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Posts Tagged ‘Facebook Generation’

“Perfect storm” brewing within the workforce
Transcript From Episode CMSW2009-09-21

Social media expert Tod Maffin says companies are about to face a mass exodus of employees due to a kind of perfect storm brewing within two key generations of employees. Baby Boomers set to retire en masse, companies are going to have to find ways to replace them with younger employees,- “But that particular crop of employees – the ‘Facebook Generation’ – is as likely to walk out the back door as easily as they came in the front.”

Maffin says these twenty-something employees present an entirely new set of challenges for employers – and that companies need to take an entirely new approach to managing their needs and retaining their services. Two of the recommendations in the article:

Give Them Your Trust: Young people born between 1980 and 1990 were raised by Generation X parents who gave them unprecedented levels of trust. Misguided attempts at increasing productivity, like blocking Facebook and instant-messenger programs, scream “We don’t trust you!” to this group of workers (it’s like blocking telephone calls).

Focus on Team-Based Solutions: That’s the way they were taught all through school – it was all about group projects, not individual reports. Engage them in group projects and let them play an active role in that process.

Consider giving them a box of their own personalized business cards on day one.

Invest in Technology: Your technology must at least keep pace with what this generation uses at home.

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