Gen Y employees want time and love

Hey old-timer, admit it. You're having trouble understanding how to work with all of those “Gen Yers” (30 and under) you're hiring out of college. They're a different breed than the Boomers and Gen Xers.

Penelope Trunk, the American queen of dispensing career advice to Gen Yers, has some practical tips. Trunk is founder of Brazen Careerist, a career-management company and tool for next-generation professionals. She is also author of a best-selling book by the same name and author of one of the most popular career-advice blogs in America (see BrazenCareerist.com and PenelopeTrunk.com).

Speaking this week to members of the Gulf Coast CEO Forum in Sarasota and the CEO Council of Tampa Bay, Trunk, 44, offered 10 things you should do to make the most of your Generation Y associates:

1) Don't wave money as an inducement to hire them. If they're thinking of joining your company, they've already researched online how much that job pays. For them, it's not about the money, it's about the ...

2) Time — “they want control of their time,” Trunk says. They know money won't make them happy, she says. They have seen what has happened to their parents. Instead, they want flexibility with their time — the ability to work wherever and whenever. All they need is their laptop, a smartphone and control of their time. If you give them that, you can pay them less money, Trunk says. Everyone wins.

3) Give them feedback every day. “They love to be micromanaged,” she said. That's the way they were raised by their OCD parents — constantly being told what to do and given feedback.

One-year performance evaluations definitely won't cut it with Gen Y'ers. You have to show them you really care about them. Make time to mentor them. “You have to be emotionally invested in them,” she says.

4) Keep the learning curve high for them. They crave learning new things. “They're great self-learners,” she says. “They know how to make things work.

“Give them something hard to do,” she says. “Give them a six-month project and tell them to finish it in two. That'll give you four months to make it right.”

5) Forget the top-down management approach. They are team-oriented. That's the way they grew up — always working in teams and groups. “They are blown away at how incompetent Boomers and Xers are at teamwork,” Trunk says. “If there is no brainstorming or collaborative software, they think nothing is getting done.”

6) Don't expect them to stay more than two years. “They're job-hoppers. They start looking for a new job on the second day of their new job,” she says. “They know that job-hopping helps you build a great network.”

Trunk says Gen Yers are aces at writing resumes and know they need bullet points showing accomplishments. “They're thinking: How do I make an impact right away?” Trunk says.

To them, job-hopping is a sign of success — contrary to what old-timers believe. “People who job-hop are the great performers,” Trunk maintains.

7) Be nice. For Gen Yers, top-down management fosters competition, angst and office politics. They're not into it. “They're not good at confrontation,” Trunk says. In fact, Gen Yers are the types who cry and apologize when they tell you they're leaving your company for another job.

Still, she says, “You need to show them you care about them.”

Trunk only had time for seven of her 10 tips. But that was plenty.

Final Trunk tip: “The most successful companies fire their Baby Boomers.”

To learn more about the Gulf Coast CEO Forum, email Lynn Weddington at [email protected]. To learn more about the CEO Council of Tampa Bay, email Jane Toombs at [email protected].