Do not Clog Gen Y; else they will Log you out!

If news reports are to be believed then Gen Y no more wants to travel by train. The clogged snail-paced website of Indian railways makes it difficult to book a ticket, especially when you need one urgently; if you land-up at the railway station to book a ticket then serpentine queues swallow your time and day. Growing lack of safety in train-travel, poor travel experience that includes dirty toilets, no or nonsensical pantry car, all are contributing in rapidly shunning-away Gen Y from the good-old train. Instead the Gen Y seems to refer air-travel that is far easier to access, much safer, faster, and more comfortable. And with fares almost at par with AC train fares; flying seems to be the obvious choice.

The 'signal' is loud and clear on the wall for railways – Gen Y is increasingly logging-out of their tracks.

Few months back when I was invited by an Indian IT-major for a giving a talk on Gen Y, one of the senior HR asked me that he did not quite understand why Gen Y is so impatient on the ‘bench’. This despite the fact that they provided them training and an assurance of allotting them to proper projects in due course. But all this took sometime, according to him, and Gen Y would start leaving the company. The answer is in understanding Gen Y behaviour and even more why they behave the way they do. Our researches on gen Y have shown that Gen Y are the way they are thanks to the times that they live! Their belief and ability in themselves is paradoxical to the insecurities that they face in the environment. They know they can do it and they will go and get it. Waiting makes less sense to them and they start looking for alternatives that are better.

The moment you start clogging them-up, they will start logging you out!

As simple as it can be!

One of my acquaintances, who does some freelance training for a PSU bank, tells me that the bank is finding it difficult to retain Gen Y hires. The attrition rate among Gen Y hires is tremendous. So a secure government job is not enough to retain them! Hmm… do you get it? They are too secure in themselves to bite the government security bait! They would rather look at an exciting and challenging career, and do not be surprised if they nurse an ambition to head an organization or even start one of their own.

Not surprising that even foreign banks like Standard Chartered, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche bank are planning to dangle the carrot of working overseas to retain the talent, as money alone fails to do the magic!

'In just 15 years, by 2028, the last of the boomers will be reaching retirement age, Generation Y will make up roughly three-quarters of the work force by this time and the oldest millennial, will be still quite young at just 47, will be entering leadership position.'  (ASTD)

By that rate organization all over the world are set to see a huge influx of Gen Y workers.

But the question is – Are the pre-millennial organizations ready for the millennial generation?


Think before they log-in or think after they log-out – the choice is yours!!!