What does this mean for HR professionals?

Read the full article here>

Jeanne will be continuing this discussion on the saving patterns of Gen Y when she speaks at the coming TD Ameritrade Institutional 2012 conference, “Shaping The Future Together.” Jeanne is speaking about “Learn What Gen X and Gen Y Want in the Workplace.”

We will be checking our Twitter feed so send us your questions on this topic to #TDAI2012 and we’ll will write a future post on the dialogue and questions about Gen X and Gen Y.

So what does this mean for you in HR and talent management?
Read the full article here >

That’s our take … what’s yours? We want to hear from you – especially if you are a member of Gen X or a Millennial. Send us your comments, and we will continue the dialogue.

The National Education Association and the State Educational Technology Directors Association offer these key questions about ways to integrate technology into learning, adapted here for consideration for workplace learning:

• What tools and technologies will help our learners/employees create, collaborate and communicate better?
• How can employees learn with technology the way that they already live with their technology — especially Millennial employees?
• What is the appropriate role of the web, social media, mobile technologies, interactive white-boards, etc., in today’s classroom?
• What are the digital literacies that have to be incorporated for the ways we work, learn and communicate in the workplace? (For more on digital literacies, see http://www.p21.org.)

[FROM: Create! Communicate! Collaborate!: The 21st-century learner is here–is your classroom ready? - By Mark Stevens - NEA Today, Summer 2011]

• Internet Footprint Driving Away Employers?
  Social Intelligence Corp. scours one’s public online activity from the past seven years and reports it to prospective employers. Its CEO Max Drucker explains what specific data the company looks for, how often monitoring occurs, and what this means in terms of privacy concerns. Also joining the conversation is Electronic Privacy Information Center Senior Counsel John Verdi. Listen and Read

  Does YOUR organization check out potential employees’ backgrounds before hiring? What criteria do in include or exclude in that digital footprint search? Have you ever had your own digital footprint evaluated … what did you discover is out there?

• In Job Market, Are Gen Y’s Wants Out Of Reach?
  Over 40 million Americans are in their 20s, and they’re having a particularly tough time securing work. Their expectations may not match what their employers have to offer. Ryan Healy talks more about young job seekers’ challenges. He is the co-founder of a website aimed at helping young professionals network and share ideas. Listen and Read

  Do you find a gap between Millennials expectations of their work and your/the organization’s expectations of their work? What similarities and differences do you experience between your style of learning, communicating and working and that of your Millennial colleagues? Is your organization formally working on ways to attract, integrate and leverage Millennial workers?

Please share your responses below to these questions about social media and Millennial workers. If you are looking to engage these questions in your organization, Future Workplace offers keynote presentations, in-depth workshops and facilitated dialogues about these topics and more. Learn more about these topics and find out what leading organizations are doing now to address these challenges in The 2020 Workplace book by Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd.

First, a refresher on the generations:
Traditionalists born prior to 1946
Baby Boomers (that’s me) born between 1946 and 1964
Generation Xer’s born between 1965 and 1976
Millennials born between 1977 and 1997

Pew Research says that on average, the higher your score, the “more Millennial” you are in your habits and mindset. One of the questions is “Have you ever created a profile on any social networking site—such as MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn?” See below for the breakdown on this question by generation:

Now it’s time to share my score. I scored 78 but Traditionalists on average score 4, Baby Boomers 11, Generation Xers 33 and Millennials 73.

So how is it that my score is so high? Without admitting to body piercings and tattoos, over the course of writing my new book, The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop & Keep Tomorrow’s Employees Today, I have developed the mindset and social media habits of a Millennial—creating several profiles on social networks, getting most of my news from blogs and social networks, admitting to sending more than 50 text messages a day to work colleagues and family members. I am also liberal in my political views and have both a landline and a cell phone. And I might add, I love my new hyper-connected life.

Bottom line, if we want to stay employable in the 21st century, we need to experiment with using various forms of social media. Why? Because we need to understand how these media have the potential to improve our productivity at work and create fuller lives at home. As we engage in the workforce of the future, more of us will likely adapt a Millennial mindset. Millennials are simply leading the way and showing us the power of interacting and engaging with social media.

So take the quiz here: How Millennial Are You?

Now ask yourself:
1) What can we all learn by adapting a Millennial mindset?
2) Does your organization leverage the Millennial mindset in how you attract and develop all generations in the workforce?
3) Are you creating learning programs which meet the Millennial mindset where they live—engaged online?

Finally I am excited to share that the new book I have written with co-author Karie Willyerd is now available for pre-orders. You can learn more at www.the2020workplace.com
OR pre-order directly at Amazon.com.

And if you are interested in attending an author tour, send me a message and I will be sure to send you a notice.

[tags]Millennials, Pew Research Center, The 2020 Workplace[/tags]