Employee Contribution versus Satisfaction
All organizations are trying to achieve success, which are simply the organization’s goals and targets. To achieve goals and targets, the organization needs to stay competitive in the respective industry or market. For that, an organization needs willing and able employees who can perform at the highest levels.
Such employees consist of several individuals who are having a unique path towards a personal goal (White, 2018). Therefore, they will have a concern on their personal values, career aspirations, personal interests and work life needs over the organizational well-being (White, 2018). However, at the end of the day, all employees are looking for the maximum satisfaction over their work (White, 2018).
Accordingly, both an organization and its employees are on paths of their own towards pursuing the definition of success (White, 2018). Most importantly these are not parallel paths but intersect at some point, daily which is of course at the work place as illustrated in figure 1.
Figure 1.0: The X-model of Employee Engagement
Employee Contribution versus Satisfaction
All organizations are trying to achieve success, which are simply the organization’s goals and targets. To achieve goals and targets, the organization needs to stay competitive in the respective industry or market. For that, an organization needs willing and able employees who can perform at the highest levels.
Such employees consist of several individuals who are having a unique path towards a personal goal (White, 2018). Therefore, they will have a concern on their personal values, career aspirations, personal interests and work life needs over the organizational well-being (White, 2018). However, at the end of the day, all employees are looking for the maximum satisfaction over their work (White, 2018).
Accordingly, both an organization and its employees are on paths of their own towards pursuing the definition of success (White, 2018). Most importantly these are not parallel paths but intersect at some point, daily which is of course at the work place as illustrated in figure 1.
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(Source:White,2018)
Even though the paths of the organization and its’ employees towards pursuing their own goals are vice versa, there is an ‘APEX’ point where it intersect (figure 1.0). It is a lesser number compared to the total no. of staff in any organization; yet, employees falling to this category are the ones who are fully engaged. They contribute to the organization at the maximum level and possibly they are getting back the maximum satisfaction as well
The Millennial Challenge
Millennials are the demographic group following ‘Generation X’ and preceding ‘Generation Z’. Demographers and researchers typically use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years of this generation. Millennials are also called as Generation ‘Y’ (Stack, New York Times, 2018). As we are heading towards an era where ‘baby boomers’ are going to retire, more and more work forces in the world is going be overtaken by the Generation X and later by the Millennials.
Comparing the generations
Each generation defines a meaningful work slightly differently. The following are few responses received for an interview conducted by Kelly Pledger Weeks with few employees of each generation (Weeks, Harvard Business Review 2017).
Baby Boomers (born between 1946-1964): “If I didn’t get personal fulfillment and feel like I was doing something good, it would be miserable to put that much time and effort into something.”
Generation X (born between 1965-1983): “If your job is without meaning, what would get you out of bed?”
Millennials (born between 1984-2002): “I would rather make nothing and love going to work every day than make a ton of money and hate going to work every day.”
Going with the salient features or characteristics of each generation, boomers identify their strengths as organizational memory, optimism, and their willingness to work long hours (Giang, 2013). This generation grew up in organizations with large corporate hierarchies, rather than flat management structures and teamwork-based job roles (Gilbert, 2011). Generation X is thinking of accomplishing career goals and work life balance as the key components (Weeks, 2017, Harvard Business Review). In contrast, millennial generation has a different outlook on what they expect from their employment experience. Millennials are well educated, technology savvy, very self-confident, able to multi-task, enthusiastic, have plenty of energy (Giang, 2013) and they believe in having nice co workers, helping others and the community will make their job interesting (Weeks, 2017, Harvard Business Review). They have high expectations for themselves, and prefer to work in teams, rather than as individuals. Millennials seek challenges, yet work life balance is of utmost importance to them (Giang, 2013).
“One of the characteristics of millennials, besides the fact that they are masters of digital communication, is that they are primed to do well by doing good. Almost 70 percent say that giving back and being civically engaged are their highest priorities.” (Buchanon L, 2010, p 166)
As millennial have grown up in an era where information is just a ‘click’ away, they have developed themselves to create a problem and then to find few creative solutions to the same. Hence, they expect themselves to be the X-factor at work for their respective organization. For example, a millennial who had been struggling in her role, admitted to peers that, “I guess I just expected that I would get to act on more of my ideas, and that the higher ups here would have figured out by now that the model’s changing.” (Erickson, Harvard Business Review 2009).This shows that the current generation, ‘The boomers’ have not been successful in recognizing the true values of their following generation, thus failed in engaging Gen Y to the workforce.” (Erickson, Harvard Business Review 2009).
Engaging ‘Millennial’ to the workforce in an effective manner
“Age and stage don’t explain everything, either. If you have multiple Millennial on your team, you’ll realize that neither generation nor age can explain how different the Millennial are from one another” (Davey, 2018 July, Harvard Business Review).
Considering their unique characteristics, Millennial are presented with many challenges as well as opportunities by the management. Therefore, to succeed in driving any company to the next level with Millennial, the organization needs to get the right strategy of engaging them (Gilbert, 2011).As per Mike Johnson’s ‘The new rules of engagement’, engagement now begins with employees’ lifestyles and what they consider is worth investing themselves in; the choice to engage lies with the employee (Smith & Marwick, 2009). Accordingly, here are some top strategies that can be adopted or followed to engage the Millennial.
01. Develop unique connections
As ‘Millennial’ are more often work as a team, they fancy being more interactive between peers and even with the line managers. Therefore, they need to be facilitated to develop such skills and connections by organizing more interactive forums between staff (Gaskel, 2016, Forbes). Sessions on defining the organizational vision and mission too will help (Gilbert, 2011).
02. Flexibility at workplace
‘Millennial’ have grown up in an era where they can reach any information almost instantly. Therefore it is essential to understand their true potential and to give them freedom to ‘think out of the box’ to gain more creative solutions (Reilly, 2014).
03. Training & Development together with Innovations
In any organization, development of employee skills is highly significant to keep in touch with the organizational demand (Gilbert, 2011). Together with training and development, innovation too has become a major focus for many organizations as it is providing the ‘competitive edge’ for most of the firms (SHRM, 2014). Since the new generation is more engaged and savvy in technical aspects, such strategy would make loads of favor for the organization.
04. Continuous Appraisals/Feedback
Millennial always want to feel the work they are engaged in. They want to feel appreciated for the crucial commitment they have contributed towards the organization’s success (Robinson & Gandhi, 2019).
Conclusion
Engagement is a measure where inputs vary in the overall engagement equation across organizations. A company cannot necessarily imitate participation practices or use the participant's variables for success. The work of managers and human resources professionals who are responsible for the engagement is to know that there are generational differences and that the decision-makers in the company's engagement are not always the same as the main competitor. By adopting this approach, executives should initiate discussions in their own organizations to find out which drivers can be tuned to increase engagement and which drivers they need to protect to prevent the engagement from falling across generations.
Millennial are from a new generation who want to do something different. One argument that continues to follow any strategy when experts think about it is that management is still stuck in the past, or that thousands of years remain out of business. As a business, success can only be achieved if the designated goals are meticulously designed and the employees are supported to understand and implement for better performance. Therefore, looking at the brighter side of this millennial cloud is largely important as it can take your business to the next level. The strategies mentioned, will be your drivers to increase the millennial engagement.
References
Adi Gaskell – Forbes article on ‘How To Engage The Millennial Workforce’ – Feb 25 2016 (Online) Available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/adigaskell/2016/02/25/how-to-engage-the-millennial-workforce/#519bc40511a2 – Accessed on 26/04/2019
Armstrong, M. - ‘A Handbook of Personnel Management Practice’ 6th edition. London: kogan page.
Blessing white – You tube (online) available at https://youtu.be/I-VtYFS9v8Q
Buchanon L. – ‘Meet the Millennials’, Sept 2010, Vol. 32 Issue 7, p166 –Accessed through the library of Central Bank of Sri Lanka on 02.04.2019
Gemma Robertson Smith & Carl Marwick – “Employee engagement – A review of Current thinking” report 469 published by Institute for Employment studies -UK, 2009
Jennifer Robinson & Rujuta Gandhi – Gallup article on “Make Engagement Central to Culture and Reap the Rewards” – March 13,2019 (Online) Available at https://www.gallup.com/workplace/247493/engagement-central-culture-reap-rewards.aspx Accessed on 26/04/2019
Kelly Pledger Weeks (July 31, 2017) – “Every Generation Wants Meaningful Work - but Thinks Other Age Groups Are in It for the Money” Harvard Business Review (Online) Available at https://hbr.org/2017/07/every-generation-wants-meaningful-work-but-thinks-other-age-groups-are-in-it-for-the-money
Liam Stack (March 01, 2018) – “Are You 21 to 37? You Might Be a Millennial” New York times article (Online) Available at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/style/millennials.html - Accessed on 27/04/2019
Liane Davey ( July 16 , 2018) – “The Key to Preventing Generational Tension Is Remembering That Everyone Wants to Feel Valued” Harvard Business Review (Online)
Tamara Erickson (February 2009) – ‘Gen Y in the Workforce’, Harvard Business Review (Online) Available at https://hbr.org/2009/02/gen-y-in-the-workforce-2 (accessed on 31.03.2019)
Reilly, R. (2014) ‘Five Ways to Improve Employee Engagement Now’ (Online)Available at: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/231581/five-ways-improve-employee-engagement.aspx (accessed on 15.04.2019)
Gilbert J (September/October 2011) ‘The Millennials: A new generation of employees, a new set of engagement policies’ Available at https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/the-millennials-a-new-generation-of-employees-a-new-set-of-engagement-policies/ (accessed on 31.03.2019)
Society for Human Resource Management (Issue 2 / 2014) ‘Employee Engagement: The Newest Research and Trends’ Available at https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/business-solutions/Documents/140373%20Workplace%20Visions%20Issue%202%202014_FINAL.pdf (accessed on 31.03.2019)
Vivian Giang (September 09, 2013) Business Insider article on ‘Here are the Strengths and Weaknesses of Millennials, Gen X and Boomers’ (Online) – Available at https://www.businessinsider.com/how-millennials-gen-x-and-boomers-shape-the-workplace-2013-9 - Accessed on 27/04/2019
I would like to add some more to your arguments.
ReplyDeleteAt the present time most of the young
generation keen to move from one organization to another
due to their compensations. If there is lack of reward and recognition then employees become less engaged and leave the
organization (Maslach et al., 2001). Therefore,
management should begin reward system for performers
and must be rewarded with different financial and non
financial incentives. Because there is much competition
outside the government sector in private organizations,
attract the employees with high benefits. There is a significant positive relationship between leadership support and employee engagement (BatistaTaran et al., 2013).
I agree with your comment. Further, according to Ghoshal and Bartlett, reward management is there to add value to people. It is not just about attaching value to them but there are some objectives as well.
Delete01.Reward people according to the value they create by providing for them to be recognized and paid in accordance with the degree to which they meet or exceed expectations.
02.Support the achievement of business goals by helping to ensure that the organization has the talented and engaged people it needs.
03.Promote high performance by ensuring that the reward system recognizes and encourages it.
04.Support and develop the organization’s culture by linking rewards to behavior that is in line with core values.
05.Define the right behaviors and outcomes by defining expectations through performance management and merit pay schemes.
It is interesting further discuss about millennials characteristics, which affects organizational performance and behavior.
ReplyDeleteMillennials like working in teams and are more tolerant than prior generations. They have been elevated on sports teams, standardized testing, and group learning, so it is not amazing that this would transferal into organizations (Kowske et al., 2010). A general complaint from Baby Boomers on Millennials is that Millennials are difficult to interact with, are entitled, and overly service-focused (Deal et al., 2010). This has been raised from Millennials expressing opinions and making greater demands than their more elder and experienced counterparts (Levenson, 2010).
As Hauw and Vos (2010) elaborated a factor that can be used to motivate and drive millennials is their higher expectations for advancement opportunities within their career. Millennials’ confidence and expecting over achieve targets; they are more likely to seek out career enhancing opportunities in an organization.
Thank you Darshana.
DeleteKelly pledger Weeks, in her article to HBR on 2017 has mentioned that, in an interview conducted by her questioning 'What is a meaningful work?', people in different generations have given different answers. For example, Baby boomers tended to be slightly more goal orientated while Millenials mentioned about having nice coworkers and helping others are far important than personal goals.Therefore, we can see the difference of thinking in the generation gap which should be used in a manner to drive the organizations to success.
As you said Millennial are working in teams and they are achieving their targets very effectively.
ReplyDeleteEmployee satisfaction or job satisfaction is one of the prime objectives of all human resources officers regardless of the individual privileges. Satisfied employee not only has a job that has been detained but also an ambassador for the brand, internally and externally. Helping others reassure you and protecting it from a variety of companies(Zarin,2018).
Thank you Nadani.
DeleteWhat is more challanging for any organization with regard to this millennial generation is to engage them in to the current workforce. According to an article by Christine Comaford to Forbes magazine on 28th July 2018, she has indicated 3 strategies for effectively engaging millenials.
01.Use their strong technological skills to your benefit.
02.Ensure they work in groups.
03.Give frequent feedback.
Following above three strategies will ultimately lead to the employee satisfaction as well.
Effective performance management is one of the most frequent engagement drivers. Millennials expect to have continuous, immediate and more frequent feedback about their performance than previous generations so they can evaluate their own progress (Gilbert, 2011, cited in Ozcelik, 2015). Consequently, HR professionals should design performance management systems that provide continuous feedback and coaching on a quarterly or even more frequent basis, goal setting and appraisal (Cascio, 2014, cited in Ozcelik, 2015). To this end, effective mentoring programs could be established to provide ongoing feedback (Ozcelik, 2015). More than 60 percent of Generation Y employees ask for a hearing with their managers at least once a day (Orrell, 2009, cited in Ozcelik, 2015). In addition, the feedback process should not only involve positive or negative criticism, but also be clear and specific, leaving no room for misunderstanding (Gilbert, 2011, cited in Ozcelik, 2015), for it has been noted that they need to be constantly guided by their supervisors (Reisenwitz & Iyer, 2009, cited in Ozcelik, 2015).
ReplyDeleteIn an article by Tamara Erickson, a millennial who had been struggling in her role, admitted to peers that, " I guess I just expected that I would get to act on more of my ideas, and that the higher ups here would have figured out by now that the model's changing." (Gen Y in the workforce , Tamara Erickson, Harvard business Review, February 2009) The millennial employee is interested in feedback on his or her performance. but traditional semi-annual reviews are too infrequent for millennial. The new feedback methods which are to be employed by the organizations are checklists, reward them for innovating and taking appropriate risks, engage them with frequent feedback, provide them with mentors, create a collegian and team-oriented culture, etc. Feedback must also be given in such a way that millennial are receptive. Feedback needs to be clear and specific to be effective.Creating engagement strategies is one of management's big goal. Creating strategies to engage millennial requires a whole different approach and strategy. Career opportunities, corporate social responsibility, employee health,employer reputation, learning and development,managing performance, senior leadership and work-life balance.
ReplyDeleteThank you Diana.
DeleteI too read the same article and added some valuble points to my blog from that.As you have clearly mentioned, feedback is an essential strategy for any employee, especially to someone from the millennial generation. Similary, Rewarding system too is another important factor which will directly have an influence on those feedbacks either positive/negative.
Rewarding people must be done according to the value they create by providing for them to be recognized and paid in accordance with the degree to which they meet or exceed expectations.(Ghoshal & Bartlett,1994)
In addition to that, millennial employees are known as very hard working, more prone to anticipate structuring, freedom to do what they want, very important having a well-paying job, not trusting the permanence of the workplace, high-tech skills, fastest learners, familiarity with artificial intelligence and always trying to develop a close link with their boss (Allwin & McCammon, 2003; Avery et al., 2007; Bartley et al., 2007). They seek glamor and want to perform better than their mentors (Hill, 2002). So if organizations do well in managing them, outstanding performance can observe from them.
ReplyDeleteYes. I agree. Adding to that millennials also prefer coaching which is very similar to what you have mentioned as millennials like to develop a close link with their boss.
DeleteCoaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance which will help them to learn, rather than teaching them. (Willyerd,HBR,2015)
Further, millennial employees are exponentially sensitive to the job market. They seek the possibilities for vast change and innovation in the workplace (Hobbs & Stoops 2002). A part from that they are more sensitive to the world views, technological changes and life experiences and are reflected in their communicating behavior and work culture (Dencker, Joshi & Martocchio, 2007 and Martocchio, 2008). As you said, organizations must understand their specific needs in order to obtain positive engagement from them.
ReplyDeleteAdding to that, Millennials like to be sorrounded by great people and they seek for a approachable manager (Willyerd,HBR,2015). Also, millenials have a wider scope of on their work as they have one eye on work life balance (Weeks,HBR,2017).Therefore, organization must understand the real need of millnnials and to engage them effectively using the available resources.
DeleteIn addition to the above, Internal branding approach can be used by organizations to improve engagement of the millennial generation employees. Under this approach organizations can plant a specific brand image in the minds of the employees, who are then expected to practice that through brand consistent employee behaviours, both within and outside the organization. When the employees ready to deliver the customer, experience aligned with the brand promise, organization can expect the competitive advantage (Özçelik, 2015).
ReplyDeleteIn the current business environment, employee engagement one of the key business drivers than ever before, since the concept of employee engagement goes much further than just simple employee satisfaction, and instead reaching the other aspects of commitment, pride, honour and creativeness about the organization’s brand (Ahmad, et. al, 2014). Engaged employees are not only highly motivated, an also in emotionally devoted with great passion for the success of the organization. Engaged employees often deliver more than what is agreed in the employment contract (Kompaso & Sridevi, 2010).
Ahmer et al. (2014) mentioned that employee engagement can be enhanced by internal branding efforts in that inspiring employees to live the brand before offering the same customers. Moreover, internal branding nurtures motivation in employees, provides them with a clear direction in their work and increases their commitment, which positively contribute to the success of the organizations business strategy.
Dear Dananjaya, very interesting blog topic that you have attempted by comparing the behaviours and characteristics of generations that have evolved over the years from Baby boomers to Millennials. Further, you have elaborated the strategies that can be adopted or followed to engage millennials to the workforce effectively.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Reisenwitz & Iyer (2009) Members of Generation X and the Millennium Generation have been exposed to different historical, economic and social events than older followers and therefore have different characteristics and expectations . It is being debated that members of the Millennium Generation are different from previous groups both as employees and as consumers. (Shaw & Fairhurst, 2008). This generation possesses distinctive characteristics with respect to their expectations from the employment experience with regards to learning requirements, attitudes to career and self-development, work orientation, and engagement. In particular, it has been observed that with its recent entrance into the workforce, employee turnover rates have become higher than before. (Kelleher, 2011; Westerman & Yamamura, 2007).
Thank you Upul.
DeleteYes, as you have mentioned members of Millennial generation are far more different to the traditional babyboomers, specially their thinking pattern. Baby boomers are more goal oriented and thinking their job as an opportunity to acheive their personal goals while millenials are with much wider view, think about work life balance and having nice co-workers. (Weeks,HBR,2017)
Engaging this new group of the workforce, (Millennials) through different development programs has become an important challenge (Shaw & Fairhurst, 2008) for marketing, HR professionals and corporate management. At present, organizations employ individuals from the aforementioned different generational cohorts as follows:
ReplyDelete• Baby Boomers, senior, experienced, more traditional employees or managers who are about to complete their professional business life
• Generation X, constituting the majority of the present day workforce, enjoying higher income levels and possible career advancement;
• Millennials, or Generation Y, quite recent graduates, who have started to occupy the workplace in the last few years.
When the demands of a new generation entering business as a new workforce are not fully acknowledged, this can lead to misunderstandings, miscommunications and unproductivity, thus leading to lower employee commitment and higher turnover intentions (Westerman & Yamamura, 2007; O’Bannon, 2001; Adams 2000). Considering the divergence of the attitudes and work values of Millennials when compared to the Baby Boomers and Generation X, as explained above, there could well be further problems regarding retention and engagement of this potential workforce.
From a human resource management perspective, the different outlook of the Millennials, with respect to what they expect from their employment and employers, are forcing organizations to consider whether they need to develop innovative approaches to the design and delivery of these policies. Organizations should fine tune their strategies to address the needs of the Millennials. To this end, corporate management and HR should endeavor to understand their motivators and preferences so as to be able to develop appropriate recruitment processes, selection tools, training and development techniques, rewards systems and to implement them effectively (Westerman & Yamamura, 2007).
The challenge therefore, is how can we create a culture amongst young engaged employees of a “passion for work” and willingness to make extra effort to make a successful corporate brand, in a climate where they are highly responsive to external attractive opportunities. That is, one of the most important issues facing organizations today regarding Millennials is turning them into brand pioneers so as to increase their level of engagement.
As you have mentioned, to fine tune the strategies of any organization regarding millennial generation, there must be a way of engaging millennials to the workforce.
DeleteUsing the strong technological skills of millennials to organization's benefit,
Ensuring millennials work in groups and giving frequent feedback will definitely be great strategies to get them engaged. (Comaford,Forbes,28th July 2018)
Any promises given to millennials at the time of recruitment should be fulfilled by management of the organization or else new employees will move out. (Prokopeak, 2013) corporate management person and HR should know the how to encourage or keep up employees by to develop appropriate recruitment processes, selection tools, training and development techniques, rewards systems and to implement them effectively (Westerman & Yamamura, 2007). Gilbert (2011) describes that Performance management should be created in such a way that new generation can evaluate their own performance, also it should be conducted frequently. millennials expecting frequent feedback about their performance at work than previous generation to improve their own work and performance. HR professionals should design performance management systems that provide continuous feedback and coaching on a quarterly or even more frequent basis, goal setting and appraisal (Cascio, 2014). The feedback method should bring out positive and negative side performance of employees, also it should not bring misunderstanding between anyone (Gilbert, 2011)
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, another important aspect that should be considered here is the management of talent. Dealing with talent always has been, and always will be, challenging. Why is it that, these days, every organization is so concerned (even desperate) about this issue? There have always been talented people. But over time, talent management has become less of a simple managerial matter dealt with by a department, and more of a huge problem with an enormous impact on the future of the firm’s sustainability. The 1950s are often looked back upon as the era of ‘lifetime employment’ (Capelli, 2008a) in which people were proud and happy to be a part of a company. This era was also characterized by business stability and growth. At that time, it was frequent to find a job and stay there for as long as your professional career lasted. Job-hopping was not considered something to be proud of; indeed, it was judged to be a marker of career failure. But the context has changed and with it the role of talent in organizations for the millennials. Job hopping is now considered as a factor for one’s career growth. Over the last decade, management literature has called for new forms of organizing to confront uncertain and hypercompetitive environments. Theories on ideal types of organization have, therefore, proliferated in an attempt to identify ways for firms to adapt rapidly under high levels of competition (Hatum, 2010).
ReplyDeleteMaylett (2014 ) explains employee engagement as an emotional state where we feel passionate, energetic, and committed towards our work. In turn, we fully invest our best selves – our hearts, spirits, minds, and hands – in the work we do. According to Maylett (2014) 32% of the employee population is fully engaged, 48% are key contributors, 16% is opportunity group, and 4% are disengaged.
ReplyDeleteAs cited in Jha, Sareen and Potnuru (2018), millennial refers to the people born between 1980 and 2000 (PwC, 2011). This generation is most popularly known as iGen and tech-savvy as they are born and brought up with smart technologies and possess high self-esteem and high expectations combined with reluctance to give the maximum out of them that they consider not very useful and helpful when it comes to their own career development (Jha et al. 2018).
ReplyDeleteJha et al. (2018) further proposes few strategies to keep millennial workforce actively engaged in an organization and those are described as follows:
1. Millienials seek faster career growth and development opportunities.
2. Millenials need immediate feedback.
3. Adding game-like features such as challenges, leader boards and badges make millenials more engaged in performance assessments.
4. Millenials seek importance in their work place.
5. Fun in workplace may enhance the active engagement and participation of millennials in routine organizational activities.