Generation Y do not consider ascending to management level a long-term ambition, new research from Penna reveals today.
The global people management business surveyed 1000 senior managers, and 1000 employees aged between 18 and 34, finding that a fifth (20%) of employers think their younger staff are motivated by wanting to be a manager and lead their own team. The employee research however, split into 18 – 24 year old and 25 – 34 year old categories, showed that in fact work life balance and a sense of fulfilment rank far higher on both groups’ surveyed long term priority lists.
Steven Ross, Head of Career Development at Penna said:
“This research has revealed two really important things – one, that we cannot just assume that younger generations in the workplace are automatically going to want to fill the shoes of todays’ leaders and managers, and two – that perhaps Gen Y aren’t as distinctly different from older generations as we thought.”
As well as highlighting a mismatch between employer and employees when it comes to long term ambitions, the research showed similar disparity around short term ambitions and motivators. 36 percent of senior managers said they believe 18-24-year-olds most want a pay rise and 32 percent said that 25-34-year-olds most want a promotion – whereas in fact the employee results showed the opposite.
Receiving a pay rise is most important to the higher age range of Gen Y (23% for 25-34-year-olds compared to 17% for 18-24-year-olds) and the ambition to be promoted is in fact a bigger driver for the lower age range of Gen Y (21% for 18-24-year-olds compared to 13% for 25-34-year-olds).
Ross added:
“Whilst organisations are doing pretty well at understanding some of the key motivators, there is work to be done in casting away stereotypes and making sure that managers invest time in regular career conversations with their teams to really understand what drives them. Simply guessing what will engage a Gen Y employee, or any employee for that matter, won’t work.
“Organisations that fail to do so could see a decline in engagement levels, and productivity, and increased attrition rates – not to mention a serious shortfall of managers and leaders in ten years’ time.”
The research also revealed that managers are underestimating how important the values of an organisation are to employees; as 13 percent of 18-24-year-olds said ‘values that reflect my own’ was an important consideration when choosing a company to work for, but just seven percent of managers believed this to be the case. Loyalty ranked highly on the agenda of Gen Y too, with 64 percent of 18-24-year-olds agreeing they believe ‘it is important to be loyal to your employer’ compared to 56 percent of 25-34 year olds. However when asked what age group they’d most associate with loyalty to a company, only three percent of employers said 18-24-year-olds compared to 26 percent for 25-34-year-olds.
Ross concluded:
“It’s clear that 18-34-year-olds have a very broad list of things they care about and believe in when it comes to choosing a job and developing their career within an organisation, which may not be fully recognised by management.
“Whilst things like salary and progression opportunities will never stop being important to them, what this research shows is that they need to be listened to, otherwise organisations could be investing time and energy on development initiatives that don’t connect or resonate with them, and that can have serious long term business consequences.”
Steff joined the HRreview editorial team in November 2014. A former event coordinator and manager, Steff has spent several years working in online journalism. She is a graduate of Middlessex University with a BA in Television Production and will complete a Master's degree in Journalism from the University of Westminster in the summer of 2015.
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