Generation Y Can Save You Money and Grow Your Business

In a tough economy, maximizing employee performance and innovation can make all the difference in a company's survival, and doing so while cutting costs offers a significant bottom line advantage. The solution to both is a new generation of career starters and young professionals: Gen Y employees. But while this generation might be inexpensive to hire compared to more experienced workers, and bring many timely skills (along with their 5,000 friends on Facebook), they can also be notoriously difficult to manage and motivate. The reason is Gen Y’s employment priorities and preferences are different from that of older employers. Gen Y’s unique employment mindset presents a growing challenge for businesses that choose not to adapt or an opportunity for a valuable competitive advantage at businesses that choose to embrace this emerging workforce. 

In Y-SIZE YOUR BUSINESS (Wiley, November 2009, $24.95), Jason Ryan Dorsey solves the Gen Y employment riddle with his frontline-tested Y-Size process. A member of Gen Y himself, Dorsey delivers the first complete methodology for best employing Gen Y. This methodology is built around proven best practices collected during his work teaching business leaders in diverse industries how to unlock Gen Y’s employment potential while bridging all four generations in the workplace. 

Dorsey defines Generation Y as those individuals born between 1977 and 1995, whose formative influences included Baby Boomer parents, the Gulf War, ever-present cell phones, the Internet boom, and September 11. Along with coming of age around more affluence than previous generations, Gen Y was told to “find a job that makes you happy,” hold steadfast to big career expectations, and seek an employer where you can make an impact from day one. While some of Gen Y’s views about work present an often talked about challenge, such as Gen Y’s new definition of “business casual,” Dorsey shows how every Gen Y workplace characteristic can be an asset when managed correctly. And as a member of Gen Y himself, who admits to texting his mom every day, Dorsey offers a fresh perspective in the crowded market of generational management books—and he does so without making excuses for his generation. 

Dorsey also clears up many misconceptions about Gen Y, including his discovery that Gen Y is not tech savvy, but tech dependent. He then reveals that Gen Y is not simply “instant everything” but instead entirely outcome driven. He goes on to explain that Gen Y decides on their first day at work whether or not they can stay with an employer long term. These three insights alone can reshape how a manager or business engages Gen Y along with underscoring the inexpensive actions businesses can take to create measurable gains in Gen Y employee performance.

In an unexpected twist, Dorsey advocates that catering to Gen Y employees is not the answer to better performance (although their mom may disagree). In fact, Dorsey believes coddling Gen Y is precisely the wrong approach. “Businesses that coddle Gen Y end up attracting the wrong kind of Gen Y employees, the kind who quit without notice and then ask for a job reference,” he explains. 

The step-by-step process Dorsey outlines in Y-SIZE YOUR BUSINESS delivers the missing link employers seek to lower costs while growing their business. By implementing Dorsey’s cost-effective, ready-to-use strategies, which can deliver results in as little as two weeks, businesses of all sizes and industries can effectively leverage the best talent Gen Y employees have to offer while simultaneously gaining a bottom line advantage. Dorsey shows you how to achieve these results while at the same time respecting and incorporating the strengths of the other generations in the same workplace. 

Dorsey’s work around the world has proven to him—and many well-known business leaders—that Gen Y wants to make a difference at their employer from Day One. Let them. In Y-SIZE YOUR BUSINESS Dorsey shows you how to best employ Gen Y so they and your company come out ahead.