The “Baby Boomers” (born between 1946 and 1964), “Generation X” (born between 1965 and 1980), “Generation Y” (born between 1981 and 2000), and “Generation Z” (born after 2000) are familiar classifications of generations. Beyond age, these classifications identify the specific relationship to work that each group has. This same relationship to work is driving companies to review their management and recruitment strategies.
Indeed, the “Baby Boomers,” who were very attached to their work and the associated status, organized their lives around it. They have been replaced by “Generation X and Y,” who have reversed this relationship.
As the age pyramid evolves, companies have over time changed their methods and will have to continue to adapt them to attract the difficult “Generation Y” or “millennials,” as well as the following generations.
What do the "millennials" want?
At present, generations X, Y, and Z work together in the workplace. Generation X, which is more represented in management positions, retains management methods that were taught to them by their predecessors, the “Baby Boomers.”
Although generations X, Y, and Z all aspire to greater professional fulfillment, the demands of the “millennials” can sometimes seem out of step with current practices. They are seeking more work flexibility (such as remote work and flexible hours), greater social ethics (such as salary transparency and a clear mission), and more opportunities for advancement, which upsets the traditional codes.
Finally, less loyal to companies, constantly seeking meaning, and more focused on the overall experience, “millennials” are not hesitant to change employers or even switch to completely different industries than the ones in which they previously worked.
How to "Attract Generation Y"?
Born into the technological world and influenced by the Anglo-Saxon world, “millennials” remain sensitive to the employer brand and the conditions that it offers. HR marketing plays an important role in the recruitment of these profiles, as well as necessary work on accompanying these profiles and a re-engineering of management relationships.
Therefore, companies that can show transparency, offer more open management, create real ambassadors, and generally show themselves to be more “human” will succeed in attracting these profiles. The most visible cases are observed in the world of technology, but many SMEs also succeed in capturing the “Generation Y”.
So, if graduate programs, simplified recruitment, inbound recruiting, recruitment gamification, home-office, work sharing… are practices that are becoming more widespread, it is partly to meet the expectations of this generation, to retain them, and to fluidify the intergenerational transition.
And after?
The generations that will follow will also confront companies with other challenges to which they will have to adapt. Indeed, the “Generation Z”, which is gradually entering the job market, is focused on other elements, more related to job security, as well as a desire to fluidize the navigation between their professional and personal lives.
