach to younger generations of employees, they also need to actively change their mindset, culture and processes. And this already starts in recruiting, because this is where the evil all too often takes its course. Particularly alarming in this context: even in 2017, ambitious representatives of Generation Y are asking questions such as "Should I mention my children on my resume, or will that put me at a disadvantage?" and "What should I answer when asked about weaknesses?" Many reports of experiences with the selection process sound just as irritating:
"During my interview, the job I applied for was presented to me as a downright horror job." or "For weeks, my attempts to inquire about the status of my application have gone nowhere." or "What I'm like as a person didn't interest anyone at all during the interview." Can you believe it? As long as employers continue to treat prospects with disinterest and condescension at key touchpoints in the personnel selection process, put them to the test with nonsensical stress questions, or demand that a graduate have in-depth experience in a specialized field, and still place ability above desire, there is only one thing left to do on the prospect side in all these cases:
Scorched earth. The younger generations don't forgive anything because, unlike their predecessors, they 'share' their anger publicly and, due to the changing labor market, usually have another joker in their pocket anyway.
Conclusion: Employers who succeed, despite all the challenges, in discovering and activating the individual strengths and potential of each person, and who are also prepared to adapt to the different understanding of values, work and performance of young people, will lay the foundations for real performance. Those who then also recognize and know how to use the opportunities and synergies in the collaboration of the different age groups will have a clear advantage in the future.
3 tips for good generational recruiting:
- Recognize the person behind the applicant with his valuable individual strengths and possible potentials without stereotypes and prejudices and create the job that really suits him.
- Give young people the freedom to develop to the best of their abilities and also security by setting guardrails and offering orientation despite all the boundaries. Demand and encourage their personal responsibility.
- Bring together the experience and valuable potential of experienced professionals with that of digital natives & co. and let all participants benefit from each other through active collaboration.
About the author:
Brigitte Herrmann is the owner of Inspirocon Potenzialberatung, which stands for both sides of the labor market. With her experience in headhunting and consulting and with a view to the working world of the future, she inspires different perspectives, new paths and shows the valuable opportunities when potential is used intelligently. She is the author of the 2016 business non-fiction book "The Selection." As a speaker, she provides forward-looking impulses on the "human opportunity in the digital age". She is one of the Top 100 Excellence Speakers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
