Across the divide

talentsmoothie’s Simon Walker writes for Health Club Manager magazine on managing generational diversity in the health club environment, both among staff and members.

Read the full article here

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Generation Y for Rookies – Book of the month

British Airways in-flight magazine ‘BA Business Life’  reviews Sally’s book and gives it 8/10

Read the full review here.

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We have just launched talentsmoothie training

In a nutshell, we are offering fresh thinking on core subjects (sales skills and influencing skills) and new subjects that most businesses need but don’t have on their training syllabus. So far we have:

• The Secrets of Successful Selling
• The Secrets of Successful Influencing and Persuading
• Employee Engagement Essentials
• Social Media and Digital Communications
• Leading in the New Business Context
• Leading Collaborative Teams

We bring up-to-the-minute content, effective learning design  and a team of fabulous trainers.

If your current offers could use some refreshing or you need any new programmes this year please get in touch.  We will be launching new programmes every few months.

If you need something that is not here, give us a call – it may be in the design room right now…

Click on the individual programme links above of on the training tab in the navigation bar to find out more.

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I’m sure many of us have followed the ongoing strikes at British Airways by some of their Cabin Crew. I’m not going to go into the ins and outs of this dispute, but instead explore a couple of statistics that are often mentioned – the average pay for BA, when compared to rivals.

BA, apparently, are paying cabin crew on average £29,900, whilst their arch rival, Virgin only £14,000 (source BBC news). So the question is, with such a pay gap, how do Virgin attract, keep and engage their cabin crew? I think it has a lot to do with a clear and attractive Employee Value Proposition.

Virgin has a clear work-hard (and professionally) and play hard proposition. Fun and glamour are all part of the deal, including Branson’s famous house parties for staff. They also accept that being aircrew doesn’t have to be for life – so why not have some fun for a few years, then maybe do something else better paid? And of course if it’s new and exciting for the cabin crew, it’s going to be fresh and exciting for the passenger too. If you pay too much, maybe some people will be there for the wrong reasons (money) – what impact does that have on customers?

Ok, so my title was a little misleading, after all we know that BA costs are way above industry average for historical, ex- nationalised industry reasons. But Virgin does show us that they can have fresh, professional cabin crew, by getting the offer right – and they can keep their costs under control.

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Lots has been written about Gen Y, those born since 1980 and currently in their twenties and their expectations and preferences driven by growing up in a particular set of economic, social and technological conditions.

But what about the next generation?

Gen Z ( also referred to as ‘Gen F’ for facebookers or ‘Gen C’ for content, being the first generation to truly grow up creating content on the web from an early age) are those born since the mid 90s. The oldest are still in school but will be in the work place in the next five years. As a group they are already important consumers.

So what is different about them? Well like all generations, by understanding the conditions and experiences they grew up in and with, we can get some insight into their expectations, preferences and views of the world.

It’s early days, but here are some of our observations and predictions.

They have grown up in a recession. So expect more thrifty attitudes and less of an expectation to fall into work easily. Those who are under 25 right now are the hardest hit by unemployment and current teenagers are very aware of this.

They are true digital natives. Gen Y have had lots of involvement in, and are comfortable with, technology and the internet, but Gen Z have truly lived and breathed it from a VERY early age, and it has been a key part of their childhood and schooling. Gen Z communicate with their friends, complete schoolwork, learn from and get entertained by the internet like no other generation before them. The recent BBC series, The Virtual Revolution suggested that that the internet is even changing the way teenagers think .They have a strong awareness of sustainability issues a. This is the generation that will have to deal with the consequences of global warming, peak oil, burgeoning global population and scarce resources. To them recycling isn’t just a neat idea it is essential.

Finally don’t forget the echo. Gen Y are sometimes called ‘echo boomers’, because they were kids of Baby boomer parents and some of the core values have been seen to be passed on. Gen Z are the kids of mainly Gen X parents, so expect some of Gen X’s attitudes and values to be seen in Gen Z, albeit manifesting in different ways. May be we will see a Gen Z version of Gen X’s value placed on having a job, any job.

Whatever Gen Z look like in the work place, having a generational diverse outlook will enable organisations to get the most from all their staff.

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In a recent survey of over 1400 Chief Information Officers from blue chip organisations, only around 10% allowed full access to social networking sites such as Facebook to staff.

Lots has been written about how this frustrates workers (particularly, younger ones, the so-called Generation Y). This is true and can have a destructive impact on trust and engagement. Perhaps of more interest to some CEOs, banning Facebook can cost the and result in lost opportunity.

talentsmoothie’s Simon walker explores.

download the full article here

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The case for employee engagement is now well established – engaged employees are more successful and productive employees.

Few would doubt that, it makes common sense. For the doubters the MacLeod report lays out the evidence of the return on investment of improving engagement, including the data produced by Gallup who, in 2006 examined 23,910 business units and compared top quartile and bottom quartile financial performance with engagement scores.

Sally Bibb explores this and the missing ingredient

download the full article here

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This post has been reproduced with the kind permission of Marc Coleman, co-founder and Director of HR Network Europe.

When Peter and I started working on the Pan European HR Network in April last year, we interviewed an HR Leader and Executive Board Member of a Global 500 Company – someone whom had gained a place at the table and when questioned on the issue of HR adding value to the business, quickly moved to point out that this was a tired debate and HR needed to move on. HR must concentrate less on what they do and focus more on what HR needs to deliver, the goal to develop value-added HR practices not the fads and fancies. Nice to hear, however I must add that most of the HR people I speak to – there is a growing sense that some of the best HR people coming through are coming from non HR backgrounds.

An article by Mr Sathnam Sanghera at The Times on Human resources departments: I’ve never understood the point of them raised a heated debate between HR and non-HR at the end of the 2009 – the winner of the “Most Comments” and “Most Recommended”, Sathnam can certainly be commended for going straight for the HR jugular vein and bringing the debate to an up to date level of realisation for HR on how a good percentage of the public feel. He also laid claim that he wasn’t overly interested to complete all his homework on the subject of HR (or at least suggested that he didn’t), needling at any untouched nerves amongst his HR readership. It worked, it led to a fracas of on-line debate. Notably over the last quarter, The Times have reported on areas of HR, for example last week I blogged on “Pay for Performance” here again is a no holds barred account on Put Paid to the Pay Consultants from Mr Patrick Hosking (I am guessing his been talking to Sathnam as once again it goes straight for the jugular vein).

The transformation now expected by & of HR is daunting – the capability gaps are wide and the next 10 years are indeed (as reported in the media), critical for HR. The complexity and current demands of HR with the top agenda item being talent management aka ‘people’, its bringing HR closer to the CEO (whatever job title is adopted). Considering many still struggle with the model of “HR Business Partnership” that Dave Ulrich brought into existence in the early 90s where in short; HR “must give value or give notice”, close to 20 years on is that not telling us something? The job title can now be found in many companies – the question to be asked – is the value proposition/capability?

There is also a cultural dimension in how the Executive/Board supports the profile of HR within the organisation. Organisation’s claim that “people are our greatest asset” yet fail to discuss people at board meetings. The truth is that while true (if there were no people we wouldn’t be having this debate or perhaps including ‘competent’ as the first word in the statement or other key assets which have been considered above the “greatest asset” during this recession such as 1. The brand/reputation 2. Fixed assets 3. Rights to natural resources 4. Money 5. Algorithms (IT Companies) 6. Secret recipes  7. Systems and processes 8. Customers 9. Patents) this clichéd sentence has been so abused that it has lost all credibility. In our online group some months ago, another article which received plenty of attention was that of Deloitte’s;  suggesting HR is at risk of disappearing as a separate function. Good marketing as a sponsored article for their outsourcing division, especially if the article reaches those companies/CEO’s where HR is not adding value to the business. I still wonder how Deloitte’s HR Dept felt about their consulting division’s claims?

I noticed the subject was also a heated debate back home in Ireland, a country now heaving with bureaucrats and wasted opportunities, a country that sent “two” of their ministerial team on a weekend trip via private jet to basically beg Mr Michael Dell for the +3000 jobs already set sail from Limerick to Poland. The round trip flights for two people at a cost to the Irish taxpayer of €164,000. You will hear no singing of a Celtic tiger, the character in the tune has been replaced by a sloth with a rucksack full of rocks on its back.

I enjoyed this snippet from Jeremy Clarkson – Top Gear over the weekend:

As we now know, there are one or two flaws in the concept of global capitalism. For example, if you have a suit and a side parting, you can use money that doesn’t exist to create money that does, in your own bank account. And you can keep on doing this until the whole world goes completely bankrupt.

At the other end of the scale there are problems too. For instance, if you are very fat and lazy and you cannot be bothered to get a job, the system will only really care about your plight when you die and you have to be hosed out of your front room because the neighbours are complaining about the smell. “And who’s going to pay for that hosing?” the men with side partings will say.

Still, I believe that the upsides for those of us who are not very lazy but do not have side partings far outweigh the downsides. Let me give you an example. It is now almost impossible to buy a washing machine that is anything less than brilliant. Or a burger. Because McDonald’s and Burger King offer tasty snacks in every town in the world, anyone selling inferior burgers made from stale bread and dead horses will go out of business extremely quickly. Of course, small retailers whine and complain when Tesco moves into the area because Tesco will nick all their business. Yes, it will, if what you are selling is expensive and rubbish.

That’s the core of capitalism. “Better” will always win the day. And it doesn’t matter what form “better” takes. Better can mean cheaper, more convenient, nicer, prettier, more tasty, more healthy. In some way, you have to be better than the other guy, or your kids will soon be presented with a bill for hosing you out of your sitting room. Because the bosses of the giant corporations know this, they strive constantly to make what they sell better, and that’s brilliant for you and me. It’s why we don’t get punctures any more — because the tyre makers are constantly striving to be the best.

Consider, the HR function as the “very fat and lazy” that Jeremy describes above, HR has a ways to go before it’s ‘out of the woods’. My experience and I guess this is the lifecycle of business between recessions, is that it culls the excess and the complicated – those not adding value and improving the organisation’s DNA have been spliced or as I have heard a few HR misfortunes whimper in their embarrassment, caught on the receiving end of redundancies, “it’s time for a change, looking for new opportunities” …. no doubt it is.

A focus on “Player” not Partner to bridge the capability gap, the business “know-how” now required by the business and needed by HR. A new breed of HR.

Thanks to all for the comments and feedback below

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Most junior doctors are from Generation Y (aged up to 28 years). Research (by talentsmoothie) on what “Gen Y” want from the workplace, from a 26 question survey of 2521 respondents, is shown in figure 1. 4 This suggests that Gen Y think differently to Generation X (aged up to 42 years) and the baby boomers (aged up to 62 years) about work, learning, and relationships. Up to 80% of Gen Y who were surveyed said that a good induction was important when starting a new job. Induction was considered more important than earning lots of money or fast promotion.

Download the full article here.

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“talentsmoothie were our lead external partners in helping us to create our first Employee Value Proposition in AstraZeneca at both a global and a local level.

From concept design, formulation, testing and evaluation they proved themselves to be immensely capable and more than up to the challenge of advising on one of our biggest and complex pieces of organisational development. Through their rigorous approach, and ability to integrate other core elements such as our business strategy and corporate brand, they helped to ensure that our EVP will be sustainable for us in the medium to long term.

Above all it was their positive can-do attitude, their utmost flexibility and confidence in helping us to navigate ambiguous scenarios that really impressed. From my experience they are one of only a small handful of external partners that really truly understand what an EVP is and how it can work to drive a business and its culture forward.”

Stephen Lochhead – Director, Global Talent Attraction, AstraZeneca

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Have you ever wondered why so many of the people responsible for ‘diversity and inclusion’ report to the CEO, or another very senior person? If you are a cynical person you might say that it is because organisations these days need to be seen to be doing the right thing. If you are not so cynical you might explain this by pointing out what could happen to organisations who don’t take diversity seriously. Well there is the risk of law suits which of course is what worried the D&I specialists’ predecessors – the equal opportunities folk. There is also reputation. This is very important and no organisation wants to be considered to be unfair to any group of employees or potential employees.

These ‘away from’ (what they don’t want) motivations are perfectly laudable. However, organisations who are really good at creating a clear line of sight between their diversity strategy and business results have strong ‘towards’ (what they do want) motivations too.

In many countries in the developed and developing world populations are becoming more diverse which means customers and consumers are more diverse in their preferences, values and needs. How can you respond really well to these needs if you don’t have great insight into them? And, with the best will in the world, the best insight comes from them right? So if you are trying to appeal to Generation Y consumers who best to figure out how to do that than your Generation Y employees. If you give them the chance that is. The problem is that a lot of new product and service development work takes place at senior levels of the organisational hierarchy. And those at the top tend to be older. These are the kind of issues that a good Generational Diversity Strategy addresses.

ITV, a British broadcaster recently made a very smart move when they had a group of their high flying graduates devise a mechanism for anyone in the organisation to put forward new programming and content ideas. The scheme has been hugely successful. Senior management have been blown away by the quality of ideas and the thinking behind them. And a large majority of them are being backed. This sort of thinking is common sense but unfortunately most organisations’ structures and procedures block it. A good Generational Diversity Strategy addresses these blocks and ensures that all possible talent is brought to bear on the challenge of innovating and growing.

Recent research by HR Network Europe showed that  only 26% of  200 + European companies surveyed had a Generational Diversity Strategy.  This low number is surprising. Perhaps they don’t have a problem attracting and engaging the best employees and consumers. Or maybe they haven’t thought about what such a strategy would do for them now and to in terms of future retention of employees and clients. Maybe they should take a leaf out of ITV’s book.

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I was chatting to a marketing friend the other day. We were discussing whether companies corporate brands are more important today than ever. We concluded that they probably were given how hard it is to attract and retain consumers and how much more demanding they appear to be. It makes no sense then not to place the same importance on the proposition that you offer employees so that you attract and keep the best ones.

I have been researching the websites of organisations all over the world and am surprised at how few really articulate an employee value proposition (EVP) that sounds appealing and distinctive. Yet surely having a strong, differentiated and appealing proposition is the key to growth in any company in any industry. That is if you believe your employees are key to growth!

Another friend runs a property development business. When I talk to him about how he manages to get and keep great people he intuitively understands the importance of his EVP (though of course he doesn’t use the jargon). He told me he is making extra effort to understand what is important to the different types of people that he employs. Where he can he gives them what they need to feel valued and be engaged. He told me that losing even a couple of key people to competitors who are offering a more attractive proposition could lose him thousands in revenue and hurt customer relationships.
It’s common sense really isn’t it?

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It’s not just big business banning social networking site access at work – Manchester United have done so too. See full story here

We think this is wasted effort and a poor substitute for decent performance management. Treat people like grown ups and most people will behave like grown ups. And what about the wasted opportunity of reaching millions of loyal fans following on twitter? I’m sure they would love to buy the odd bit of replica kit.

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We’ve noticed a shift in thinking on Generation Y recently.

Forward thinking organisations are no longer singling out Generation Y as a problem in isolation to solve, but more as part of a diversity agenda and specifically generational diversity.  Some organisations are realising that to solve generational conflict in the work place they need to understand more about their generational demographic – how many of each generation do they have?  Organisations with a good mix of generations in their workforce are looking for help to improve understanding between the generations under the guise of generational diversity.   …

download the full article here

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I went to the book launch of “And What Do You Do?: 10 Steps to Creating a Portfolio Career” by Barrie Hopson and Katie Ledger a couple of weeks ago. The book is a guide to anyone who wants to explore having two or more ‘jobs’.

Having now read the book (it’s great by the way – very practical and full of examples and stories) there were a few of things that struck me.

Firstly how technology has enabled more people than ever to have portfolio careers.  Katie and Barrie are bang up to date in their exploration of this, from the practical delivery of work to marketing yourself using social media.

Secondly, that while anyone of any age can be attracted to a portfolio career, there is  some evidence that younger workers (Generation Y) are more comfortable with the idea of finding ‘clients’ to sell their skills to, rather than looking for just one job.    I guess this is a result of seeing work more as something to do, rather than a place to go – a hang up that Generation X and the baby boomers  find harder to shake off. This combined with the changing world of work and more enlightened companies benefitting from the flexibility this provides suggests this may become far more the norm.

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Members of the London HR Connection meet monthly to lunch, network with their peers and hear from leading figures in the industry. Over lunch at November’s event more than 50 members heard from Sally Bibb, a co-founder and director of leadership and talent consultancy, talentsmoothie, who argued that understanding how to attract, engage and manage Generation Y will be an important competitive differentiator for organisations.

You can download the full article here.

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In my work with clients I’ve been part of many debates considering whether action is needed in organisations to accommodate Generation Y (Gen Y). Most tend to be in agreement that this is a new breed of worker that warrants discussion, but not all have been convinced that they need to change. During these discussions I often hear comments like “I had to work my way up the ladder, why do they think they shouldn’t have to”, “they are far too confident – verging on the arrogant”, “they just expect things too easy”. Some managers have said that they feel resentful and want to put Gen Y in their place. The truth is that Gen Ys attitudes to work and what they expect from employers are fundamentally different to the attitudes of Generation X (Xers) and the Boomer Generation (Boomers) and in some organisations this is causing a certain amount of pain.

You can download the full article here

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Like many other sectors that attract lots of young people, PR is experiencing the trials and joys of a new generation – the so-called Generation Y. These twenty-somethings are challenging the way things are done and behaving in ways that leave their bosses and older colleagues lost for words.

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Many organisations are becoming concerned about their ability to attract and retain Generation Y. Currently 20 per cent of the UK workforce is Generation Y, i.e. under age 30. The workforce is getting younger and, because of demographic changes, young talent is going to get scarcer and scarcer.

Download the full article here.

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Talentsmoothie’s Simon Walker explores the implications for leaders when thinking about Generation Y for the Leadership Trust.

Download a pdf here

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