People born after 80โ, 90โ or 95โ. โEntrepreneurshipโ pushes them away and โstart-upโ is a dream. Called Ys, Zs, millenials, tabletโs and screenโs generation – or anything else. Boundaries are fluid, terms inaccurate. However surely all of those generations have one thing in common: they scare off employers and astonish older colleagues. Is it possible to manage them effectively and establish great business built on their unique skills?
Letโs start from the beginning, in other words recruitment. About how Ys and Zs are โnot adjusted for the marketโ, how they have โlack of education and unreal expectationsโ, โthey donโt respect workโ, โthey donโt understand procedures and classified informationโ – weโve heard them all. It happens for one simple reason – most of the employers understand recruitment as it has always been understood: we have vacancy in the companyโs structure so weโre looking for perfect candidate for it. What if we changed this paradigm? Firstly search for great, motivated, competent people with passion and then make positions for them?
โ Great because we need to get on well with them
โ Motivated because inner motivation (managerโs Hoy Grail) isnโt hard to find among Ys and Zs, unless responsibility is matched with them – not the job title
โ Competent but not for fulfilling specific tasks but for achieving adequate goals (for Ys and Zs means to achieve goals are changing so fast that every trial to structurize it makes no sense)
โ Passionate because for Ys and Zs itโs the most important (feeling that what I do makes actually sense and I like it!)
โ Making job positions because of that approach, bigger problem is making accurate job title on the business card then choosing the perfect candidate for position based on specified procedures and duty list.
Changing recruitmentโs paradigm doesnโt mean that we canโt expect specific knowledge or skills. For example: in indaHash weโre perfectly aware that every single candidate is confident while surfing on all social medias and that theyโre using them everyday. But on the other hand it doesnโt mean that they shouldnโt have all the knowledge on this subject. Being a user isnโt always the same as being able to answer the question โhow to fix itโ or โhow to use itโ.
Did we manage to find right people? Time to move on to management. Hereโs the most important thing. You donโt manage Ys and Zs – you collaborate with them. Vertical, restricted rules and structures wonโt work. Small, teams made of 6-7 people in horizontal flexible structure and supervisor, who is member of each team and takes part in teamโs work – thatโs fundamental. His/her managing role is essential. Here we are, not talking about human management, but (same as it was while discussing recruitment) talking about instead goals management and individualsโ responsibilities. Dynamic tempo of environment changes, where Ys and Zs move fluently with their multitasking skills, makes it definitely more effective.
When it comes to setting goals, long-term and short-term ones as equally important. This is instant generation – everything must be happening immediately, right here, right now. Thatโs why current goals should be short-term and evident with clearly set finish line. On the other hand, Y and Z want to fulfill in their passion and have a feeling, that what they do makes sense – so they must feel that the project is coherent with their interests, it leads somewhere and it will bring desired results. Thanks to setting long-term goal this way, without narrowing Y or Z just to specific tasks, weโll use his passion, preference for diversity of those tasks and realising many things at one time to expand company towards desired direction. To sum up setting goals: Y and Z must know: โwhy am I doing it now?โ and โwhat impact does it have on the future?โ.
As in recruitment, same in daily management – you should remember not to manage people but manage their clearly defined responsibility range. For project realisation we donโt need to match people by their position and by what do they do by daily job basic. Letโs match people who understand projet, feel it, see sense in it and willingly undertake it. Then management would come down to optimal project adjustment for the target and advantages of an employee. What is more, honing strongest Yโs or Zโs assets will affect his future effectiveness. Feeling that โIโm the best at what I doโ (or โIโm aiming for it and my company is helping meโ) causes social and colleagues approval, which enhances Yโs inner motivation and gives him necessary feeling of personal growth.
The last one is absolutely essential for Ys and Zs. If you donโt give them personal growth – donโt count on loyalty. These young people who canโt stagnate, have a huge need of learning and exhibiting themselves. If you give them this possibility (by organizing trainings, workshops, providing specialistic or comprehensive knowledge – preferably everything a little, because diversity for Ys and Zs is a value) and take care of good atmosphere (there are many ways to do that: in turns we use evening integration with drinks and all day workshops with coach) the amount of grassroots initiatives, innovative ideas and proposed improvements can surprise you.
To sum up: if youโll approach YZs properly, youโll receive team of amazing people and self-organizing structure. Everyone will co-create the company by adding own ideas to it. Everyone will enthusiastically come up with initiatives and mythical โbottom-upโ, innovations and improvements will be dailiness. And something else will appear, something thatโs hard to call differently than โcompany spiritโ. To achieve that, the only thing person who manage people has to do isโฆ not to manage people. Resign from full control, share responsibility and collaborate.