How to get the best out of your Gen Y workers

I could have titled this ‘how to get the best from your workers’, because it applies to all employees, but is especially important if you want to get the best from your Generation Y staff.

Talent development is often overlooked and yet it is one of the best ways to increase your bottom line. If you create a structure that enables talent development, all staff will benefit and your Gen Y staff in particular, will return your investment many times over.

Remember that Generation Y wants and needs to be nurtured. By having a structure that encourages networking and nurturing, your Gen Y will excel.

Three key strategies to improve Gen Y performance:

1. Establish up a mentoring program. We recommend that Gen Ys (and new recruits) should have two mentors. One, an old hand who knows day-to-day work required, and the other, a senior manager with operational responsibility. This will help Gen Y (or the new recruit) feel included because they will have a personal contact with someone in senior management through whom they can potentially directly influence the operation of the business and through whom they can get information ‘from the top’.
2. Establish networking situations that enable Gen Y to easily network with you and your managers. They need to be included and have an opportunity to contribute at all levels.
3. Set up a structure that encourages creative input. All businesses should be looking at ways of continually innovating and Gen Ys fresh approach can not only help generate profitable new ideas, but also help Gen Y satisfy their need to feel needed.

You can go a step further to cement the bond with your Gen Y staff by providing them with individual coaching. However, if you have a potential star performer whom you think could benefit from coaching, how you provide coaching is not as straightforward as simply engaging a coach for the Gen Y staff member. All too often we have seen this approach fail to deliver the desired results.

See also, ‘Coaching your Generation Y staff member’

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