Since the term “Gen Y” emerged, there have been dozens, if not hundreds of words used to describe young people between the ages of 18 and 29. “Entitled”, “self-centred”, and “coddled” are among the most frequently used to oversimplify an entire generation of people.

My employer, Career Edge Organization, helps provide paid internships to college and university graduates looking to enter the workplace. We’ve been working with Gen Y for years and have found it impossible to label them one way or another. They may very well be the most misunderstood generation ever, and we thought it was about time someone attempted to understand what Gen Y was all about.

For the benefit of our host employers (the companies with whom we place our interns) and to help clear the air once and for all, Career Edge Organization commissioned a survey with Angus-Reid Strategies. From September 2 to September 10, 2009 they surveyed 1000 Canadians who are Angus Reid Forum panelists, ages 18 to 29, online. The sample was designed to ensure an over-sample of visible minority groups within the Canadian population (made up of approximately 54% of all respondents), as well as Canadians with at least some experience with post-secondary education (made up of approximately 95% of all respondents).

The objectives were to better understand the aspirations and expectations of Gen Y, and to better understand what Gen Y can offer in the workplace. Seems simple enough, right? Here’s what we discovered:

Merit over Tenure

The insight: Gen Y attributes more value to merit than they do to tenure when considering advancement at work. This theme of “quality over quantity” is also evident. They are tasks and results driven and want to be evaluated by their performance and not other attributes.

Gen Y is a results-oriented group. They’re not going to wait patiently for their turn when it comes to promotions, raises, etc. if they’re doing higher quality work than someone with greater tenure. The data shown throughout the survey also suggests that they expect regular performance reviews and feedback. While Gen Y believes tenure is still an important factor when making decisions pertaining to advancement, rewarding performance comes first.

Job Hoppers or Loyal Employees?

The insight: Gen Y express a sense of commitment to their employers, and do not appear to be as transient as expected. Don’t anticipate Gen Y to flee their jobs in 1 or 2 years.



The data: When treated loyally, Gen Y reciprocates. They expect the same things from their employers as their employers expect from them. For the most part, Gen Y believes they owe their employers loyalty, and vice versa. They simply expect to be compensated fairly and rewarded when they exceed expectations. If anything, these responses from Gen Y are indicative of bad employers. Employers who aren’t capable of reciprocating the loyalty that Gen Y offer will find themselves in a difficult employer-employee relationship.

Gen Y also reported that their parents changed on average jobs every 11.5 years, and that they only plan to change jobs every 7.6 years themselves. It should come as no surprise that Gen Y doesn’t plan on doing the same job over the course of their lifetime, and “changing jobs” does not mean changing employers and can also include being promoted or transferred.

While they expect to change jobs more frequently than their parents did, they still express widespread loyalty for their employers, and expect a degree of loyalty in return.

Work-Life Balance Top Long-Term Gen Y Goal

The insight: Gen Y’s long-term career goals are less about making money and becoming independently wealthy, and more about doing meaningful work and finding a harmony between personal and professional time.

The data: respondents were asked whether they agreed that these statements reflected their own personal long-term goals. Here are the top 3 responses:

61% “To achieve a satisfactory level of work-life balance”
57% “To do meaningful and challenging work”
43% “To have job security”

Accumulating money and retiring early (“To retire before age 55” at 16%) are of less interest to Gen Y, as is running their own business (18%) and job security (43%) is of some importance to them. All of these indicators suggest that Gen Y plan to be employees, and remain employees into their later 50s and beyond – so long as they’re doing meaningful work and have achieved a satisfactory level of work-life balance.

Conclusions

There was much to be learned about Gen Y in the survey findings. It may be unfair to label an entire generation with such broad strokes, especially since mentions of Gen Y often portray them in a negative light, but there are obviously a lot of good things to be said about them as well.

Throughout the survey, Gen Y displayed many of the characteristics that employers would be wise to seek out: loyalty to their employer, passion for their organization, and a desire to do meaningful and challenging work.

To obtain the full survey results, or to learn more about Career Edge Organization, contact me at:

Michelle Pinchev
Career Edge Organization
mpinchev@careeredge.ca
1-888-507-EDGE (3343)
http://twitter.com/careeredgeorg

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