e-Tips

My annual greeting message for the new year is in the form of a short video. See it here and here.

How will you respond to the challenge for change in 2011?

Welcome to Phyllis Weiss Haserot’s 

INTER-GENERATIONAL RELATIONS e-TIP

The recently released 2011 Towers Watson Global Workforce study finds there is still a disconnect between employers and employees on reasons why people join and remain at firms. This divergence of views existed both pre- and during the economic downturn, so it should not and cannot be ignored.

If you are thinking about branding or flexibility for your firm’s people, the 43-page new dress code from Swiss bank UBS AG should get your attention.

(It immediately drove pursuit of dress code stories by ABC and MSNBC,  judging from media queries I received the day after Elena Berton’s story “Dress to Impress, UBS Tells Its Staff” appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal Money & Finance (!) section, Dec. 15, 2011.)

There are many ways people of any generation can contribute to inter-generational inclusion. It can apply to any generation as the action initiator. Since Gen Y/Millennials are often reluctant or uncomfortable reaching out to older generations, it is more likely that Boomers, Gen Xers and Traditionalists will take the leading oar, but we must encourage everyone to go beyond their comfort zones.

Research by Kit Yarrow for her book, “Gen BuY: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings are Revolutionizing Retail” provides some useful insights about how to achieve and maintain engagement with Gen Y/Millennials for professional development directors, marketers, recruiters, event planners, mentors, membership organizations and managers generally Yarrow is Professor of Psychology and Business at Golden State University in San Francisco.

I am frequently asked whether the severe recession of the last few years and still very much with us will change the perceived attitudes and behaviors (e.g., optimism, neediness, “entitlement”) of Gen Y/Millennials. Of course only time will tell, and I can only give my educated opinion, as I will in a minute or two.

My recent business trip to San Francisco was even more fun and energizing than I expected. Always a pleasure to visit the vibrant and lovely Bay Area, I was there to deliver two programs, one of which, at the American Bar Association Annual Meeting, would have won the prize for longest title if there was one (no iPad awarded). It was titled (no bit.ly applied): “Get Real: How the Younger Generations Will - or Will Not - Change the Look and Feel of the Legal Workplace.

Last month I wrote about whether Gen Y/Millennials lack empathy as a series of studies from the Pew Center have indicated. Another, more frequently heard criticism is that they are short on what has been considered “professionalism,” another significant attribute for succeeding in business and particularly in a professional service organization and role.

Recently I was asked by a reporter to comment on some research studies concluding that Gen Y/Millennials ( people approximately 31 and younger now) are much less empathetic to others than the generations coming before them. The studies were done with college students since 1979, and the big change showed up after 2000.