The Transitional Parent (Part 2 – Gen Y Retention, Excellence & Growth)
December 12, 2008
Part 1 of “The Transitional Parent” focused on how Gen Y’s seem to be delaying “adulthood,” defined as a time when they take full responsibility for their lives. I included stories providing examples of young adults who are unwilling/unable to make their own decisions, parents who insert themselves (or Gen Y’s who allowed their parents to insert themselves) into the academic and professional lives of their children in ways that are excessive, Gen Y’s having a hard time going from zero-to-one on their own, how Gen Y’s have rarely faced disappointment or having to accept the consequences of their actions, and those who view their early to mid 20’s as an extension of their adolescence rather than the start of their adulthood.
Given these observations, how should managers approach their new-to-market employees in ways that are effective, realistic and reasonable?
Parent Role and Manager Role — Differences and similarities are a matter of degree and content
Among other things, the role of parents is to:
- keep their children safe and healthy
- provide an environment in which children can learn and grow
- teach children right from wrong and how to get along in the world
- set boundaries
- teach good work habits
- provide lots of guidance, feedback and encouragement
- encourage excellence
- help children learn to make good decisions
- move children towards successful independence
- provide enrichment opportunities
- and to love unconditionally
Parenting is a high touch, high maintenance activity. Different parents approach the role in varying ways based on their own personalities, histories and parenting philosophy. Parenting level of involvement runs along a continuum that changes through the course of a child and a parent’s life.
Among other things, the role of a manager is to:
- create a productive team that gets the job done
- create a culture that encourages and facilitates success
- set a clear direction
- provide resources needed to do the job
- coach employees to master their current role
- prepare employees to demonstrate good judgment, independent decision making, and initiative to take on additional responsibility
- provide feedback, support, cover and encouragement
Whether the manager/employee relationship is high touch or low touch depends upon the manager’s personality and approach; the employee’s personality, role and need; and the nature of any given project or task. Some managers interact with their staff daily, others rarely. This too runs along a continuum that will change through the course of an employee, a manager and a project’s life. There is a realistic expectation that employees at the start of their career will require more management attention than those who are more established in their career.
Gen Y and their Manager – A question of expectations
If you examine the parent role and the manager role, they’re fairly similar. Both roles require structure, explanations, guidance, opportunity creation etc. The differentiation is often where they land on the involvement continuum and the scope of influence. However, Gen Y employees seem to be entering the workforce with a different level of expectation regarding what support their managers will provide. These changes often catch their managers by surprise and leave them unsure of how to approach this new profile of employees. Three of the main differences that may not have entered into the manager/employee relationship for generations past as much as they do now are enrichment, independence and unconditional love.
Many of the Gen Y I’ve worked with, whether consciously or subconsciously seem to view their first job as another enrichment opportunity. (The concept of enrichment will be discussed further in a future blog.) This will certainly impact the seriousness with which they approach work, and how flexible and loyal they’ll be. Gen Y’s are accustomed to the adults in their life arranging opportunities purely for the child’s personal growth. Gen Y’s may assume that their managers will approach task assignments and coaching in that same individual-focused way, rather than from a “what’s needed for the business” perspective.” This can lead to inconsistent expectations which can often lead to manager’s disappointment with an employee’s performance, commitment and attitude, and an employee’s disappointment with an organization’s opportunities and support.
Speaking of support, for generations past, young twenty-year-olds entered the workforce itching for independence. They’d been overseen by their parents and then by their teachers and they wanted to be allowed to fly – to see what they could do without such an overbearing support system. Gen Y’s do not seem to be demonstrating that desire. For their parents, raising independent children was not a high priority, so this generation doesn’t have much experience with it. They like their support system, and again, whether consciously or subconscious, will except it to be there in the workplace like it was at home. So managers may be surprised by the extent to which their new employees are dependent upon them for guidance, feedback, and decision support. When they enter the workforce, this generation will expect frameworks to help them know where to start and feedback at each step in their process. Without it, they will have a hard time getting started and meeting the company’s expectations and their own. They’ll be less loyal because they just won’t feel the love.
Speaking of “the love” one of the biggest differences between a parent and a manager is that a parent will love a child unconditionally, even if that child fails a test, can’t hit a baseball, or talks back to grandma. A manager will not (indefinitely) support an employee who can’t deliver, no matter how much that manager likes that employee. A parent cares, first and foremost, about each child. A manager cares, first and foremost, about the business. While Gen Y’s don’t expect their managers to love them like their parents do (that would be creepy) they do expect their managers to care about them as people, not just as employees and their ability to serve the business. Without that personal connection, it is very easy to choose to move on at the first hint of job dissatisfaction or the image of greener pastures.
First Manager = The Transitional Parent – A Place on the Continuum
And so, we’re back to the concept of a continuum and viewing the role of the first manager more as that of a transitional parent. Instead of new employees showing up day one ready to serve the organization and be independent, they show up with the unspoken belief that this is another enrichment activity and that a manager’s primary role is to serve and support their needs. If parents are not promoting strong independence, decision making and an ability to get from zero to one on their own, that role will fall to the first manager. If parents are hovering and providing constant feedback, the first manager will become responsible for breaking that habit and adding the confidence to reduce that dependence. If parents have not guided their children through facing disappointment and coming back stronger and more determined, that will fall to the first manager who simply cannot promote everyone. If parents have not provided guidance on what information is appropriate to share and how to approach “no dress code” in a way that will position an employee for success, it becomes the first manager’s responsibility to do that.
Many managers will find themselves surprised at the scope of this role. They will be surprised that while their new-to-market employees enter the workforce with many amazing and impressive skills, there will be some maturity gaps that these managers will need to fill to ensure their new-to-market employees’ success. None of this is impossible, but it sure is time consuming. And so a first manager may need to move closer to high involvement than may have been necessary in the past. The role of the transitional parent is much higher maintenance than the role of a more traditional manager.
So, for managers of new-to-market employees, don’t be surprised by these traits in your Gen Y employees. Recognize that to manage this generation effectively, to retain them long enough for them to become productive and confident contributors to your organization, you have some work to do that you may not have anticipated. This will require explaining how their projects fit in with the overall mission of the organization and explaining how working on those projects will provide skills that your employees will leverage later in their career. Recognize that they may want constant feedback, but that it doesn’t serve them well if you provide it. It will be your job to wean them from it and to develop confidence in their ability to make independent decisions. You will need to provide ways for them to hone their instincts regarding information sharing, dress code, constant telecommuting at the expense of feeling a part of the culture etc. And finally, you will need to (and should) care about them as people. You can’t phone this in. You actually have to care. Managers who don’t will likely be ineffective with Gen Y’s. Their employees will leave quickly and will not be shy about broadcasting why. Their Gen Y’s who stay will become even higher maintenance because they will continually be insecure. Yet, managers who are inclined to have a higher level of caring for their employees as people, not just as employees, and who are willing to do coaching and individualizing will fare better with this generation, and likely employees of all generations.
Gen Y’s you need to recognize some of this as well. Realize that you’ve been hired to do a job and that you have the talent to do it incredibly well. Your job is not an optional activity. You are being compensated to provide value to your organization. Yes, you should grow in the process. But your growth may be as much what your organization needs as what you need. (Hopefully both you and your organization have chosen each other well.) Your manager is there to guide you, but you are primarily responsible for your own success. No job is perfect and no job will meet all your needs and expectations, especially day one. Be patient with your job, your manager, and yourself. Ask for what you need, but don’t expect to get it in exactly the form you anticipate. In many cases a question will be answered with a question, and you will be asked to draw your own conclusions. A manager who provides this level of coaching rather than just telling you what to do is a gift. Appreciate it, rather than getting frustrated by it. Think about what a dream employee would be to your manager and become that employee. Those are the employees who get the best projects, the fast track promotions, and the latitude to follow their own interests combined with the organization’s needs. Those are the employees who are mentored by their organization’s leaders, not just managed by them. If that’s who you want to be, be that person.
Parents, when your kid breaks a glass plate carrying it to the kitchen sink, let your child carry the plate again tomorrow. OK, you have no idea what I’m talking about. When he was 5, I switched my son Carl from plastic to glass plates. The first night, he dropped his plate and it shattered across the kitchen floor. I didn’t much care about the plate, but could have lived without the hour of clean-up painstakingly assuring that the floor was cleared on every shard so not to injure my son or one of our cats. After that I started carrying the plates. I didn’t think much about it or make a conscious decision each time, I just did it. It was easier that way. He’s 7 now, and I’m finally ready to let him carry his plate again. When I suggested it, he said,”I can’t, I’m afraid I’ll drop it.” And I realized that every time I carried his plate, I was telling him, “you can’t do this.”
So parents, do less for your kids. At a certain point in their life your level of involvment needs to move to the lower side of the continuum. Encourage them to make their own decisions. Yes, they’ll make mistakes, but they’ll learn more from those than they will from your doing it for them. Don’t go to informational college or grad school interviews and don’t call the school or a prospective employeer to get feedback or status. You can coach your child regarding questions to ask and what to say, but that room and that phone call belongs to them. Employers and university administrators do not view your participation favorably and it reflects badly on your children. Let your children struggle when they don’t know where to start a project. You’ll know when they’re ready to do more on their own. Let them squirm and whine. They’ll be prouder of their final accomplishment. Let them fail or try out for a team they likely won’t make. Support them through the process of deciding what’s really important to them and figuring out what they need to do to get there. Teach them to be great employees and the value of hard work. Talk to them about your early career choices (good and bad) and why their early twenties is a great time to spread their professional wings – a time for flapping rather than soaring.
By the way, this is as much a “note to self” as it is intended for readers.
Oh, and the “unconditional love” part, that’s forever.
The Transitional Parent (Part 1 – Delayed Adulthood)
November 16, 2008
“Adulthood” – The period of time in your life after your physical growth has stopped and you are fully developed. The state (and responsibilities) of a person who has attained maturity.
(WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University)
Much has been written about Gen Y’s relationships with their parents. This has been a heavily “parented” generation with interesting results. On one side, this, perhaps overly active parenting has led to young adults who are unwilling/unable to make their own decisions, insert their parents (or allow their parents to insert themselves) into their academic and professional lives in ways that are inappropriate, have a hard time going from zero-to-one on their own, have rarely faced disappointment or having to accept the consequences of their actions, and view their early to mid 20’s as an extension of their adolescence rather than the start of their adulthood. On the other side, we see less rebellion. We see a generation of parents and children who are extremely close and truly enjoy and value each other’s company more so that the early-to-mid 20 year olds of generations past. I leave it to the psychologists to determine whether the lack of rebellion is troubling or welcome, while I focus on how this impacts the workplace. That will be the focus of “The Transitional Parent – Part 2″. In the meantime, here are some examples of how Gen Y’s delayed adulthood has manifested itself.
Decision Making Quandary
While many Gen Y’s have had input into family decisions since early childhood, that’s not the same as making your own decisions and dealing with the consequences of those decisions. Parental input into college and job decisions of this generation is significant and apparent. No longer is this just a sanity check in the background.
A Director of Career Services at a local University mentioned that they invite new students and their parents to orientation sessions. The students and parents are combined for the opening remarks and are then separated for other activities. Most do this separation seamlessly. But several others fight the process. “They’re concerned that decisions will need to be made without the opportunity to confer.” I was told. I asked whether it was the students or the parents who were more concerned. The Director said they were both equally concerned; the students that they wouldn’t be able to get advice or have the decisions made for them by their parents, the parents that the students might “make a mistake” or that the parent would not be informed of / involved in what decisions were made.
Do you think it’s reasonable that college aged students are fearful of making course decisions on their own (they could certainly have discussed this ahead of time)? Do you think it’s reasonably that parents don’t trust their college aged children to make their own decisions?
Parents Where They Shouldn’t Be
Stories abound of universities and corporations who have had to add staff to handle the high volume of phone calls and emails from parents of their students and new/prospective employees. One hiring manager told me of a phone call he recently had with the mother of a job candidate. “The worst part,” he said, “was that I could hear the child/job candidate in the background.” This was not a rogue, over protective parent secretly making a phone call. This was done at the child’s request. But here’s a story even more extreme!
I was recently told of a mother who showed up for a job interview in lieu of her daughter. The lead recruiter for a large accounting firm was conducting the first part of the campus full interview day when he noticed that one person in his interview group was significantly older than the others. Assuming this might be a non-traditional student, he didn’t think much of it. That was until they went around the room and introduced themselves. When he got to the non-traditional student, she announced that she was not the job candidate. She was the job candidate’s mother. The candidate herself was at another interview and would join the group later in the day. But the interviewer need not worry, “I know more about her than she knows about herself,” the mother announced.
Is it reasonable for parents to show up in their child’s place at a job interview? Is it reasonable for a parent to call to follow up on the interview’s outcome? Do you think the daughter got the job?
Zero-to-One Challenges
Gen Y, while incredibly talented, don’t generally have great skills at going from “zero-to-one.” Give many of them a “go solve this” project without “how to” directions or more information and they will often stall and focus on their other efforts which keep them active, busy and generally productive. But, it doesn’t move the newly assigned project forward. Give them just a little bit more guidance and information and they take off like a shot in ways that will amaze you. I saw this time and again with many of my students. In my “Management Lessons from ‘The Apprentice’” class, I had them write project plans. I was constantly asked for a format/detailed outline that they could follow. Instead I would give them a starting list of topics and insist that they think through all the information that needed to be presented and the format that would best showcase their plan. They continued to creatively restate their request to get me to “tell them more.” I knew if I did, they’d just do what I told them instead of thinking for themselves and finding their own voice. Project Plan 1 was generally pretty bad as they stumbled through figuring it out for themselves. By Project Plan 8, most plans were a thing of beauty and my students left the class confident that could think for themselves, rather than just do what they were told. But why did they push so hard for the format/detailed outline in the first place?
I’ve recently gotten some personal insight into why they may not tend to be great “out of the block” starters. Apparently, as a parent, it’s my fault <sigh>
My son, Carl, is seven years old, so he’s not Gen Y. He’s whatever comes after Gen Y (Gen Z, Gen Next . . .) But, ever since the start of second grade, he gets a packet of homework on Monday that’s due on Friday. He breezes through the math, spelling, word games etc., but gets stuck on the essay. He’ll look at the topic for a few minutes, and, if an idea doesn’t come to him quickly, he declares it impossible. Then he grunts and groans and squirms. He gets frustrated. Then he starts to whine. When the whining reaches fever pitch, I too get frustrated. He begs for my ideas, concepts, insights, ANYTHING to help him get started. I’m embarrassed to say that he always wears me down. I need to get dinner going, I’m tired, and the whining is all I can take. Just the smallest idea or comment can help get him out of neutral and then off he goes. Once he has the concept, he makes it his own. But, a time will come, like HOPEFULLY NEXT MONDAY, when he’ll need to come up with his own concepts. To get from “zero-to-one” on his own when the answer doesn’t come right to him. Am I helping or hurting him each time I give him that nudge? Don’t answer that. I know the answer. I teach the answer. But there’s something about the whining that brings me to doing this over and over again, against my better judgment. How many parents (and teachers) give the same nudge. No wonder our kids still need it.
There’s a fine line between guidance and giving the answer. But there should also come a time when self-starting and working through things on their own happens. Maybe it’s older than seven, but I saw the same tendency in many of my college aged students and think back now to wonder if their parents would have helped them more by not helping them so much. I also wonder whether we help more and do more for our kids because we’re just so tired. It’s hard to admit it, but sometimes I help, not just so the whining will stop, but so the homework will be completed and it will not only be off Carl’s head, but also off mine. I know it should be his responsibility, but I still feel it’s mine to be sure it happens. At what age do we hand over responsibility? Seven, Ten, Fifteen, Twenty, Twenty-Five, Never? It depends on the the topic, and the child, and it’s always a fine line.
Not Dealing with Disappointment and Consequences
Gen Y is the self-esteem generation. The ones who grew up where everybody is a winner, everyone gets a trophy, so that no one will be disappointed. The kids see that the awards mean less when everyone gets them, but the adults in their lives are reluctant to make distinctions for fear of hurting feeling, reducing self esteem, and (I’m guessing here) not wanting to deal with the fall out of a disappointed child (or worse yet, the defensive parent of disappointed child.) Look at grade inflation. Is that because kids are smarter and that a B is now average?
Another Carl story (sorry, Carl!) When Carl was in kindergarten I signed him up for soccer. It was 5 practices. I won’t bore you with the details, but Carl made it through only 2 practices. By practice 3 he cried so hard about not wanting to go anymore that (after watching him sob through the first 10 minutes of the third practice) I agreed that he could leave and not complete the “season.” A few weeks after the end of the season, I got a call from the team’s coordinator asking what size Carl’s team T-shirt should be and letting me know the cost of my portion of the trophy. I informed the coordinator that I was happy to pay my portion for the trophies, but that Carl shouldn’t get a T-Shirt or a trophy. “Won’t Carl be disappointed and feel left out if all the other kids on the team get them?” I truly appreciated her concern, but told her that since he didn’t finish the season, he hadn’t earned them. I got more push back, but insisted. This wasn’t a terribly tough decision on my part. I knew that Carl felt little connection to the team and wouldn’t really care about the T-Shirt and trophy. But I was trying to set the precedent of needing to earn rewards. Will I be this firm when he doesn’t meet his commitment and wants the reward? I hope so. But (see Zero-to-One challenges) the jury’s still out <sigh.>
As we shield our children from ever feeling sad, facing disappointment and accepting the consequences of their actions, are we taking the easy way out short term, but making things far harder for them in the long term? Can we wonder why they’ll leave a job so quickly at the first hint of disappointment?
The Disposable Job
All of this, the lack of decision making, the over-actively advocating for 18 – 24 year old children, always helping them get from zero-to-one, and protecting them from disappointment, delays their adulthood. It makes them view their early 20’s more as an extension of their adolescence and they don’t view that first job after college as an opportunity to commit to their work life and start building their professional skills, resume and network. They take that first job far less seriously than perhaps they should. Last story for now.
I recently got a call from a former student. She was asking for help in looking for a new job. I asked what happened at her current job. She told me that she liked (didn’t love, but liked) her job. But she had an opportunity to go to Europe for three weeks. “They” wouldn’t give her the time off, so she gave her notice. No hard feelings, she wasn’t angry that they wouldn’t give her time off, but she also wasn’t worried that it could be hard to find another job that she liked as well and that had such solid growth potential. “I can go back and live at home after Europe. I’ll find something else eventually.”
Is this the choice you would have made?
All this said, this generation has a wonderfully strong and positive relationship with their parents, so perhaps it’s hard to look at this too critically. But this level of coddling, high touch, extended parenting leaves Gen Y’s first managers in a complicated position as they become, in essence, the transitional parent. That will be the topic of my next blog which will include recommendations for parents, managers and Gen Y’s.
Gen Y Retention in a Tough Economy
October 28, 2008
You may find yourself wondering why I would choose to write about employee retention in a tough economy.
Some of you may be thinking that, in a poor economy, retention efforts are unnecessary since employees are less likely to leave their existing job.
Others may be thinking that retention is even more critical in a down economy.
I’m writing in response to the first position with support for the second.
Over the past few weeks, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been responding to comments along the lines of, “As the economy gets worse, I don’t t think we’re going to have a retention problem. I don’t expect our Gen Y employees to be leaving as fast as they used to.” While the spoken element of this is a belief that their employees won’t leave, the unspoken belief is that efforts to increase these employees’ job satisfaction are no longer necessary. Bad Plan!
In a down economy, employee retention and job satisfaction are even more important.
Employers who think the poor economy will encourage an unhappy Gen Y to stay in that job will find themselves disappointed and with an open headcount. This generation is fairly confident they can get another job, likely to already have their own entrepreneurial ventures going, have friends with entrepreneurial ventures going, &/or see no stigma in moving back home with their parents.
So, in a down economy, doesn’t it make sense to focus attention towards retention, efficiency and morale efforts rather than the alternative? Consider the following:
Recruiting Efforts & Costs – When an employee leaves, unless you are not replacing that headcount, you and others in your organization will be spending time and money to replace that employee with someone as qualified as the person you hired in the first place. Once you have paid the recruiting costs and you, your staff, and your HR department have spent the time interviewing, you have the . . .
Training Costs and Training Time – You will need to train the new employee so s/he can be a productive new member of your staff. Who will do most of that training? Probably your existing employees who are already overworked because of the . . .
Retained Staff’s Reduced Efficiency and Effectiveness – First, your staff is probably running lean in this economy as cost containment becomes a survival focus. Second, when your employee resigned, your existing staff has likely had to absorb the workload until a new employee is hired. Third, they are still doing more than one person’s work, are now training the replacement and are still covering the replacement’s workload until that new employee comes up to speed. This means that they spend less time on their original job and what follows is . . .
Churn’s Morale Hit – When employees start to leave an organization morale takes a hit. It’s frustrating to see someone move on to another position. It makes you feel like you’re being left behind. It makes you think more about greener pastures and what’s “wrong” with your current job. It makes you feel trapped. And sometimes, you may just miss your old work buddy. This doesn’t even include the reality of the extra work coming your way, when you’re already doing the work of two people because your company is running lean in this tough economy.
Reputation for an unpleasant culture gets around. Once the economy improves, these employees you didn’t care enough about will leave and it will be hard to replace them because you will have a reputation as an organization that doesn’t care about its people and doesn’t treat them well.
But, besides all this, why would an organization want to retain people who aren’t happy in their jobs. That too creates a morale hit. You also aren’t getting those employees at their creative, problem solving, roll up their sleeves best. And isn’t a tough economy when you need that most?
So, for Managers of Gen Y employees, while you may get some satisfaction from the reality that it will probably take longer for the departing employee to find another job than that employee anticipates, that doesn’t negate the fact that you now have to spend time and money on recruiting and training, and endure yet another learning curve. Retention efforts don’t need to be expensive. Focus on making sure your employees (all employees, not just Gen Y’s) understand the value of their efforts, why their projects are important, and that you care about them as people. Be patient with them, they’re worried about the economy too. Invest in their skills and assure them that they are “part of the solution.” Surprise them with something fun once in a while. Assure them that they are critical to your organization’s riding out a tough economy. You need them at their creative, focused, problem solving, happy best.
Gen Y, don’t just sit back and wait for things to get better. Take part in making it better. If you’re ready to leave a job not because you’ve got a great opportunity but because you’re unhappy where you are, think about what you could do to make things better. Before you get your letter of resignation written, put yourself in your manager’s shoes and think about the challenges s/he is facing. If you were that manager, how would you want/need your employees to respond. Now is the time to be your best. While your management needs to recognize that you are “part of the solution,” you need to actually BE “part of the solution.” This is your opportunity to wow your manager and have the impact on the organization that you know you have the potential for. Won’t that position you well when the economy improves and promotions and new projects flow more freely? Yes, a large part of this is your management’s responsibility. But an even larger part of it is yours.
Social Networking Tools – To Enable or Disable Access?
October 13, 2008
“If we give our employees access to _______________, they won’t get any work done!”
This is a quote from the director of a department I worked in a loooooong time ago. I was a Systems Analyst with the N.A.S.D. (they manage the over the counter stock market.) The year was 1987 and he was referring to the personal computer. He went on to say “They’d just play games all day and I don’t have time to police it.”
There were a few open area computers that we all had to share. So, you’d draft your document on paper, then hope to find an open area computer available. You’d migrate all your notes etc. to the computer, type and further refine your document. Then you’d print it and head back to your desk to proof it. Once proofed, you’d again hope a computer was open and enter your edits. Then print and back to your desk. Hopefully, you wouldn’t find an error. If you did, you’d ask yourself, “does this error really need to be corrected?” before deciding whether it was worth the effort to start the process again. Needless to say, it was incredibly inefficient.
Since Apple was one of the major stocks on the NASDAQ, our management decided that our IS department should have one. Volunteering to house the lone Macintosh (that we purchased at Macy’s) on my desk finally got me out of the open area computer pit. That was my first experience with my own computer at work and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I became known as the person who could process the most work in the shortest amount of time. My documents looked better than anyone else’s because I didn’t have to spend 20 minutes correcting a typo. Go figure!
Can you imagine having to share a PC now?
Fast forward to the mid 1990. The Internet was coming of age, and companies were reluctant to give their employees access. Why? Same reason. Managers didn’t see the value that access to this range of information would have on their employees’ productivity. They also didn’t want to police usage and were afraid their employees would surf and shop all day when they were supposed to be working.
It’s 2008 now, almost 2009, and many companies still don’t allow their employees Internet access or dramatically limit the sites their employees can view. So, it’s no surprise that these and even full-Internet-access-allowing companies shutter at the thought of letting their employees access social networking tools like Facebook and MySpace.
In terms of the potential for a productivity hit, they’re not completely wrong. You can plan to just take a peek and then spend 30 minutes or more as one curiosity leads to another. But there will always be potential for distractions. If your employee can’t manage their time and meet their commitments through any number of temptations and distractions, don’t you have a bigger problem?
Social Networking Tools are how Gen Y communicate. This is not just a casual connection. This is a significant part of their lifeline.
For managers, my strong recommendation is that you allow your employees access to social networking tools for the following reasons:
First, if you don’t, poor economy or not, you will have trouble attracting and retaining this already fickle generation of employees. Your policy on access to social networking tools will say more about your culture than many other decisions. To this generation, no access to social networking means a company that “doesn’t get it.” Whether Gen Y’s recognize it or not, they respect people who understand and embrace new technologies and have less respect for those who don’t. You might say “I want to do everything I can to assure your productivity and success.” But, what they’ll hear is “I don’t trust you to exercise good judgment regarding how you spend your work day.”
Second, think about the full scope of what you’re asking them to do in their role with your company. At some point, you’ll want them to:
- help you make a sale or do their own sales call
- recruit their associates into a newly opened position
- come up to speed quickly on a topic so they can execute a new project
- quickly uncover best practices as you re-engineer a process
- etc.
Their first instinct will be to leverage their personal network. How effectively and enthusiastically do you think they’ll meet those requests if you disable access to the most effective tools they’ve got?
Third, they all have handheld devices. They’ll access these tools whether you provide access or not. Why take the “old fashioned culture” hit, if it won’t stop your employees from accessing the tools during their work day anyway?
Yes, you will need to coach them on security issue boundaries, how to manage their time well, and how to impact the perceptions of senior management (see my earlier blog on Information Sharing Boundaries.) This is an excellent opportunity to establish a reciprocal arrangement with your Gen Y employees. You help these employees to use social networking tools in an acceptable way within your organization and have them train you (and others) on all the power of these tools. That level of respect for what they bring to the table will go a long way in cementing their connection to your organization, not to mention help you learn to use some potentially valuable new tools.
For Gen Y’s, (how do I say this without sounding condescending?) don’t make me sorry for presenting this recommendation. Muster the discipline not to abuse this access privledge while at work. Don’t make this a problem for your manager. A career-launching client recently told me about studying at the library during finals week and noticing that about 80% of the other studiers’ screens were on Facebook. I’m just going to assume they were taking a short break. Hmmmmm. Be respectful of the culture of your organization.
Help others in your organization understand how these are valuable tools for you. Help them get started using these tools. Showcase success stories where things you were able to learn about/from “friends” using these tools have positively impacted a project, sales call, recruiting opportunity etc.
You are uniquely qualified to provide a huge value add to your organization by helping them leverage the power of these tools in new, creative and effective ways. In these difficult economic times, creative thinkers have opportunities to significantly impact their organizations in wonderful ways. Be part of the solution.
Telecommuting Pitfalls
September 30, 2008
For the past few weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about telecommuting. I’ve been writing about how important telecommuting is to many Gen Y employees (and others) and how employers should try to be flexible in this area. I still believe this to be true, but I’ve also been haunted by three stories that demonstrate the importance of face-to-face interaction, and sometimes just “being there.”
Casual Chats – Critical Impact
One of my roles at Microsoft many years ago was in the Product Support Services (PSS) area where I was responsible for assuring that IT was building the tools PSS needed. My office was on the same floor as the Diane (name changed,) the PSS Vice President’s. At least once a day we’d cross paths in the hall. Our initial hallway chats were mostly about the weather and her recent relocation from Minneapolis.
But, within a week, those brief conversations started to evolve. Diane would ask me the status of a project or casually mention a meeting she was preparing for. I would give Diane a heads up on a project that might run a little late, tell her about about a project that was going great, or ask a question about the direction a critical decision was headed. I began to start my day by creating a brief “hallway chat” list of topics I wanted to discuss with Diane or things I thought she should know. Sure we also participated in more formal meetings, generally with others in attendance, but these casual chats helped both of us “check in” and gave us the opportunity to discuss things that were important, but not important enough to call a meeting for.
I didn’t realize how important those casual chats were until there was a broader reorganization and my group relocated to a different floor. Since we no longer crossed paths on a daily basis, those casual chat opportunities were lost. I realized how much I missed them when I got caught flat footed in a meeting because I wasn’t current on (or told about) a topic we previously would have touched base on in a hallway discussion. To make a long story short (or shorter <sigh>) I tried several ways to stay in that casual loop, but none of them worked as well as those hallway discussions. Due to this and several other events, the IT group and my effectiveness flailed, Diane’s frustration grew, and I eventually moved to another job within the company. Those unscheduled chats had had a huge impact on my ability to do my job successfully. I missed them and my performance suffered.
Out of “Site” – Do just what’s asked
One of my career-launcher clients and I were talking about his summer internship. He liked the work and the people, but, one of things he appreciated most was the flexibility.
Our conversation went something like this.
“I can work whenever and wherever I want as long as I get the job done,” he told me.
“Are you doing good work?” I asked him.
“Yes,” he replied.
“Are you doing great work?” I asked.
“It’s not that kind of work.” he replied. “They’re asking me to fix things. It’s binary. They’re either fixed or they’re not. There’s no opportunity for great. I’ve fixed everything they’ve asked me to fix and I do it in far less time than they estimate.”
“What do you do with the extra time?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” he replied
“Do you tell them that it took less time than expected and ask for other projects?” I asked.
He looked at me like I had two heads and replied “No” with a <duh> tone of voice.
“So, in the time they’re paying you for, you could do more for them. You could also be learning more. Right?” I asked
No response.
“If you were on site for your full hourly commitment, do you think you’d get more work done for them?” I asked.
“Probably,” he replied.
“So, you could be great by asking for more than they expect of you, couldn’t you?” I asked.
“I guess so” he said sheepishly.
This is a wonderful, hardworking student and it never crossed his mind that he should think about further exceeding expectations. To him, nailing every project request by the deadline was exceeding expectations, and perhaps it was. But I’m struck by how much more both he and his employer could have gotten out of this working relationship.
Advice to Interns – See the Bigger Picture
When I ran the IS Internship Program at the University of Washington, I required a weekly status reports from each intern. By week three it was clear that they were generally doing well and were very focused on the tasks they were assigned. That was when my advice pointed them to look at the bigger picture. Sure they were hired to do a job, but mostly they were hired so their employers could determine whether this intern would be a longer term fit for the company. Sure the intern wanted job experience, but a great internship provides a richer look at the company, soft skills growth, and a networking jumpstart. Increasing their skill set is just the beginning.
I advised them to use their time with the company to its fullest; request to sit in on planning sessions, schedule a lunch or coffee chat with an influencial person at the company, offer to help out in big and small ways, recommend changes to processes that could use improvements with an offer to be part of the solution. That not only gets an intern noticed, but provides a richer, more complete intern experience than simply doing a task and learning a new skill. Those things are much more difficult if the intern is not on site.
One aspect of the internship relationship that reduces its overall effectiveness is that, with the exception of summer internships, most internships are part time. It’s very difficult to make traction as a part time employee in a full time world. Every day feels like Monday and you never seem to be around when the cool, random projects are assigned. It’s not an intentional oversight. But “out of site,” can also be out of mind, or the project needs to be assigned to someone the manager has easy access to.
CHALLENGES FOR THE TELECOMMUTER
While telecommuting can help employees make more effective use of their time and can save money on gas/parking etc., it can come at a price especially for organizations with a more traditional culture.
Perception of not there = not working
For companies that don’t have a lot of people telecommuting, there can be a perception that “no there = not working.” Here are two examples.
A colleague was talking about how one of the benefits of telecommuting was the opportunity to focus and work without as many of the interruptions that occur when he’s in his office. He mentioned that he was going to “Take the day off to write performance reviews at home.” Is he taking time off? No, he’s doing his job. He’s being extra conscientious in knowing the importance and challenge of writing a fair, accurate, thoughtful, constructive and valuable performance review. I asked if it would be different if he was not at home, but was at a nearby coffee shop? His response was that he’d still feel guilty.
This conversation left me wondering how successfully and comfortably a manager who feels guilty not being in the office even when he’s truly working can manage a generation who can work anywhere.
Another colleague was talking about how one of her employees works at home, not all the time, but on a regularly scheduled basis to accommodate a child care schedule. Others on the staff were reluctant to contact the telecommuter at home and found themselves looking for someone “there” to do a task that was the telecommuter’s role. My colleague found herself reminding the staff, “Call her, she’s working.”
Lost opportunities
Not every workplace project is well planned in advance. When a new, urgent project arises, who gets the assignment? Generally the person nearby and not the person working from home. There is often not a deliberate thought of “To whom should I assign this?” It’s who can get this addressed fast. Also, while a new employee might not be thought of to lead a key project, if that employee is nearby when things heat up, there’s a greater likelihood to be asked to be involved, not just to help the project, but also as a growth and development opportunity. These opportunities are so important to Gen Y’s job satisfaction. But both they and their managers need to make decisions that will help those opportunities fall into place organically. No one can say, “I promise you that you should work on site tomorrow because I have a feeling that a hot new project will come out of nowhere.” It just doesn’t work that way. Sometimes you just have to be more available when the unexpected arises.
Less connection
Email, text messaging and phone calls are a great way to communicate for many things. But you can miss the nuances of tone when combined with visual cues that help you to understand whether someone is quietly pleased or borderline irritated. Also, if a meeting is happening on site, there’s a reluctance to conference someone in. It changes the meeting as the person on the phone is either overlooked or given excessive attention. If everyone is calling in, that’s one thing. If one person is offsite, it just doesn’t work as well. So unless you’re a critical team member, you’ll probably miss the opportunity to be in on a meeting if you’re not there.
There are also unpredicatable conversations like the opportunity to be in an elevator with the CEO etc. that just won’t happen when you’re off site.
And then there’s just the magic of place and the shared experience of being in the same place at the same time. Think about your college experience. If you had done all your college work online, you might have learned as much academically, but think of what you’d have missed; the depth of friendships with your classmates, really getting to know certain professors (who can prove to be great references later on,) study groups over pizza, participation in student groups etc. While you can do some of those things remotely, it takes longer to establish those relationships and connection. Loyalty comes more from those relationships than the institutions themselves. Place matters. Perhaps not 100% of the time, but it’s much harder at 10%.
CONCLUSION
When navigating how to manage a staff where employees are telecommuting some or all of the time, the complexity of telecommuting forces the question of whether an employee is being paid for a number of hours worked or to get a project/task/job done. Much depends on the role and type of work. But clearly this topic will require discussion, decisions and clarity around unspoken givens. Managers will need to define metrics and measurable to clarify expectations for their employees and confirm for themselves that the right work is getting done. As these discussions unfold, it is important to realize that with 7 X 24 hour access, most employees likely work far more hours than they’re being compensated for.
Hiring employees who can work independently will become more important. It will be critical to hire those who will be able to fight the distraction temptations and stay on task, and to seek out employees who will become committed to their project, their team, their management and their company. Employees who only work hard when they’re being watched will not become successful telecommuters. Make sure you hire the employees who can be successful in both an on-site and telecommuting model.
Accept for yourself and for others that not being in the office does not mean not working. But also encourage your new employees to be on-site more. It may not always be “necessary,” but it can often be valuable in unpredictable ways.
For Gen Y employees, especially if this is your first professional job, be sure you see both side of telecommuting. On one side it surely helps you to be more efficient as you don’t have potentially long commutes and can save money on parking and gas.
But see the downside too. See the temptation to do just what’s assigned and ask yourself if you would have done a better job if you gave it more time. Ask yourself if there are projects you’re not being assigned because you’re not on-site when your manager gets the idea or the impromptu meeting that you miss because it’s just not the same to have a meeting in a conference room with someone else on speaker phone. Think about the way people get to know each other and the opportunities missed by not being there. Your generation can make quick and true connection with people you never meet. But many of the people you need to connect with at work are not of your generation.
Even though it goes against your efficiency inclinations, spend time at the office, even if you don’t “need” to be there. Be a bit more casual with your time, especially at the start of a new job.
Think about the bigger picture of your job. It’s not just about getting the work done and getting it done well. It’s not just about meeting expectations, it’s about exceeding them. For some projects, just good enough is fine. For others, those subtle differences can impact success or failure, a promotion or staying at a current level. These are not black and white issues. They’re far more subtle.
It’s about being a part of an organization and that’s much harder to do if you’re not there.
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