Managing Gen Y Takes Sensitivity and Positive Intent: Leaders Share Perspectives at NASSCOM GIC Forum’s Leadership Series

I attended NASSCOM Global In-house Centres (GIC) Forum’s Leadership Series on ‘Managing Gen Y’ at Bangalore on February 6^th where senior leaders from leading companies discussed the challenges and implications of engaging this growing group.

In his keynote address Biren Ghose, Country Head of Technicolour explained the different kind of workplace – physically, emotionally among others that the new generation expected. He broke some myths of commitment, work ethics and technology adoption that many struggle with while communicating with this group. His tips on managing this generation include helping them navigate their career path, giving honest feedback, providing a supportive workplace, investing in learning and development and providing flexibility at work.

Biren felt that the conversation isn’t about Gen Y. Each person comes bundled with their deeply personal context. Their feelings, habits, agenda, priorities etc are different. Therefore, he listed the following as must-dos to engage this generation.

• Safety and security – removing instabilities and threats
• Help them succeed on the job
• Cooperation and collaboration are essential. They love working in teams
• Nurturing and belonging
• Creativity and progress
• Moral values – a company without values isn’t respected by this community
• Spiritual fulfillment

In the panel discussion moderated by Anirban Sen of Schneider Electric we had Jayesh Chakravarthi (Fidelity Investments), Bunty Bohra (Goldman Sachs) and Venki Sundaresan (Cypress) talked of how to build a ‘cool’ organization which makes Generation Y welcome. They also addressed some of the perceptions and myths in dealing with the young workforce. Interestingly, when I googled none of the panelists have a Twitter account which I felt would help this new generation connect better. Assuming they are at least on their internal social networks!

GenY is not an age but an attitude, felt Jayesh.  He also mentioned that we have now moved from a ladder structure to a lattice structure where you need buy-in.  The group spoke of reverse mentoring programs and forums to build transparency but no organization claimed to have completely understood this generation.

Bunty from Goldman Sachs said that it was the generation for women since never before have many women entered the workplace than this one. The social change is overarching and game changing.  This is the gender to lead the future.

When asked how they were training managers to deal with GenY very few had good examples to share.

Although they as a group admitted that it wasn’t an HR problem to manage Gen Y but the buy-in needed to start at the top with senior management accepting this new workforce. By involving managers in crafting solutions and addressing conflicts with this generation the leaders felt that they could move the needle on engagement.

The audience had their share of voice as well. Some felt that self-expression is what GenY values most and recognizing the effort to grow will only help strengthen trust.

Over lunch I met with a delegate from a telecommunications firm and what he said gave me my ‘aha’ moment. He said if we try to broad brush all of this generation we will lose the plot. Every Gen Y has their own aspirations (global mobility, career growth, learning etc) and addressing them collectively can’t solve the matter.  However, if we focus on leading with our values the results will be far different and we will engage this generation better.

Thanks to NASSCOM for organizing this event.