Engaging the Next Generation
By Mark Bradley
It’s been said a lot, studied a lot, and if you’ve head down, horns up and straight forward. You need to be the same with company hired under‐30 workers, you’ve seen it a lot. This systems and procedures. If you dance around your rules or take them lightly, your younger generation is different. Generations younger workers will have absolutely no respect for them. They have short going back years have always seen the differences attention spans and they’ve been wired since the age of two to filter out non‐ in the way they were raised, compared with the essential information, even when it’s directed at them. They’ve grown up with 1,000 current generation, but perhaps none more so commercials a day spouting what comes out of the other end of the bull. Don’t let your words get lost in the filter. Be ultra serious about your systems and expecta‐ than now. tions. So how do you deal with this generation of workers in your company and on a jobsite? The Imagine if life depended on your employees following systems. You simply couldn’t fact is, they’re here and they’re not going put up with workers who don’t. It’s not that you can’t get better respect for your anywhere — and you’re going to have to depend systems; it’s that you don’t try hard enough. For an example of a nice lesson served on them for results. You have a simple choice: You up cold to a Gen Y crew member by his firefighting comrades, go to can continue to do things your way, and they’ll do http://bit.ly/YYAKWA. I couldn’t put it any better. things their way, and you can fight it out while your business suffers. Or, you and your foremen Short attention spans need short‐term goals can learn to manage and motivate differently — This generation gets information in quick doses. From commercials to video games and get more out of these young employees. to YouTube and Facebook/Twitter, information comes fast. They deal with it; then it’s out of sight, out of mind. Convey your goals and expectations the same way. It’s critical that you, as an owner, and just as Three quick meetings a day will help. importantly, your foremen, learn to get the most out of the people who work for you. Wishing for Start of day: Set the goals, review what’s missing/needed (materials, equipment, etc.) the old days and complaining that this generation Mid‐day: Review the goals. Are we on track, has anything changed? doesn’t work like you worked isn’t going to End of day: Did we hit the goals? What’s needed for tomorrow? Recognize hard change a thing; but here are a few tips that might: Be honest when hiring Start off on the right foot. This generation works so they can have fun. If you expect long hours, weekend work and hard labour, be straight up at the beginning. If you misrepresent the job before they start, they’ll get frustrated, they’ll resent their job and your company, and they’ll underperform until they quit or are terminated. Engage them from day one Throw them in headfirst on day one. Give them responsibilities, but be realistic. Make them the VP of trailer operations or jobsite cleanups, and advise them that their job is to keep things neat and organized. Let them know they will be held responsible and be clear about the standards. A checklist and/or regular evaluations are key — you can’t expect them to know what you want if you don’t tell them. Don’t tolerate helplessness, stomp it out. Don’t feed into it by answering questions they can figure out for themselves. Force them to think through a n d a n s w e r t h e i r o w n q u e s t i o n s . Be a bull when it comes to company systems Bulls don’t mess around. They know one way — Green for Life April/May 2013 I
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