Generation Y - skiving off in Starbucks?

By Annie Waite, North American Editor of the Internal Comms Hub, Melcrum

It being February 29th, a leap year, myself and a few ladies across the world are psyching ourselves up to talk about engagement.

...drum roll.............

Pah, no chance, I'm not getting down on one creaky knee, instead I'm talking about a different type of engagement – Melcrum's Employee Engagement event in Atlanta this week! (Effortless link, eh?)

Keynote speaker, Jason Ryan Dorsey (pictured below at the event, signing copies of his books), author of My Reality Check Bounced! spoke about how generation X and  baby boomers can work most effectively with generation Y.

One of Dorsey's claims was that "generation Ys love to meet in coffee shops rather than the stuffy working environment."

Delegates agreed that across many of their companies, the baby boomers are the managers, and within teams made up of generations X and Y, the generation Y members tend to want to stay in constant contact with their baby boomer bosses – and it seems that those baby boomers find it unsettling that generation Y need this level of contact. Also, baby boomers, says Dorsey, love the paper trail and feel isolated now that generation Y communicate mainly via text and e-mail.

What do you think, do you agree? Do baby boomers really love the paper trail or are they just slightly intimidated or overwhelmed by the sheer volume of different communication options now as opposed to when they entered the workplace?

To hear about Dorsey's ideas for engaging generation Y in the workplace, listen to his Melcrum podcast interview where he says that making a bigger deal out of employee birthdays could work wonders for your engagement scores.

(Going engagement crazy? Need ideas? Check out Melcrum's research and reports managing editor Graeme Ginsberg's interview about Melcrum's latest research into employee engagement.)

Later on at the conference,  David Littlechild (left), senior manager of employee engagement in the wholesale and international banking division of Lloyds TSB flew over from the UK to share his experiences of how his section of the Lloyds Group has successfully engaged its line managers.

"For Lloyds TSB, it's about involving, informing and helping line managers and leaders to ensure that they use the information that they receive to develop meaningful insight and intelligence in their business area," he says.    

"We've focused on the importance of values and behaviors in the organization. The approach we took to involve every level of employee in the business in defining our behaviors – using their language – has helped to encourage greater collaboration within the business."

Read more about the event on the Internal Comms Hub.

Network with other comms professionals
And a reminder for those of you close to Chicago, sign up  for our free networking event on March 28th, for some lively and practical presentations from Unilever Foodsolutions Americas, Motorola and Navistar.

Soundtrack to the blog: Band of Horses - Marry Song