What inspired you to write the book?

When I started my own HR consulting practice, I noticed many of my clients’ issues were not based on poor communication or policy infractions, but on a disconnect between the generations.  In particular, I realized the Millennial generation  needs to be motivated and provided plenty of opportunity to grow and develop their skills or they become bored and appear unmotivated.

What do you think is the single most important step that employers can take to maximize the engagement and wellbeing of workers across every generation?

Employers need to understand what motivates that person by understanding their generation, and then develop the entire work experience to ensure that they are meeting everyone’s needs. This includes policies toward compensation, time off, and training. Some employees want gift cards to Starbucks or iTunes, while other generations would be happy with an award on their wall for a job well done.

What do you say to critics who say generational differences are overblown?

As an HR executive with 15-plus years of international experience, I know that these critics have not been educated on how to differentiate between generational and economic issues. Once they have walked in the trenches on a daily basis, they’re more likely to see a trend in employee issues.

After all, understanding generational differences holds the key to a more productive, effective and happier workforce. Millennials for example were raised to enjoy life; work is merely a tool to support their lifestyle. Baby Boomers, on the other hand, work to live. Boomers are the targets of most wellness programs, medication and counseling ads, because we struggle with developing a work-life balance.

Also, age discrimination claims are still an issue. In 2009, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported a 28% increase in age discrimination claims. The current average cost to defend, not win, a lawsuit is approximately $300,000 and that does not include the soft costs such as weakened morale for the people left behind.

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Younger generations are growing up less able to cope with uncertainty and ambiguity than older ones. This isn’t a knock on Gen Y, it’s a universal truth: On the whole, each generation seeks to provide a “better,” more assured life for the one that follows. In a very simple example, consider the pioneer who doesn’t know where he will live when he arrives in a new land. The first thing he does is build a house, thus eliminating much uncertainty from his offspring’s lives. Within modern society, we don’t have to worry as much about protection from the elements, but we find other ways to remove ambiguity from our world.

Our increasingly test-based educational system often explicitly eliminates uncertainty from classrooms. Structured, facilitated play activities eliminate ambiguity from children’s interactions. Religious and political voices restrict our choices through legal and moral pressure. Where uncertainty has not yet been eliminated directly, society has created such a vast network of teachers, specialists, therapists and over-involved parents that for many, ambiguity is no longer seen as a problem to be solved by me, it’s feedback that someone else didn’t fully do their job … and a sign that I need outside help. That’s a problem.

Actually, that’s 10 problems. Here is what I predict for corporate America should our unwillingness to handle ambiguity and uncertainty increase further:

• Animosity between workers and bosses in business will increase. Ambiguity often looks pretty darn black-and-white to the worker who doesn’t see the nuance. And when workers think management is overanalyzing/dragging its feet/fumbling a simple problem, they lose patience with, and lose faith in, management’s ability to perform.

• Many younger employees will “opt out” of a corporate system they don’t fully understand. This will ultimately prolong their own learning curve as they try to re-create a “better” structure without realizing that a number of the problems with our current structure will exist in any system populated by humans because the problems stem from our human nature, not our system design.

• Leadership will suffer. Take ambiguity away from leadership, and you take away tough decisions and responsibility. What you’re left with is overpaid administration. That’s the image many young professionals today seem to have of leadership, so that’s what they’ll create.

• The Applization of design will get more expensive, as companies that try to build simple products with minimal learning curves find they lack employees who can accurately predict real-world user behavior.

• Individuals will double down on what they are good at, which in this case is solving problems by working HARDER BETTER FASTER SMARTER. This will rob many companies of their “manager class,” as people who stay in the system opt for specialist roles rather than managerial roles that come with more — yep, you guessed it — ambiguity.

• Career paths will become more fixed. Our ability to process ambiguity extends to our ability to assess other people. Already, resume readers look for specific patterns, jettisoning capable applicants with “non-conforming” histories. This trend will continue to amplify for awhile.

• Companies will ruthlessly centralize their decision-making functions, concentrating power with a few select people who “get it.”

• Individuals will become more system dependent, just as people who aren’t good at division become more dependent on their calculators. This will create feelings of frustration and resentment.

• Stress levels will explode further. If you think it’s bad now, just wait. There is a lot of unresolved fear out there. Mix in a dash of helplessness (which is a often a synonym for “unable to handle ambiguity”) and you’ve got a potent mix.

Fortunately, these problems are also self-correcting — if we allow the process to unfold and work itself out. These trends won’t suck in everyone. and as the pendulum begins to swing, a countervailing force will create resistance. This force won’t stop the shift, but it will eventually slow it and bring everything back the other way, toward individualization. But can we can handle the ambiguity inherent in that process?

Image credit, kaisersosa67, via iStock

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MARY ELLEN: What steps can managers take to keep workers engaged when they can’t give raises or promotions?

DERRICK: The foundation of engagement is one-to-one dialogue, those regular conversations that help you make sure you really have a handle on what’s critical for this person. That’s the best way to know if the projects they are working on fit their skills and interests, and if they have the right resources to get the job done.

Such conversations are free, but they do take an investment of time by the manager. And this works across the board: Boomers want it, Gen X wants it, Millennials want it.

What do you think is the biggest mistake managers make in trying to engage their workers?

On of the biggest relates to prioritization — thinking ‘I’m going to do this when I have time.’ Engaging people is really a make-time issue. If you manage talent, you need to be making time to manage talent.

Another common issue is treating all of your workers the same. There are similarities and differences between people, and those differences make a difference.

A third mistake is thinking that organization initiatives will solve the top needs affecting why a person engages and stays. Most needs can be significantly addressed when a manager and their talented employee work together to make an impact.

What do you think is the sharpest difference between the Millennials and previous generations?

If a Millennial is in a bad work decision, the speed at which they will make a decision and inform their network is astounding.

If a Boomer is unhappy, she’ll maintain their current level of engagement, and perhaps talk with one or two close friends. A Gen Xer will pull back his engagement, and tell maybe 10 to 15 people. Millennials? They leave with speed, and if you get a disgusted Millennial, they’ll inform thousands via their social networks.

What advice do you give to a manager who’s trying to maximize the effectiveness of a multigenerational team?

The manager has to think about two things: How do I maximize my team’s performance, and how do I maximize the performance of each talented person. For the team to work, you have to make sure the group has a clear goal, clarified roles and established practices for sharing information, making decisions, monitoring their group’s performance, and informing other stakeholders. For individuals to perform at their best (engagement) and want to stay (retention) you must be actively working on creating a work situation that is a good “fit” for their most critical needs. You engage and retain talent one person at a time.

Image credit, Yuri_Arcurs, via iStock

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What characteristics of Gen Y do employers of other generations find most problematic?
PERRYMORE: Our research revealed that the biggest complaint was a false sense of entitlement. Generation Y has an immediate need for getting rewards, praise, and promotion not based on tenure, but based on performance.

What are the psychological causes for this difference in attitude toward work?

LIPKIN: This generation was raised by Baby Boomers, who were influenced by the hippie movement of the 70s, which resulted in a revolt against traditional parenting practices. Boomers taught their children to do the exact opposite of what their parents taught them: Question authority, speak up, and to be a part of major decisions. Those are not necessarily bad things, but the disservice is that parents didn’t help build accountability and responsibility.

In addition, there was a huge focus on self-esteem in the education system when millennials were growing up. Awards were not merit-based and students received accolades simply for showing up to school. So now, they enter the workforce, and they want to be rewarded for just showing up and doing their work.

PERRYMORE: Parents of Gen Y are friends with their children, so they really focused on defending them instead of punishing them and enforcing consequences, which is contributing to the millennials’ difficulty with coping.

What positive qualities do they bring to the workforce?

LIPKIN: Something that I adore about this generation is that they are incredibly socially and globally conscious. This generation won’t work for organizations that don’t support their values — environmentally, socially and globally. They’re forcing organizations to become more globally aware and the impact has been noticeable.

What are the best tactics companies can employ to manage this generation properly?

LIPKIN: A specific tactic for organizations is to provide incremental responsibility as a reward as opposed to incremental promotion. That way, Gen Y employees feel like there efforts are being recognized and not ignored. In addition, allowing them to work in other departments for a certain percentage of their time will keep them from getting bored, which also happens very often.

PERRYMORE: Finally, managers need to be patient and consistent and want to learn about this generation. This generation is as large as the Boomers, so ignoring the needs and characteristics of Gen Y will be perilous for organizations, as millennials will one day run the workforce.

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The second day of SHRM’s recruitment conference was up to the challenge posed by its venue, the world’s largest Hilton. The agenda included 32 detailed sessions ranging from recruiting Gen X and Gen Y, to HR analytics, to California employment law. About two-thirds of the 600 recruiters were first-time attendees, making the information both timely and critical to their daily activities.

My informal poll of about 50 people found the most popular reasons for attending were to learn:

• The fundamentals of recruiting.
• The impact on online and social media on human resources.
• Best practices from industry experts, and how to train and ramp up new recruiters.

Journalist Nadira Hira educated the general session on the Gen Y mindset. To effectively attract and manage the “why” generation (my term not hers), managers must understand the high expectations Gen Yers have of themselves and those with whom they interact, she told the group.

How she says they can do that:

• First, managers must articulate the mission of the company in a way that recruits can relate to and feel a part of.

• Second, managers need to provide a clear opportunity for them to meaningfully contribute to the company (not copying and stapling).

• Finally, managers need to regularly communicate with the new hires and provide a dialogue about expectations and actual performance. This generation can be onboarded with money, but won’t stay very long unless there’s a strong relationship established with supervisors and a bond made with the company and its purpose.

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But these lines aren’t so clean, and they ignore the more meaningful differences that come from in individual temperament and socioeconomic background. (Whether someone is an introvert or an extrovert would influence my management tactics more than their age, for example.)

Much of this wild and crazy stuff that Gen Y supposedly wants strikes me as simply good management of inexperienced workers. Of course they need feedback — they’re new at this. How else will they learn to do their jobs well if you don’t provide guidance?

If you don’t pay attention to what your new workers need, they will wash out at insanely high rates, wasting far more money and time than you would have spent simply meeting with them regularly to track their progress.

You don’t need new-fangled software like Rypple to do this effectively. My favorite method of delivering feedback starts with pouring a cup of coffee or a beer. (I learned it from my grandmother, by the way. She totally deserves a trophy.)

Tulgan has a point about not overusing praise (and I agree with him, even in my philosophy about how I’m raising my own kid), but praise isn’t the same thing as feedback. And feedback isn’t the same as coddling. It’s about making your own expectations clear and managing theirs.

I detect more than a whiff of contempt toward young adults in Tulgan’s arguments. Older people grumbling about “kids today”? Jeez, at least we know one group of people hasn’t changed much.

Image credit, iStock

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Does your organization still rely on annual reviews? Are you contemplating changes? Share your experiences here, and your comments could be featured in SmartBrief on Workforce.

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