The Invasion of Gen Y

A new Jobfox poll shows that Gen Y workers are perceived by recruiters as being the weakest performers among the four generations that now make up the U.S. workforce. That perception can be very risky because Gen Y will ultimately represent the largest segment of the workforce since the baby boomers.

Only 20 percent of the 200 recruiters surveyed classified Gen Y, also known as millennials, as “generally great performers.” This compares to 63 percent of the recruiters polled who said baby boomers (43 to 62 years old) were great performers, 58 percent who gave high marks to Gen X (29 to 42), and 25 percent for traditionalists (63 and older).

Thirty percent of recruiters classified millennials as poor performers, followed by 22 percent of recruiters who classified traditionalists as poor performers, 5 percent for Gen X and 4 percent for baby boomers.

Who really needs the attitude adjustment--Gen Y workers or corporate leaders? What role do workplace learning and performance professionals play in helping this diverse workforce find success in the workplace?

Comments

[T1M]

I am a part of Gen Y, and I think we are pathetic as a generation. We can get anything and do everything from the inside of our own houses. Hard work was not instilled in us. You should check out my blog http://thatstheonlywhy.blogspot.com

[tmorley]

I think these are interesting yet flawed facts for two reasons:

1. By what are they defining "great performance"?
2. Are recruiters involved with new Millennial hires past the onboarding phase? Normally, they are not so would not be the best judge of workplace performance.

Over the past year there have an increasing amount of articles, blog postings and books on Millennials entering the workforce. In some of these articles the issue is that those writing/conducting the survey are using traditional measures to quantify and rank Millennial employees when in fact Millennial employees operate very differently than previous generations.

I am excited to see where this field of research goes, but hope that researchers and writers alike can realize that we have to look at Millennials through a slightly different lens.