To retain or not to retain? - Gen Y issues

One of the most common issues I have observed thus far is “no matter how the companies have tried, they can’t seem to retain Gen Y”.
In detail, their companies spend and invest a lot on their younger workforce in terms of retention strategies, such as the fancy total rewards scheme, the dazzling work environment, and the cultural adjustment.
However, the outcome is still undesirable and leads to frustration, particularly for those who are accountable for the training the new entrants.
Generally, most of the articles on the subject that I have found were written from the mere top-down approach; that is, what and how a Gen X or baby boomer thinks is the problem, and what is the best solution.
As a Gen Y myself, I wanted to delve into this topic from the opposite angle, by asking my Gen Y friends to see whether the assumption by the other generations is right. To do so, I asked them how long each of them actually planned to stay in the organisation, and what was the reason to stay or to leave. Here are some of the answers:
A (Transportation industry, bachelor’s degree): “One year, or maybe one and a half. My job is becoming more and more routine, so I want to try something new.”
B (Insurance industry, master’s degree): “One to two years. I believe that we are still young and should be harvesting various experiences and skills from different organisations.”
C (Banking industry, bachelor’s degree): “At first I planned to stay only for one year because I was given tasks that didn’t meet my expectations. However, when I was given more challenging tasks, and got along better with my colleagues, I began to feel satisfied and now plan to stay here for one more year. After that, I will leave to seek an even more challenging job.”
D (Consulting industry, master’s degree): “Minimum of two years and maximum of four years, because I want to accumulate experience and reach a middle-level position. Then I will change my career to shift my payroll level. Plus, it is in my nature to get bored easily.”
E (Retail industry, bachelor’s degree): “Two years, or until I get promoted. After that, I will move to a better-paying company where I like their culture.”
Simply put, whether or not Gen Y people are happy with their current jobs, they will eventually leave after a few years to gain more diverse experience. This, by all means, comes as no surprise as Gen Y are known to be the collectors of experiences, and experience itself plays a vital role in influencing Gen Y’s behaviour and motivation.
To delve further into the topic, APMGroup conducted a survey of more than 40 of Thailand’s leading public and private organisations to find out whether they face the same problem.
The overall answer we gathered is obvious: 65 per cent of them are struggling with retention problems.
Furthermore, we conducted a psychological assessment with nearly 8,500 multi-generational workforces to seek in-depth details as to why their turnover rate is high. From the assessment, we found the emerging characteristic of the typical Gen Y, which tends to be more “inquisitive”.
The data also imply an interesting linkage with the fact that when a member of the new generation enters the workforce early on in their career, they are mostly given tasks that are less complicated and rather focused on a small/specific part, instead of those allowing them to see the bigger picture.
In these circumstances, Gen Y would leave the organisation simply because they feel their jobs are not meaningful enough, and would rather seek something new that is more significant and challenging.
Moreover, Gen Y tends to be more “sociable” and “interpersonal-sensitive”, resulting in the precedence they give to their colleagues’ society and the ability to handle less pressure from their boss.
Also, “affiliation” “happiness” and “financial” are among the top tier of factors and values that highly motivate Gen Y’s working lives, whereas the topics of “security” and “tradition” come across fairly low compared to the baby boomer/Gen X.
Given the aggressive war for talent, the competitive labour-market situation combined with the digital world we are currently living in, job opportunities are opening everywhere to attract and lure the new generation at just one click away.
It is not that hard, therefore, for Gen Y to seek a new, challenging job with a happier environment and flexible culture that comes with higher income, whenever they feel like resigning.
For this reason, I am certain that many companies would contemplate whether or not they should really focus on retaining Gen Y in their organisation.

Maximise performance and potential
However, as a Gen Y myself, and one who has been gathering experience in the field of people development for quite some time now, I would advocate otherwise.
Instead of merely investing in retaining the new generation, wouldn’t it be better to focus on maximising their performance and potential during their (rather short) work lifespan?
In fact, Gen Y can be extremely productive within a short period of time if we utilise their rapid learning curve together with their goal alignment, values, trust and two-way communication through an informal coaching environment.
In this sense, they can certainly outperform their hidden potential and generate a higher return on investment once you create a friendly atmosphere and prove to them that you genuinely want to help them shine as who they are.
Just like William Shakespeare’s famous line “To be or not to be?”, now is a good time for all executives, leaders and HR professionals out there to ask themselves “To retain or not to retain?”
Surely retention will remain critical, but don’t forget to polish and groom your Gen Y as early as possible, for them to shine and show you what they can do for your future success.

Paramee Srisomsangaris is a strategic business development specialist, Y’s Me Product Development Team at APMGroup. He can be reached at [email protected] or https://www.facebook.com/apmgroupthai