MHA Service Corporation Professional Search Services, Stephen O'Connor, Senior Director
November 2003

Offer Younger Workers Multiple Tasks and Multiple Connections

Their affinity for technology has given younger workers abilities that are valuable beyond their programming or database management positions-especially the ability to use technology to perform multiple tasks and maintain multiple relationships. To motivate your younger workers and take advantage of their skills, consider the following suggestions:

Assign multiple tasks. Younger workers are often accustomed to doing several things at once: work, play, conversation, and taking in information. Consider them for the jobs that require synthesizing information from several sources, such as assembling data, reports, or customer responses. These workers thrive on having several types of information available at once, including statistics, video feeds, and site links. Their ability applies offline as well. Younger workers can often serve effectively on several work teams or represent the department on more than one task force.

Encourage multiple connections. Many younger workers are also connected online to people via e-mail, broadcasts, bulletin boards, and user groups. Where an older worker might contact several individuals to solve a problem, a younger worker would feel comfortable in posting a question to a bulletin board accessed by several thousand people. Try applying this ability to companywide or customer relationships, in both gathering information and in building individual ties. Also consider teams whose members are scattered over several locations and who need to use technology to do their work. Younger workers might be good candidates to help train the teams to use the necessary technology and maintain relationships online.

Adapted from the Twitch Speed Web site

 

Staff Matters

Generation X Employees:
Teach me, point me and get out of my way
By Stephen O’Connor

There are 40 million American workers in their 20s or early 30s. These people are sometimes referred to as “Generation X” and I’m quite sure it's not because they can't sign their name. They are a new breed of worker with their own set of expectations and they require a different management approach.

As they enter their careers, they will also need mentoring and proper orientation on organizational behavior. In his book, The Little Book of Bad Business Advice, Steve Altes identifies some of the things not to tell the “Xers” as they navigate the waters of corporate America.

  • Avoid eye contact with people. It gives them the creeps.
  • If the copier jams while you're using it, bolt.
  • If you must work late, rummage through the refrigerator. There is such a thing as a free lunch.
  • Put all your calls on speakerphone at full blast.
  • At 5 p.m. shout “Yabba-dabba-doo! It's quittin’ time!”
  • Don't learn coworkers names. Instead, acknowledge them in the hall with meaningless jive like, “There he is,” “Hey, big guy” and “Duuuuude.”
  • If a colleague asks you to car pool, laugh and say, “Like I don't see enough of you in the office!”
  • Snoop around the accounting office after hours. They often leave out sensitive salary information that could come in handy.
  • Also, show up at you company's Toastmasters meeting with a loaf of bread and a stick of butter and act really confused.
  • When someone speaks to you, don't let the sound of their voice disturb your thinking about what you are going to say as soon as they shut up.
  • Assessing commitment is also important. Always ask interviewees if they would take a bullet for the president of the company.

Enough of the bad advice. How do you manage these 20-somethings? Managers need to understand what motivates younger employees. In their publication HR Focus, the American Management Association identifies four ways to get through to Gen X employees and motivate them to work hard:

Help them train for another job — It sounds ridiculous, but younger employees realize that the old “employment contract” is no more. They know they won't stay with one company for their entire career. So, ironically, the way to keep them is to help them acquire new skills that will make them more marketable later on. The more they can learn the more they will want to stick around.

Give them responsibility for projects — Younger workers have more of an independent spirit than the Baby Boomers or older workers. Rather than mistake this quality as a liability — a refusal to stick to
procedures — treat it as an asset. Give them clearly defined goals and the freedom to achieve them in their own way.

Offer constant informal feedback rather than periodic performance reviews — Younger workers expect a lot of feedback from managers. Formal, sporadic performance reviews are not timely enough to keep up with the rapid pace of younger employees.

Offer them access to many different kinds of information — Younger workers grew up in the computer age and are quite adept at using different data and technology to bring together seemingly unrelated elements to solve a problem. Managers who hoard information are stifling the greatest resources younger
workers bring to the table.

This article originally appeared in the November/December 1997 issue of Michigan Health & Hospitals magazine and is being used with permission.

 

Gen X Loyalty: Getting Stronger All the Time

Stereotyped as job-hoppers, Generation X’ers might not actually be so footloose.

Nearly half of professionals 26 to 37 years old would be happy to spend the rest of their careers with their current companies, according to a new survey of 1,200 North American workers born between 1964 and 1975.

Moreover, 85 percent of them care a great deal about the future of their organization, and 83 percent say they are willing to work beyond what’s normally expected.

Other common assumptions that the study debunks:

Myth: Gen X professionals bring different expectations to the workplace.

Reality: They are attracted to their companies for traditional reasons with a few notable exceptions:

  • 67 percent would like a compressed workweek.
  • 59 percent would like to telecommute.
  • 54 percent simply want a casual dress code.

Myth: Today’s professionals have low organizational commitment.

Reality: Today’s professionals are highly committed to their employers.

  • 85 percent say they really care about the fate of their organization.
  • 83 percent say they are willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond what is normally expected to help the organization succeed.
  • 47 percent say they would be happy spending the rest of their careers with their firm.

Myth: Women workers have achieved equality.

Reality: There’s still a gender gap. Men are more likely than women to believe that there have been increases in advancement opportunities for women over the past 10 years; less likely than women to see the barriers to women’s advancement; and less likely to buy into the business case for women’s advancement. Examples:

  • 60 percent of men in dual-career couples say their career is the primary one, while women report that neither career is primary.
  • 62 percent of men believe that men and women are paid the same for similar work. Less than one-third of women agree.
  • Almost half of women say they have to outperform men to get the same rewards. Only 11 percent of men agree.

Source: The Next Generation: Today’s Professionals, Tomorrow’s Leaders, Catalyst

 

 

 

 

These workers thrive on having several types of information available at once, including statistics, video feeds, and site links.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Professional Search Services
• Internet Recruiting at www.mhaservicecorp.com
• Pre-Employment Testing
• Low Contingency Fee
• Nationwide Candidates

When you need a healthcare management recruiter, call Steve O’Connor at the Michigan Health and Hospital Association in (517) 663-5755. He’s the recruiter who produces this monthly newsletter and has hundreds of management candidates currently registered with his service. Most are open to relocation. You are also invited to browse his web site for more information on Professional Search Services at www.mhaservicecorp.com.
• CEO/COO/VP
• Dietitians
• Finance
• Food Service
• Fund Development
• Home Health Care
• Human Resources
• MIS
• Management Engineering
• Marketing/Public Relations
• Materials Management
• Health InformationManagement
• Nursing Administration
• Pharmacy
• Physician Practice Administrators
• Planning
• Plant Operations
• QA/UR/QI
• Rehabilitation Management
• Risk Management
• Social Work
• Training and Development
• Managed Care

For more information contact:
Stephen O’Connor, SPHR, Senior Director
MHA Service Corporation
Professional Search Service

Corporate Office:
6215 West St. Joseph Hwy.
Lansing, MI 48917
(517) 663-5755
Fax: (517) 663-5897
E-mail Address: soconnor@mha.org

Regional Office:
24725 W. Twelve Mile Rd.
Southfield, MI 48034
(248) 356-7950
Fax: (248) 356-8543