Things are looking up for experienced talent. That’s right — the hiring landscape for executives is improving along with the rest of the labor market, according to a new survey from CareerBuilder and HeadHunter.com (a recruitment site dedicated to connecting employers with management and executive-level talent) of more than 2,000 hiring manager and HR professionals.

Just how much? Well, 31 percent of employers expect to hire for executive-level positions over the next six months, up from 23 percent in October 2011′s executive forecast.

Despite this boost in hiring, we’re still facing a deficit of diverse workers and women when it comes to taking on executive roles. Let’s take a closer look.

What’s ahead for executive hiring

Employers are recruiting senior leadership for a range of business functions, but some areas are more in demand than others:

• Nearly a quarter of employers (24 percent) will hire in business development
• 23 percent will hire in information technology
• 22 percent will hire in sales
• 19 percent will hire in marketing and 19 percent in accounting/finance 

As Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder  North America, observes, the need for diverse talent is paramount:

“Hiring trends for executive-level management mirror what we’re seeing in the labor market for all workers. As companies look to expand their sales force, develop new products and improve their tech infrastructure, the need for diverse, experienced leadership grows along with these initiatives.”

Demographics: Where’s the diversity?

Many hiring managers revealed they are still lacking diverse leadership at their organizations. Twenty-two percent of companies still don’t have female executives — not a surprise given that a mere 14.1 percent of women reportedly hold executive officer positions at Fortune 500 companies. In addition, 41 percent of companies do not have even one executive-level employee in any of the following demographics: African American, Hispanic, Asian, LGBT, and Disabled.

One in five companies have Millennial-level executives

One demographic that is seeing a rise in executives is Millenials; with the emergence of digital, mobile and IT as high-growth sectors, more Millennials are climbing their way to the top. Twenty percent of employers say they have executives under the age of 30.

What do employers (really) want in executive talent?

Often, employers will more heavily weigh prior accomplishments and demonstrated leadership ability than expertise in a particular industry. Though most hiring managers say prior experience in the industry for which a candidate is applying is a crucial requisite for landing a top job, 35 percent say they’ll consider candidates who don’t have a background in the industry.

The top qualities employers say they seek in executive-level candidates:

• Proven ability in addressing problems with effective solutions (62 percent)
• Adept at motivating others (54 percent)
• Can act with speed and agility in a changing market (47 percent)
• Is creative (43 percent)
• Has emotional intelligence (38 percent)
• Experience in different areas (37 percent)

It may come as a surprise to learn that only 20 percent say they look for an MBA or comparable higher-level degree when evaluating executive candidates.

Does anything surprise you from the latest executive hiring forecast in relation to your own hiring?

ABOUT HEADHUNTER.COM: HeadHunter.com is a recruitment site for management and executive-level talent. Founded in partnership with CareerBuilder.com, HeadHunter.com is a targeted approach for connecting high-level, experienced professionals with their ideal career opportunity. For more information, visit www.HeadHunter.com.

Location: San Mateo, 94401 (650) Also in: Mountain View, CA 94043 (650)

We need a Senior User Experience (UE) Engineer to take design wireframes and visual designs of the next-generation ecommerce platform and bring them to life as high-fidelity, functional web browser-based prototypes conforming to the latest W3C Web Standards.

Qualifications:

Strong portfolio featuring XHTML, JS, CSS and AJAX coding samples

5 to 8 years HTML/XHTML/CSS/JavaScript/DOM cross-browser development experience with large-scale web applications or sites

Experience working with Javascript libraries such as YUI (preferred), Prototype and Scriptaculous

Understanding of server technologies such as JSP, PHP, Apache, Tomcat, etc.

Experience working on e-commerce products, enterprise-level web apps/sites

Experience working within an MVC framework

Familiarity with accessible web development techniques (W3C WAI, Section 508, optimizing for Adaptive Technologies)

Basic knowledge of Linux/Unix command line usage is a plus

Experience with JSP/Java/Taglibs a plus

Redhat Linux, Mac OS X, Win XP

Building XHTML, CSS layouts and integration with application

Creating, updating and debugging complex JavaScript functionality

Desired Qualifications:

Understanding of REST style architectures

Understanding of standard build tools

Contact trevor.smith@parallelhr.com for more information or to submit a resume.

“Hey, remember when retiring was a ‘thing’? Those were the days.” While hearing that phrase might sound odd now, the fading out of traditional retirement not be so far off the mark: Fifty-seven percent of workers ages 60 and older said in a new Harris Interactive© study they would look for a new job after retiring from their current company–a sign that these days, retirement doesn’t necessarily mean the end of someone’s career. Some workers are postponing retirement out of economic necessity; they just can’t afford to quit. Others, however, are in fact choosing to continue the nine-to-five routine, for many different reasons (which I’ll get into more below).

The survey, conducted on behalf of CareerBuilder and PrimeCB.com (CareerBuilder’s job site for mature workers and retirees) among 3,023 hiring managers and HR professionals and 878 U.S. workers ages 60 and older, also found that 11 percent of respondents said they don’t think they’ll ever be able to retire.

Despite that discouraging statistic, there are still a good number of workers who, although they may not be ready quite yet, believe they’ll be able to retire within the next several years:

• 1-2 years (26 percent)
• 3-4 years (23 percent)
•  5-6 years (22 percent)
• 7-8 years (7 percent)
• 9-10 years (7 percent)
• More than 10 years (4 percent)

More hiring on the horizon

As an increasing number of older workers are putting off retirement, whether by choice or financial necessity, the timing of many employers couldn’t be better: Many of them are looking to hire within the 50-and-older demographic. This is great news, because as we’ve discussed previously, many older workers who want or need to continue working are unable to do so, simply because they can’t find an employer who will hire them. According to the survey:

• 43 percent of employers plan to hire workers ages 50 and older this year.
• 41 percent said they hired workers ages 50 and older in 2011.
• 75 percent of the employers surveyed would consider an application from an overqualified worker who 50 or older, with 59 percent of those employers saying they would do this because mature candidates bring a wealth of knowledge to an organization and can mentor others. (Note: Older workers have been found to have a host of other advantages as well, including quitting less, being absent less, and having better social skills and job performance than their younger counterparts).

“Whether mature workers are motivated by financial concerns or simply enjoy going to work every day, we’re seeing more people move away from the traditional definition of retirement and seek ‘rehirement.’ At the same time, employers are seeing the value these mature workers can bring to an organization, from their intellectual capital to their mentoring and training capabilities. In a highly competitive job market, mature workers can use these skills to their advantage.”

 

Finding out what older workers want

With more companies seeking the unique skills older workers offer, it’s vital for companies to know (or learn) what these workers want. Many of them want to keep working to stay active, keep busy and be social. They also want things like a friendly work environment, a chance to use their skills and depth of experience, respect from coworkers, the opportunity to learn, and a way to help others and do something meaningful.

When it comes to benefits, many older workers are seeking adequate paid time off, health care and insurance coverage, and a flexible schedule (doesn’t sound much different than what workers of all generations are seeking, does it?)

I recently saw lawyer Simon Heath speak at 2012′s HRPA conference about  older workers and age discrimination, and he also shared a few examples of methods employers may need to consider when accommodating older employees in the workplace:

• Flexible hours and conditions of work (i.e. compressed work weeks, flex time, and telecommuting).
• Part-time arrangements and job sharing, which both allow for a transition to retirement.
• Employing workers who have already retired on short term and/or fixed term contracts.

As Peter Cappelli, co-author of Managing the Older Worker: How to Prepare for the New Organizational Order, discussed at SHRM this past year, organizations can take steps to better work with older workers in their organization:

• Tailor your rewards and benefits to their lifestyle and interests: The promotion, bonus or stock options don’t matter as much to older workers, as mentioned above. Instead, provide motivation through meaningful work and social relationships; these factors are a bigger priority for older workers than financial- or career advancement-motivated rewards.
• Consult and empower them: Older workers want to be consulted, so ask them to participate in the decision process on a project or challenge a bit more. They have experience behind them and wisdom to solve many workplace problems, so ask them to get involved.
• Don’t ignore them: Older workers don’t want to be ignored, and they still need to be managed. Remember that managing someone older doesn’t mean you’re giving up authority; older workers must be held accountable, too.
• Initiate mentoring/onboarding: Companies like Deloitte have taken advantage of older workers’ unique talents by asking them to share problems they see in the organization that they’d like to work on and fix. Their attitude is, “If you think it’s a good idea, we will too, almost without exception. We trust you.”

Is your organization hiring more seasoned workers this year? What unique skills and experience do you see them bringing to the workplace?

Job duties & responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Develop and maintain web based applications using HTML, Javascript, CSS, C# and Asp.net frameworks
Develop and maintain class libraries and business processes written in C#
Develop and maintain Database code using T-Sql
Work within an agile development environment with ability to clearly communicate with other team members and stakeholders

Job Requirements:

Bachelor degree in computer science or related field from an accredited university or technical institute preferred; may consider candidates without a degree given applicable work experience
Technical Skills:
Required:
Strong C# development including experience using Asp.Net frameworks
HTML
CSS
Javascript / DOM / DHTML
Sql Server / T-SQL experience (preferably SQL 2008).
Preferred:
Knowledge of Asp.net MVC 2.0 is a huge plus
Knowledge of W3C standards based web development
Knowledge of and experience using Javascript frameworks for UI and Ajax programming (jQuery, JSON, YUI, etc)
Windows Communication Foundation / WCF
SSIS / SSRS
Microsoft Workflow Foundation / WF. (WF version 4.0 a plus)
Experience in Agile / TDD environment
Design Pattern and knowledge of object model design a plus
Must have experience in full life cycle web and application development
Strong database design and programming with SQL Server.
Good analytical skills and design skills
Strong verbal and written communication and presentation skills

SEND RESUMES TO: trevor.smith@parallelhr.com

You know them (or you may even be one yourself): The parents who “pop in” at company brainstorming meetings, or call the Dean of Students at her house just as she’s digging into her mashed potatoes, or hand-deliver their son or daughter’s resume to the hiring manager, singing-telegram style. There have been adult books written about them–and even cautionary children’s tales. I was leaving work last night when I heard a man refer to his mother as one. That’s right–I’m talking about helicopter parents. They’re everywhere–and the conversation about them isn’t going away.

What is a helicopter parent?
According to Wikipedia, a helicopter parent is a “colloquial, early 21st-century term for a parent who pays extremely close attention to his or her child’s or children’s experiences and problems, particularly at educational institutions.” The term was originally coined in Foster W. Cline, M.D. and Jim Fay’s 1990 book “Parenting with Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility.”

How it all started
The idea of “helicopter parents” really gained traction several years ago, when people started to notice baby boomer parents “hovering” over their Millennial high school or college kids and becoming much more participatory in their educational lives, doing everything from scheduling their courses to angrily calling teachers about a bad grade. This was something we hadn’t really been seeing in generations past–generations in which parents were much more hands-off (and, some would add, respectful of their children’s ability to function as adults). As Nancy Gibbs wrote about the mentality of baby boomer parents in an article for Time magazine, “We were so obsessed with our kids’ success that parenting turned into a form of product development.” She added that this type of parenting is largely driven by memory and demography–parents born after 1964 waited longer to marry, and their families are among the smallest in history, leading them to guard their children more closely.

From classrooms to boardrooms
Those Millennial students became Millennial workers whose parents hadn’t stopped working on their behalf, and the problem seeped into the workplace like a leaking My Little Pony lunch thermos. Embarrassing stories abound of parents calling HR to advocate for offering Gary more money for a job, give Lewis that promotion he’s been asking for, or demand to know why they didn’t hire Betsy on the spot. “Submitting resumes without informing my child” has become the new “scheduling all the classes for Bob I wish I would have taken myself.”

How should companies react?
The big question now is, as a recent NPR article points out, should companies push back against the mighty force of helicopter parents in the workplace, or accept–and even embrace–it? Some experts of generational trends stand by the idea that it’s futile to fight this generation of workers’ level of closeness to their parents, and that rather than fight it, businesses should use it to their advantage and get parents on their side. And some businesses are in fact embracing it, even going so far as to initiate “Take Your Parent to Work Day” with the intention of showing parents a glimpse into their child’s work environment (and smoothing over relations with the often irate person on the other end of the phone line). Even mobile applications are acknowledging that parents are an integral part of younger generations’ every move: A new Foursquare app enables users to add the hashtag #mom to a check-in to let mom know they’ve arrived safely at their destination.

Taking flight or running out of fuel?
Are helicopter parents helping their kids further their careers and start building toward their future–or are they sabotaging the very thing they’re trying to protect and nurture? Encouraging parents to be involved in a school setting, when their children still have the promise of a safety net and aren’t completely “free” yet, is much different than when they’re in their early 20s. At that latter point, they’re in the working world and, at least in theory, are living as independent adults whose goal is to grow without that safety net–to show the world who they are and who they’re capable of becoming.

As an employer, what’s your take on helicopter parents? Do you view them as a way to positively influence a candidate or employee–or nuisances who are hindering their son or daughter’s ability to make independent decisions, branch out, learn and grow? Do you look at a candidate or employee more favorably, as they have a caring and supportive background, or negatively, as that influence weighs them down and shows a lack of leadership and problem-solving skills?

What do you think about helicopter parents in the workplace–does your business reject or encourage the practice, and why? Have helicopter parents influenced your hiring decisions?

Parallel HR Solutions is looking to secure several Help Desk and Technical Support Analysts to provide world class technical support for a leading global organization. The designated worksite is in Salt Lake City, UT. Fluency in Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, or Korean is highly preferred.

Required:
• Good Windows OS experience (XP, Vista, 7, and CE)
• Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access, Visio, and Project)
• Associates or Bachelors Degree from an Accredited University

Must also have experience with one or more of the following:
• Account provisioning (creation, deletion, modification, and entitlements) within Exchange
• Working knowledge of Active Directory/NT domains.
• Microsoft Sharepoint
• Citrix Terminal Server troubleshooting
• Mobile technologies (Blackberries, Citrix, VPN)
• Active Directory administration
• Basic networking (DHCP, DNS)
• Audio conferencing and Voice related support
• Administrative tools for Exchange, Email-based Faxing, Mainframe, File Transfer Administration PC hardware knowledge
• Networking and networking hardware—wired and wireless
• Hardware and software diagnosis skills

Bilingual skills ideal

Rate: $17-$19/hour
To apply please email resumes to jake.canner@parallelhr.com

A Global information, communications and technology company is currently seeking an experienced Network Support Engineer for our Utah-based support division.

Job Duties:
• Troubleshoot all Level 1/ 2 Calls from customers.
• Ensure consistent customer satisfaction.
• Document all communication with customers in the CRM.
• Notify/Discuss with TL/Manager on tickets that require assistance.
• Timely handoff ( escalation) of cases that require technical escalation to L3 TAC.
• Plan and constantly work on upgrading tech and product expertise.
• Contribute to the knowledge base/ Tech Forum.

Basic Criteria:
• 3+ years experience in configuration and troubleshooting high-end networks and security appliances.
• The Ideal candidate will be an Engineer, who is a self-starter, with excellent interpersonal, communication, documentation, problem solving and troubleshooting skills.
• Quality focus, result & goal orientation in a group situation, and commitment to customer delight are a must.
• Debugging hardware & software system level problems in a multi-vendor multi-protocol network environment.

Basic Skill Set:
• Good understanding of OSI Model, TCP/IP protocol suite (IP, ARP, ICMP, TCP, UDP, SNMP, FTP, TFTP).
• Experience in VLANS, Tagging – IEEE 802.1q, 802.3ad, 802.1d,802.1w.
• Experience in IPSEC VPN/SSL-VPN/NAT/GRE/
• Experience on routing protocols — RIP V1/V2, OSPF, BGP

Core Skill Set:
• Knowledge on Authentication Protocols like TACAS/RADIUS/802.1x
• Working knowledge on Cisco, Checkpoint, Juniper ,Fortinet, SonicWall, Netscreen
• Experience on troubleshooting tools like Sniffer, Ethereal, Wireshark.
• CCNA, CCNP ,Checkpoint Certification, CCSP certifications will be an added advantage.

Other information:
• Medical/Dental/Vision/401k
• 2 weeks PTO/year + 9 paid holidays
• Continued education opportunities
• Career advancement opportunities
• School-schedule flexibility

FOR FOR INFORMATION OR CONSIDERATION, PLEASE CONTACT jake.canner@parallelhr.com

As we’ve talked about before, many members of Generation Y look at work a little bit differently than other generations.  ”I love my job, but I love my life more” is something you might hear Gen Yers say. Although members of Gen Y (the generational group comprised of those 18 to 29 years of age) have no problem with working hard, as a general rule, their job will never be the whole of their identity. Even more interestingly, as Aaron Kesher pointed out at SHRM 2011, their job and life may intersect in new ways than we’ve seen in past generations. “Gen Y doesn’t want a job – they want a life that hopefully includes a job.”

Hmm. So, what happens when that “life” is online — on Facebook, for example? How do their work and personal lives overlap, and what can employers learn from it? A new study, conducted by Millennial Branding, a personal branding agency based in Boston, Ma., of four million Gen Y Facebook profiles (gleaned from data and analytics company Identified.com), found that members of Gen Y, intentionally or not, are using their Facebook profiles to not only socialize with family and friends, but also to serve as an extension of their professional personality. And it seems that behavior on sites like Facebook is actually reflective of their attitute toward life and work as a whole. By understanding how Gen Y treats their personal and professional lives, employers can better understand how to attract, engage and retain this generation of workers.

Gen Y: Work versus personal lives on Facebook

Gen Y’s tendency to mix work and life appears to spill over into the way they manage the overlap of friends and family with co-workers on sites like Facebook, though the way in which they’re mixing their worlds may look different than you’d expect.

• Work stays at work (sort of): Sixty-four percent of Gen Y workers, for example, choose not to list an employer on their profiles, but have an average of 16 co-workers in their “friends” network. It may be that they’re comfortable with “friending” select people they’re closer to at work and sharing more personal details with them, but not comfortable making their Facebook profile a replicate of LinkedIn.
• Low on job pride? Eighty percent of Gen Yers list at least one school entry on their Facebook profile, while only 36 percent list a job entry; that’s a pretty significant gap. The reasons for this aren’t entirely clear — it could be due to them feeling a stronger sense of identity/pride/community with their school than with their job, a desire to keep work life separate from Facebook, or even good old college nostalgia. It could also point to the fact that with the current economy, many Gen Y and non-Gen Y workers aren’t in their ideal fields or jobs, and don’t necessarily want to highlight their current source of income.

Check out the infographic for more details about Gen Y’s Facebook behavior:

What does this mean for you, the employer?

For employers, it’s important to keep in mind that Gen Y workers, while similar to other generations in many ways, are seeking particular traits in an employer. By remaining flexible with workers and understanding that they value a life outside of work, a solid career path and the trust to try new ventures and fail, you’re one stop ahead of many other employers. As Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding and author of Me 2.0, recommends, “you must allow your employees to become more entrepreneurial at work so they stay with you longer instead of working for a startup or starting their own company.”

In addition to encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit, connecting with Gen Y is not necessarily about a 180 degree company change, but about taking your current way of doing things and steering it in a new direction. Initiating flexible schedules, knowing that employees are often on all the time, is a start, as is making sure employees have a mentor and giving proper recognition for a job well done or sharing innovative ideas.

How could these findings help you better understand and connect with Gen Y employees?

The data and analytics for this study were provided by Identified.com.

“Ask your neighbor what they do,” said Peter Cappelli to the room full of us in the Managing the Older Worker session at 2011′s SHRM conference. Most people in the room complied. “Then,” he continued, “ask them how old they are.” People laughed nervously; no one moved.

That was how Cappelli, the George W. Taylor Professor of Management at The Wharton School and co-author of Managing the Older Worker: How to Prepare for the New Organizational Order, started his discussion on older workers — and as he went on, he explained the current surge in older workers we’re seeing, shared his thoughts on ways in which older workers are better hires than their younger counterparts, discussed how employers can best engage the older generation, and more.

Why the big workplace shift?

The workforce is getting older — and it’s causing a lot of age-related changes in the workplace that many companies are ill-equipped to deal with. Why? Well, first of all, said Cappelli, we’re living longer — babies born in 2010 will live 10 years longer than those born in 1950. If your parents are 65, he added, there is a 50 percent chance that at least one of them will live to the age of 90.

Second of all, we’re also living healthier, and the percentage of older workers who need to work (to support living longer) is growing. And even they don’t have to work, many older people are healthy and want to keep busy; 84 percent say they would work even if they were set for life — not to work for the money, but to stay active.

As more people are increasingly working full-time and baby boomers are getting older, the workforce is also getting older. Basically, Cappelli said, longer life, baby boomers, and people working longer are the three main factors driving an older workforce.

What do older workers want?

Learning how to work with all the generations in the workplace is important for employers, but with a growing older workforce, it’s even more important that we examine what older workers actually want (hint: as mentioned above, it’s not really about the money).

• A friendly environment — 94%
• The chance to use their skills — 94%
• The chance to do something worthwhile — 91%
• To feel respected by coworkers — 90%
• The opportunity to learn something new — 88%
• The ability to help others — 86%
• Adequate paid time off — 86%
• Health care and insurance benefits — 84%
• A flexible schedule — 76%
• To do something they’ve always wanted to do — 75%

The problem? They’re not getting it — because they can’t find work

A whopping 75 percent of those workers approaching typical retirement age want to keep working — but of those workers, only about one-half actually do. Of those who do find new jobs, only one-quarter can actually get hired by somebody else. Many older workers become self-employed because they have a hard time getting anyone to hire them.

Why can’t older individuals find work?

After all, employers complain of not being able to find quality workers, but compared to their younger colleagues, older workers:

• Quit less, are absent less, and have fewer accidents (even car accidents)
• Have more knowledge and better social skills
• Have better job performance
• Are happier, as it’s shown that people get happier as they get older (you want happy workers, right?)

The only thing older workers are generally poorer at, said Cappelli, is solving novel problems under time pressure without aids (advice, calculators, or other help); for example, taking SAT tests — yep, that’s it.

What do employers say they want?

• A just-in-time workforce that doesn’t need training and can “hit the ground running.”
• Flexible workforce that isn’t expecting long-term commitments
• Better interpersonal skills
• Better “knowledge management” of tacit information

Older workers are a perfect fit for what employers say they want – more flexibility, better interpersonal skills and workers who can hit the ground running.

Do older workers cost more?

Quite simply, no. Though there’s a general misconception that this is the case, there’s no premium in the labor market for age – only for experience. Yes, older workers’ health care use is greater, Cappelli said, but they don’t have dependents to pay for (no pregnancies or little kids). In fact, doubling your percentage of 55-year-old workers raises your business’s total compensation costs by a mere 1 percent.

So why aren’t more older workers being hired?

To sum it up in a phrase, age discrimination. I was surprised when Cappellis said that age discrimination becomes apparent for 36.5 percent of older workers at the age of 50. As Cappelli pointed out, we as a society think certain topics or demographics are off-limits when it comes to comedy, yet the one topic deemed not offensive is making fun of older people, which suggests how common it is to hear, see, and accept people being disparaging about age. Age discrimination appears to be more common than gender or race discrimination, Cappelli added, and 67 percent say they’ve experienced or seen it on the job. In addition, 25 percent of employers say their organization is reluctant to hire older workers (and that’s only the percentage that admit it).

It’s even worse when it comes to the IT field: The majority of IT employers said they wouldn’t hire anyone over 40.

Older workers — and younger supervisors

As the workforce ages, executives are actually getting younger, and the percentage of supervisors who are younger than their subordinates is growing. It’s no secret that older workers and younger supervisors don’t exactly mesh all of the time — and as Cappelli said, this conflict is compounding the issue of older workers having trouble getting work.

We’re seeing retired workers coming back into the workforce and take lower jobs, because younger supervisors are acting as gatekeepers to keep many older workers out. But why?

• 88 percent of employers worry about hiring older workers because of conflicts with younger workers (talk about a never-ending cycle), among them the fact that younger supervisors are less likely to give older workers feedback or hold them accountable.
• Younger supervisors are also more likely to believe that performance problems with older subordinates can’t be fixed.
•  Younger supervisors, many of whom rely on a “carrots and sticks” mentality that encourages a promotion for doing well and a demotion/getting fired for not doing well, are afraid of managing more experienced subordinates, because these things  don’t matter as much or go over well with older workers later in their careers. Older workers are less motivated by pay, and less afraid of being fired. The formal  “because I said so” or “because I know best”type of authority doesn’t work with them.
• Younger supervisors are uncomfortable managing older workers — traditionally, it’s been flipped, and they just can’t shake their feeling that they shouldn’t be in a position of power.

Can we fix this?
The short answer? Yes. The solution, according to Cappelli, involves a different model of leadership and management practices, and in his presentation, he mentioned a few ways for organizations to better work with older workers in their organization:

• Tailor your rewards and benefits to their lifestyle and interests: The promotion, bonus or stock options don’t matter as much to older workers, as mentioned above. Instead, provide motivation through meaningful work and social relationships; these factors are a bigger priority for older workers than financial- or career advancement-motivated rewards.

• Consult and empower them: Older workers want to be consulted, so ask them to participate in the decision process on a project or challenge a bit more. They have experience behind them and wisdom to solve many workplace problems, so ask them to get involved.
  
• Don’t ignore them: Older workers don’t want to be ignored, and they still need to be managed. Remember that managing someone older doesn’t mean you’re giving up authority; older workers must be held accountable, too.
  
• Initiate mentoring/onboarding: Companies like Deloitte have taken advantage of older workers’ unique talents by asking them to share problems they see in the organization that they’d like to work on and fix. Their attitude is, “If you think it’s a good idea, we will too, almost without exception. We trust you.”

Sometimes, Cappelli said, older workers have to help younger supervisors understand how to best manage them — and to engage younger supervisors in different types of relationships by taking initiative and speaking up for things like what motivates them, the type of environment they want to be in, or their strengths.

How has your workplace found ways to better integrate older and younger generations?

“What words come to mind when I say “Gen Y”? Aaron Kesher asked the many SHRM 2011 attendees packed into the room.  “Entitled!” shouted one person. “Job hoppers,” chimed in another. Soon, many in the room (many of them non-Gen Yers, with some Gen Y members sprinkled in) were shouting things like “smart,” “resume builders,” “technically savvy,” “stereotype,” “comfortable with change,” and “creative.”

Obviously, we all have specific words and phrases and ideas that match how we perceive Gen Y to think and behave in the workplace. Gen Y, made up of those born between 1980 and 2000, has their own notions of themselves, too. In Aaron Kesher’s “Why Y? Plugging Into a Generational Powerhouse” session at SHRM 2011, Kesher encouraged all of us in the room to rethink our notions of what we think Gen Y is all about, to consider the strengths they bring to today’s dynamic workplace, and to use this knowledge and understanding to more successfully recruit and retain Gen Y workers.

“Do not doubt that this generation will change the face of the American workplace as their parents did,” Kesher said. “In the next five to 10 years, Kesher said, the number of Gen Yers in the workforce will increase dramatically.”

As the number of Gen Y workers is only getting larger, it’s about time we as a collective workplace learn more about Gen Y so that we can understand them, appreciate their unique strengths, and more successfully integrate them with other generations in the workplace.

What is work from a Gen Y Perspective?

• Work ethic: Job loyalty, for a long time, was shown by how long you stuck around and paid your dues — and older generations still think in line with this. Gen Y, on the other hand, says, “I show you love by how hard I work, not how long I stick around.”
• Tech savvy: It’s not so much that Gen Yers are tech savvy, Kesher pointed out – they’re tech dependent.They’re the generation that’s come of age with the explosion of technology, so it’s natural that they would be comfortable with it.
• Communication and teamwork: Gen Y is not necessarily entitled; they just feel comfortable asking for what they want. When it comes to communication, you can often count on Gen Yers to spread out the message fast and often. We need to realize, Kesher said, that throughout Gen Y’s public education, the majority of the work was done in groups, and that their role wasn’t usually as the leader of a group – instead, many were “equal” team members. Therefore, many Gen Y members function fairly well as a group and as “team players,” but some struggle in standing out as individual, assertive leaders.
• Money:  Employers, listen up: Gen Y is talking to each other about the money they are (or aren’t) making at your organization. They are comparing how competitive your salary is with your competitors — and they’re not afraid to share their findings. One audience member mentioned recently hearing Gen Yers discussing openly the job offers and bonuses they were getting — and she was shocked.  After all, discussing how much money you make is one of the last great American taboos — yet Gen Y seems more comfortable with discussing this sort of information.
• Recognition: Gen Y is a generation of the “there are no losers – everyone’s a winner” mentality. “But they didn’t make that up (boomer parents),” Kesher pointed out, to a round of laughter. Gen Yers don’t care how it gets done – they just want to get it done. And they want to be told they did a good job once they do it; recognition is very important.
• Diversity: “Why do only white people work here?” might be something a Gen Y worker thinks while viewing a company site or sitting in the lobby while waiting to be interviewed and noticing the lack of diverse employees. Gen Y doesn’t embrace diversity – they expect it — and if your company says you believe in diversity, but then a Gen Y worker shows up and all workers look the same – they will think you’re not living up to your diversity message. This generation has grown up with a greater awareness of and comfort with diversity of all kinds. From home lives, to school experiences, to messages absorbed from pop culture, they often don’t see what all the fuss is. This can manifest as difficulty in understanding why others struggle with issues around differences. A question of whether gay marriage should be legalized, for example, is a non-issue for many Gen Y individuals — and this shift ties into a larger cultural shift in general.
• Work versus life: “I love my job, but I love my life more” — that’s something you may hear a lot of Gen Yers say. One of the critical issues that will need to be ironed out at work in the future, Kesher said, will revolve around workplace flexibility. We’re increasingly seeing workplace flexibility issues evolving in the workplace, and Gen Y workers in particular (though they’re not alone) want to know how they can maintain their relationship with work while still having the flexibility to live the life they envision. As mentioned above, Gen Y has no problem with work, or with the idea of working hard — it’s just that their job will never be the whole of their identity. They raised with the imperative to “follow your dreams!”, and their job and life may intersect in new ways than we’ve seen in past generations. “Gen Y,” Kesher stressed, “doesn’t want a job – they want a life that hopefully includes a job.”
• Being green: This is the generation that’s leading the green movement – so give them the power to build, make changes, and become leaders in your organization’s (existing or non-existing) green movement.

Why worry about Gen Y?

Ensuring that the different generations working together under one roof actually work well together is a big concern for many employers. After all, if knowledge isn’t able to be sufficiently shared from generation to generation, older generations will eventually retire — taking with them decades of experience. In addition, workers who work well together are likely to be happier, more productive, and better brand ambassadors for your company.

To effectively work with Gen Y workers, Kesher said, you don’t need to change who you are – just your approach. In a great reverse example of this, an audience member told the story of her (as a Gen Y worker) learning to compromise with a Silent Generation worker. The older worker, she said, took a long time to respond to emails, but whenever she had a printed piece for him to look at, he worked much more quickly. After figuring this out, she started printing out  her emails to him and putting them on his desk – and now his turnaround time on feedback to her is much faster. It’s small steps like this that can make a big difference between two generations that don’t always see eye to eye — or medium to medium.

By learning the “why” behind this generation’s interests, ideas, and behaviors, you will understand how Gen Y workers function best in the workplace, and you will be better prepared to recruit and retain them. Here are some ideas to get you started, courtesy of Kesher:

6 ways to more successfully recruit Gen Y:

1. Have fun. Use the media to get your company message out there. Gen Y is all over social networks, and as mentioned above, they are very comfortable with technology, so get in front of them on various mediums — and get creative in your efforts. Speak their language; what have you learned about the things that matter to them that you as an employer are able to provide? Connect work to their lives; how do the two successfully intersect in your work environment? Are you able to offer workers a great work/life balance and opportunities for them to enrich their lives outside of the office walls? Show them.
2. Challenge them. Gen Y workers are attracted to a challenge, so by providing your employees with interesting work that asks them to get outside their comfort zone and take risks, and lets them make mistakes and fail, you are likely to get these workers’ attention.
3. Give them opportunities. Do you give your employees multiple paths to explore when taking on a project, or find ways for their work to have an impact on the organization as a whole? Demonstrate to job seekers that you encourage employees to do work that is meaningful and and makes a difference outside of your organization. Do you give employees opportunities to further their training, brush up on their skills, or learn new disciplines outside of their current role to help them grow both inside and out of work?
4. Support their lifestyle. Recognize the importance their life outside of work has to them, and understand that they have often strong, close connections with their families (Kesher gave the example of parents calling to ask why their son or daughter got a bad review example, or dropping off a resume for their child — it happens more than you might think). Offer flexibility in your benefits, and realize that for many Gen Y workers, the line between work and personal life has blurred. Work happens at home, and vice versa — does your organization support a flexible workplace?
5. Embody diversity. Show it, don’t just talk about it! Demonstrate to potential employees how diversity integrates with your organization’s mission – but be authentic. Job seekers can see right through empty words; be true to your values by actually being a diverse workplace.
6. Reinforce your mission. Show job seekers the “why” – why is the work your organization does important to the rest of world? What is the larger context of the projects you take on, or of your core business? Reinforce your mission constantly, and help workers find connections to others in the organization through social media, your website, or in-person interactions.

… And 5 ways to retain them:

1. Make them feel at home the first day. This does not mean simply showing them the employee handbook, their cubicle, bathroom code, and then leaving them alone. Plan on a longer orientation duration than in the past. Establish personal connections with employees — and continue building those relationships throughout your employees’ tenure.
2. Give them feedback. They want more rather than less, and they want it sooner rather than later. Recognize everything employees are doing, and give them honest and open feedback. Waiting five years to get to the next step in an organization isn’t realistic anymore, Kesher pointed out — so provide them with the tools they need for success and career advancement. Give employees more chances for lateral development by helping them learn new skills, get new certifications, and expand their knowledge base.
3. Allow them to fail! Define clear expectations for tasks and projects, give them incremental goals along the way, and find ways to connect the work they’re doing to their personal values and goals. Let them stretch their boundaries, make mistakes, and learn from them — and most of all, listen to your employees. They want to give you input, so make it easier on them by asking for it where you can, and being available as a resource and mentor.
4. Again, listen. Pay attention to them (they’re going to talk to you a lot), be aware of their personal goals, and lead horizontally. They’re living in a world of connectedness and entitled communication; hierarchy isn’t as built into their mindset as it is in generations past. Try to be their leader without looking down on them.
5. Connect with them. Get to know them and what they’re all about (and hey, maybe even their helicopter parents, too). If you want respect from Gen Y workers, you have to give it. Many Gen Y workers feel misunderstood by their peers or their leaders; by working to connect with them and encouraging other employees to do the same, you will begin to chip away at the negative Gen Y stereotypes that are actually hindering generational progress in the workplace.

 Moving forward, together

During the session, a Gen Y professional raised her hand and pointed out that as an HR professional, she’s noticed a lot of overly negative critiques of Gen Y workers. She wondered why we couldn’t focus on the positive traits of Gen Y to hook into as a great resource — a great point, and one that Kesher drove home in his presentation.

After all, every time we think another generation doesn’t have something we have, Kesher said, we’re stereotyping. Every generation has boundaries and a work ethic — they may just happen to be different than ours.

But isn’t the fact that such a multitude of perspectives, ideas, backgrounds and behaviors exist what makes the workplace so great?

SPECIAL GIVEAWAY: See how you can get a free copy of one of two best-selling leadership books! See contest details below!

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR: Authored by Lisa Orrell. Orrell is known globally as The Generation Relations Expert. She is the author of the top-selling books Millennials Incorporated and Millennials into Leadership. In the final part of this three-part series, Orrell further explains the importance of training your Millennial employees for leadership roles – and shares practical tips for teaching your employees that crucial leadership skill: problem-solving.

As a consultant, I often hear employers tell me that one of their main challenges – and one they feel their Millennials struggle with – is problem solving. With that in mind, I’d like to share the following tips for problem solving, which you can share with your Millennial team members as you continue to groom them for leadership.

12 Problem-Solving Tips to Teach Your Gen Y Future Leaders:

1. Leaders First Envision Success: Leaders know that every problem has an answer; it just needs to be found. Worrying about the problem gets you nowhere, while working towards the answer will get you everywhere. Leaders control their attitude and focus on results.
2. Leaders Clarify the Problem: Leaders determine what’s wrong by cutting through clutter and noise, and by focusing on the issues that are at the core of the problem.
3. Leaders Get the Facts: Leaders collect all the facts about the problem because they know that some problems are not as big as they seem. Fact-finding is an analytical, rather than an emotional task, so it is useful in other ways, too. When a follower comes to a leader with a problem, a good leader will start asking questions and gather the facts, rather than engage in an emotional discussion.  Fact-finding is a process and you may have to dig deep to get to the real problem. Leaders are great at asking the right fact-finding questions. They’re also adept at listening to the answers and “hearing” any sub-text that could illuminate the situation.
4. Leaders Start By Looking to Themselves for Possible Solutions: If the problem does need attention quickly, leaders first look to themselves for answers. They ponder what actions they might take personally that could resolve the problem. They brainstorm all ideas and write them down. If the problem was developed by someone else, they ask that person how they think it should be resolved. And if the issue is significant, the leader will go to their team, or trusted advisors, for idea sharing. Being able to get a variety of solutions to choose from, from people with different perspectives and experience, is powerful.
5. Leaders Continually Self-Evaluate: Leaders constantly assess whether the process is going well, if the solutions being discussed make sense, and if they are doing everything they can to solve the issue.
6. Leaders Do Research: Leaders consider what research would be valuable to their problem-solving efforts (like searching the Internet, asking other people, reading books, etc.). Leaders do not think of themselves as all-knowing and understand that the first instinct for an answer is not necessarily the best. Sometimes when you are too knowledgeable about a subject, you can overlook something obvious.
7. Leaders Make Decisions: Leaders pick a solution and implement it. They may start with a quick-fix solution and follow up with a more long-lasting fix, but they decide what needs to be done…and they do it.
8. Leaders Follow Through: Effective leaders don’t just implement the solution and turn away. They follow through with making sure necessary team members are also doing their part (if required). And they ask everyone involved how they think the “solution” is working out now that it’s actually being used.
9. Leaders Create Achievable Markers: Leaders break the problem-solving process into small steps, and then focus on the most immediate steps. They know how to break problems down into their component tasks and then track the progress of each one over measure.
10. Leaders Aren’t Too Proud to Say “I’m Wrong”: Be ready to undo whatever (ineffective) solution you implemented without shame. A respected leader is never embarrassed to correct mistakes. Without mistakes no progress would ever be made!
11. Leaders Don’t Just Know How to Solve Problems; They Know How to Find Them: Great leaders can detect smoke, rather than simply trying to fight raging fires. That’s the type of leader you should groom your Millennials to be. And it’s critical they have a good rapport with their team to encourage them to share bad news, red flags, or concerns with them quickly!
12. Leaders Take Ownership: Ineffective leaders try to pass-the-buck by placing the blame on their peers or employees. They act like small children on a playground when confronted by an adult after a toy is broken; all of them point fingers at each other. But when you’re a boss and something in your department or team is “broken,” and your supervisor asks you how or why it happened, you must own it as the team leader.

Finally, if nothing else, remember that great leaders view problems as opportunities. They recognize that problems happen, even in very successful organizations, despite the best leadership talent and most sophisticated management techniques. They actually embrace problems, because they see them as opportunities to learn and improve. Therefore, they seek out problems rather than sweep them under the rug. Tell your Millennials not be sweepers!

If you missed the first two parts of this series on preparing your Millennial employees for leadership, you can read about “6 Ways to Retain Your Gen Y Future Leaders” and “9 Ways to Teach Gen Y Employees a Leadership Mindset” now.

Want to win a free copy of Millennials into Leadership or Millennials Incorporated?

WHAT TIPS DO YOU HAVE FOR WORKING WITH MILLENNIALS? Whether you work with Millennials, or are one yourself, chances are you have some nuggets of wisdom to offer. Give us your thoughts, and you could win one of Lisa Orrell’s best-selling leadership books.

HOW TO ENTER:
In the comments section below, simply submit a one- or two-sentence answer to this question: “What advice do you have for working with Millennials?” Ten (10) lucky winners will be drawn at random to receive a copy of one of the books of their choosing: Millennials into Leadership or Millennials Incorporated. See contest rules for details.

SPECIAL GIVEAWAY: See how you can get a free copy of one of two best-selling leadership books! See contest details below!

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR: Authored by Lisa Orrell. Orrell is known globally as The Generation Relations Expert. She is the author of the top-selling books Millennials Incorporated and Millennials into Leadership. In the second part of this series, Orrell shares nine ways to teach your Millennial employees how to adopt a leadership mindset now – regardless of their current position within your organization.

In the leadership workshops I conduct for Millennials, one of the key points I emphasize is that even an entry-level management position IS a leadership role. I also explain to them the need to understand the difference between a leadership mindset and a manager mindset from Day One of their first professional job. After all, they are judged on everything they do and say – and everything they don’t do and don’t say – from the very beginning of their career.

As their supervisor or employer, your goal should be to help your employees understand this concept; however, I know many upper managers who still struggle with it themselves, so it’s important to remember the following (which you can then pass on to your employees):

Even if you just manage one person, you are also a leader. Yes, you may be considered a “manager” on paper, but you are leading, too. And even though your current position may not be one that “sets direction for the entire company or a department,” you are still a leader. Furthermore, even if you currently don’t manage anyone, you can take on leadership roles (e.g. heading up a project, volunteering to plan a company event, etc.).

Regardless of the type of management roles your Millennials assume, cultivating a leadership mindset is critical to their success early on. Successful managers are also successful leaders, and successful leaders experience employee retention and loyalty.

I realize not every Millennial in your company wants to be a senior executive or “lead” the whole business. But to not embrace some fundamental, effective leadership qualities – which will make their employees happier and more productive – is to BE LAZY, in my opinion.

You’ve probably heard the saying, “People don’t leave companies; they leave managers.” Be sure to share that with your Millennial employees and emphasize that your goal is to help them avoid being a young leader employees choose to leave.

To further illustrate this point, consider the following key differences between a manager mindset and a leader mindset. Share these with your Millennial employees as well, as you work with them to adopt leadership into their personal management styles:

1.       Leaders seek employee commitment – Managers seek employee compliance

2.       Leaders are proactive – Managers are reactive

3.       Leaders create change – Managers maintain the status quo

4.       Leaders take risks – Managers are risk-averse

5.       Leaders are passionate – Managers are controlling

6.       Leaders create loyal followers – Managers have subordinates

7.       Leaders use personal charisma – Managers rely on bestowed authority

8.       Leaders give credit – Managers take credit

9.       Leaders understand what motivates each employee – Managers stick to a one-size-fits-all approach

Managers who choose not to embody important leadership qualities suffer – as do their employees and their companies as a whole. Shortsighted managers tend to focus on process and procedures, not people and vision, whereas leaders focus on the latter first.

Groom your Millennial employees to blend solid management skills with strong leadership qualities, and they will have a much better chance of succeeding in any role, at any level, within your organization.

If you missed the first part of this three-part series on preparing your Millennial employees for leadership, you can read about 6 Ways to Retain Your Gen Y Future Leaders now.  Soon to come: “12 Problem Solving Tips to Teach Your Gen Y Future Leaders,” ths final part of this series.

Want to win a free copy of Millennials into Leadership or Millennials Incorporated?

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A LEADER AND A MANAGER?  Answer this question for the chance to win one of Lisa Orrell’s best-selling leadership books.

HOW TO ENTER: In the comments section below, simply submit a one- or two-sentence answer to this question: “What’s the difference between a leader and manager?” Ten (10) lucky winners will be drawn at random to receive a copy of one of the books of their choosing: Millennials into Leadership or Millennials Incorporated.

Update: The time period for this giveaway has expired.

It’s dangerous — and often inaccurate — to generalize generations’ workplace preferences and behaviors. Many hiring managers, however, are still clinging onto generational stereotypes, particularly of the oft much-hyped Millennial generation (those workers born between 1980 – 1995) — stereotypes that Millennials themselves have moved well beyond since first entering the workplace in the last several years.

In How the Recession Shaped Millenial and Hiring Manager Attitudes about Millenials’ Future Careers, Alexandra Levit and I examine various research initiatives to determine how the attitudes of Millennials toward their career paths have changed as a result of the economic downturn, how these attitudes compare to the way hiring managers view Millennials’ career paths, and what hiring managers can do to better understand this generation of workers. Many of our report conclusions have been drawn from The Future of Millennial Careers research study, which was commissioned by the Career Advisory Board, presented by DeVry University, and conducted by Harris Interactive among 500 Millennials age 21-31 either employed or planning to seek employment, and 523 hiring managers age 18+ who interact with Millennials at work.

While Millennials and hiring managers can generally both agree that Millennials tend to have certain commonalities, like digital comfort and impatience with certain established processes, there is also much disparity between how Millennials view themselves and how they are viewed by their bosses. This can result in a frustrating situation for both parties — but by learning to truly understand Millennials, hiring managers can create a smoother workplace environment for the multiple generations currently working within it, as well as improve one-on-one relationships with their valuable Millennial workers.

Pre-recession to the present

The oldest Millennials blazed into the workplace in the early 2000s, many of them unabashedly demanding flexibility, seamless communication and desirable assignments right away — and from this, many employers formed their opinions on Millennials right then and haven’t since wavered. However, the recession appears to have caused a shift in Millennials’ attitudes toward achieving immediate career success, as watching hiring freezes and mass layoffs occur, or being affected by them themselves, caused many Millennials to recognize that having a good job was not just a given, but instead something that must be earned. Now, as the economy is picking itself back up post-recession, Millennials have a much different idea of what they need to do to succeed, and more of them are taking the initiative to prove their worth to employers on a daily basis while honing their soft skills in the long term.

Millennials and hiring managers: Different worlds?

While the recession appears to have pushed many Millennials to form more realistic expectations about career advancement, many hiring managers don’t yet see a change in Millennials’ expectations and are still of the belief that Millennials are driven by unreasonably high pay in return for minimal effort. Many hiring managers remain very cynical of the efforts Millennials are making, and believe that this generation continues to have a sense of entitlement and unrealistic expectations of their own career growth and success.

Millennials also believe doing work that is personally meaningful to them and achieving a sense of accomplishment are just as important as earning a high salary for a successful career. In fact, 30 percent of Millennials identify meaningful work as the single most important measure of a successful career. Millennials are also feeling a need to pursue higher education, obtain transferable skills, and hold a variety of jobs in order to get ahead in their careers. Mistakenly, however, hiring managers commonly believe Millennials’ desire to earn a high salary primarily drives their job and career decisions. Forty-eight percent of hiring managers rank high pay as the number one way Millennials measure their career success. In contrast, only 11 percent of hiring managers say Millennials consider meaningful work as the number one measure of success.

Let’s take a closer look:

Disparity in Education

Millennials: Seventy-nine percent of Millennials responded that they had completed at least some college to date, and 65 percent ranked education among their top three preparation activities for getting ahead in the workplace (40 percent of all Millennial respondents ranked “getting the proper education” as the most important choice they could make to prepare for future careers).
Hiring Managers: Meanwhile, only 28 percent of hiring managers cited “getting the proper education” as the most important method for future success (though 55 percent did place it in the top three). Preferable to education was “learning transferable skills” — 62 percent of hiring managers listed this as one of the top three steps Millennials can take today to prepare for the next 15 years. Nearly two in five hiring managers (39 percent) said “setting goals with managers” should be in the top three.

Why? With the passing years, more and more young people are getting advanced degrees. Because managers used means other than getting higher degrees to get ahead in the workplace themselves, however, they may not view education as a key step for Millennials to advance their own careers. And, as managers have more work experience than Millennials, they are able to view the career path from a different perspective as far as ways to achieve workplace success.

Tips for managers: Investigate the learning opportunities available to your employees and make specific recommendations as part of each individual’s development plan. Help your employees set realistic and achievable goals for their future, and provide a path for building transferable skills in their daily roles that makes sense to both you and them.

Disparity in Millennials’ career motivations

Millennials: Millennials equate a successful career with doing meaningful work; in fact, 71 percent reported this as among the three most important factors defining career success. Nearly a third (30 percent) believed it was the most critical factor.

Hiring Managers: Only 11 percent of managers reported that meaningful work was the most important factor contributing to Millennial success, while almost one-half (48 percent) of managers said high pay was in fact the most critical factor in defining career success.

Why? Older generations grew up in a different time, when work rules were defined and enforced by the employer, and the primary purpose of work was to provide a paycheck, not to feed the well-rounded employee who increasingly struggles with work/life balance in a technology-driven world. Though pay is still important to many employees, work expectations have shifted over the years as our culture has evolved, and employees want different things from their “work life.”

Tips for managers: Match your Millennial employees with a mentor who is able to help guide their career path and offer advice along the way. In addition, be open to your workers’ proposals to create a work environment that is meaningful to them and enables them to do their best work, such as telecommuting or flexible scheduling, if they have presented clear advantages to the organization in saving time and money and effectively addressed any concerns you may have. In the long run, it may result in a situation beneficial to both your organization and your employee.

Key challenges for Millennials

Millennials are currently faced with two key challenges:

1. They must overcome the pervasive stereotypes managers have about their generation.
2. They must identify and address areas that impact their ability to work effectively in the professional world.

As older generations tend to hold opinions of Millennial employees that sharply diverge from the attitudes Millennials have about themselves, it’s important for managers to work with the various generations in their workplace to set a positive example and work to increase understanding of this generation. While research showed us that Millennials and their managers agreed that compared to older generations, Millennials are more likely to exhibit an inability to receive criticism as well as ineffective communication skills, these weaknesses must be viewed as a learning opportunity for both parties.

Moving forward, together

Millennials and their managers have come a long way in understanding one another – though there’s still a long road ahead. That road, however, is more quickly paved by each group doing their part to move forward and understand the other.

Millennials, for example, must be proactive in seeking mentorship from senior leaders, setting goals with their managers, and participating in company-sponsored training opportunities.

In addition to the tips mentioned above,  managers can also start taking steps to better understand and effectively work with Millennials:

• Give timely and constructive feedback.
  
• Keep an open mind and learn from young professionals.
  
• Teach by example to set expectations.
  
• Implement two types of training into your organization: The first, a session or course on inter-generational dynamics that provides Millennials and their managers with concrete strategies to build a better sense of community within their teams. The second, soft-skill training provided by the organization for Millennial hires that includes instruction on 1) assimilating into a new workplace culture; 2) working with team members assertively and diplomatically and how to receive and process feedback; and 3) approaching a supervisor to seek mentorship and set long-term career goals. This type of course would also help Millennials combat misperceptions about their generation and teach them strategies (like reverse mentoring) that use their digital comfort, ability to multi-task, and multiple other strengths in a positive way.

As managers become more open and tolerant, and Millennials continue to adjust their expectations and make visible and appreciated contributions to organizations, we will continue to see a wider understanding of the Millennials generation – as well as the great additions they can make to a rapidly changing work landscape.

Read the full report here for more statistics, thoughts from both Millennials and managers, and advice on managing the Millennial generation, or listen to my recent discussion with Lisa Johnson Mandell.

About The Career Advisory Board
Established in 2010 by DeVry University, the Career Advisory Board is a panel of leading career experts and authors from business and academia who provide actionable advice for job-seekers. The Career Advisory Board generates proprietary research and commentary, and creates tools, insight and resources to prepare job-seekers for success. Its members include executives from CareerBuilder, Cisco, DeVry University, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Microsoft Corporation as well as nationally recognized career experts.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR: Authored by Lisa Orrell. Orrell is known globally as The Generation Relations Expert. She is the author of the top-selling books Millennials Incorporated and Millennials into Leadership. In the first of a three-part series, Orrell discusses not only how to better manage and retain your Millennial talent, but also how to groom them to be effective leaders.

Why do companies – large and small – spend so much time worrying about how to retain Millennials (a.k.a. Gen Y)?  It’s basically a matter of math.

According to the Employment Policy Foundation (EPF), our country is at the beginning of a labor shortage of approximately 35 million skilled and educated workers, which is estimated to continue over the next two decades – especially now that Baby Boomers are starting to retire at an estimated rate of 1 every 8 seconds.

Out of necessity, Millennials – many of whom may only have one to three years of career experience – are moving into management roles much sooner (and younger!) than the generations before them did – and are expected to perform in these roles successfully.

While it’s entirely possible to groom this next generation of professionals to be effective leaders, you must first be able to retain them (otherwise, grooming them for leadership won’t even matter!). For the first of this three-part series, I’d like to share six effective tips to help employers and managers effectively retain Millennial talent.

6 Ways to Retain Your Gen Y Employees:

1. Constant Contact: A recent survey of over 1,000 Millennials showed that over 60 percent of them want to hear from their managers at least once a day. That message is pretty clear: They want to communicate with you often so make it happen or they will leave! Unfortunately many older generations tend to operate differently. Oftentimes, they have a hands-off approach to management, but this style clearly does not work well with Millennials.
2. Praise Culture: We all need praise from our employers, but Millennials tend to need it more often than older generations. If they are not feeling “valued” on a regular basis, they will leave. So many well-known companies are shifting to a “praise culture” to retain them…and it improves retention of their older employees, too! Get creative and have fun with this. I know of one company that actually appointed a “celebrations assistant” in their office and one of her tasks is to throw confetti on employees (in their cubes or offices) whenever a manager tells her an employee had done something exceptional. I realize this strategy may sound a bit extreme to you, but this company is obviously seeing an ROI (or the confetti wouldn’t be happening).
3. Rapid Advancement Alternatives: Millennials feel that “paying their dues” is just occupying space for no good reason. So if a Millennial employee is truly qualified for a promotion, many companies now offer it to them versus giving the position to someone who has simply been at the company longer. But what if they’re not qualified to move up the ladder yet and getting antsy? Find creative ways to give them more responsibility, such as letting them do one or more of the following:
   1. Start, or write for, the company blog
   2. Set-up, or participate in, your company Fan Page on Facebook or other social media presence
   3. Contribute to the company e-newsletter
   4. Research and set-up a new software solution that improves productivity for your company (or department).

   You don’t always have to give them a raise or promotion to keep them happy; being creative with increased responsibility can work great! Millennials have fast minds and get bored quickly, but it’s your job as their employer to help eliminate the “boredom” factor.

4. Cubicle Shackles: Millennials have a very hard time understanding why they need to sit in a cubicle 8-10 hours a day. They want the flexibility to work anytime, from anywhere, and many companies are revamping their policies to provide more flexibility, using flex time as a “perk” to attract Millennials to their workforce. The upside? Employees from all generations respond favorably to this flexibility and employers actually find that most employees become more productive…and tend to put in longer hours!
5. Mentor Programs: This is key! Millennials have grown up with a lot of guidance from their parents, society and teachers. Now, they expect this type of handholding at work. So, heed this advice! If your company, large or small, doesn’t offer a formal (or informal) mentorship program, create one. I recently spoke with three Millennials who actually quit their jobs within one year because their employers had promised mentorship, but never delivered. Mentorship truly means that much to them.
6. Leadership Training: There is a resurgence of Leadership & Management training programs happening because the Millennials want it, need it and are demanding it. In the past year, my Millennial Business Boot Camp and Get a Grip on Leadership workshops have become, hands down, my most requested presentations – that’s how important leadership training has become. Unfortunately, MANY companies still do not offer these types of programs, much to their own detriment. It’s only a matter of time before their Millennial employees leave to pursue organizations that do offer these programs.

Finally, it’s important to remember that Millennials’ wants and needs aren’t much different from those of older generations; they just have a lower tolerance threshold than generations before them. A Boomer may put up with a job for five years even if he or she is bored or doesn’t feel valued, but a Millennial may only tolerate it for five months…or until the current job market improves.

In the next few weeks, I’ll be posting parts two and three of this series, to address tips and best practices for preparing Millennials to be successful leaders in your organization.

For more information about Lisa Orrell, visit: www.TheOrrellGroup.com.

We may never have the technology that enables us to truly read job seekers’ minds (if only Steve Jobs would channel some of his energy into recruitment and human resources, right?), but darn it if we don’t keep trying…The latest attempt comes courtesy of job aggregator SimplyHired, which recently released a survey profiling today’s job seeker – where they go to look for jobs, what they look for in employers, and what they’re willing to negotiate. 

As expected, the findings are consistent with previous CareerBuilder studies (like this one here) and so, by that same token, include some interesting and useful takeaways for employers.  I’ve included my top 10 below…

Top 10 Takeaways of the Latest Job Seeker Report

1. The “beggars can’t be choosers” attitude has to go: Despite the perception that it’s a buyers market for employers right now, but there are still some things job seekers aren’t willing to settle on: nearly half of job seekers (46 percent) are unwilling to settle when it comes to healthcare, and 24 percent said the same of salary. Other all-or-nothing items included commute, 401(k)/retirement options, and vacation time.
2. The Internet rules when it comes to searching for jobs: A remarkable 86 percent of job seekers search for jobs online, with job boards leading the way as the main go-to source for job listings, followed closely by company career sites. Networking, staffing agencies and recruiters rounded out the top five. Interestingly enough, however, when it came to finding a job, job boards came second to networking, a finding that is consistent with other surveys that indicate that employee referrals are among the most effective recruitment resources.
3. Don’t put all your eggs in the social media basket: For all of its hype (albeit well-deserved hype), social media still isn’t on the radar for over a third of job seekers (36 percent). So while it’s certainly advantageous for employers to utilize sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter (the top three social networking sites job seekers look for jobs), social media should only serve as part of their overall recruitment mix.  Otherwise, as these results indicate, using social media alone prevents companies from reaching a significant portion of potential candidates. 
4. Job seekers want love more than they want money. Want good employees? You better have a good offer on the table – and that doesn’t just mean salary.  An astounding 83 percent of job seekers would rather have a job they love than a job that pays well, according to the survey. When asked what would make a job a job they “love,” 37 percent of job seekers said the work itself.  The people came in as the second most popular workplace motivator, with pay coming in third. The lesson? Sell the job, sell the opportunity, and sell your culture first. Then talk pay.
5. Green looks good on you. Over half of job seekers (52 percent) stated that they prefer to work for green companies. And if ‘green company’ gives you visions of solar-powered computers and cubicles fashioned out of moss, it’s actually much simpler than you think: Recycling is the most popular eco-friendly initiatives employees look for in potential employers. Reducing energy use and using less paper tied for the second spot, followed by purchasing green products and carpooling/rideshare options.
6. Choosy moms choose flextime: Of the working mothers who participated in the survey, 43 percent named flextime schedules as the most important working mother program, making it the most desired benefit for working mothers. Child care services and telecommuting tied as the second most preferred benefit, followed by parental leave (for things like child sick days), compressed workweeks and job-sharing.
7. Opportunity knocks out the competition for new grads: For 40 percent of new graduates, the most important thing to them in their first job is opportunities to learn and develop their career. Salary and benefits is most important for 25 percent of new grads, and work/life balance is tops for 17 percent.  Rounding out the top seven ‘must-haves’ were finding a great mentor, testing possible career paths, challenging work, and growing a professional network.
8. Older workers are in the last place you’d expect to find them: If you’re targeting older workers, one place to advertise your jobs might be on Facebook. The number of workers 55 and older on Facebook has increased 922 percent since 2009, according to iStrategyLabs.
9. Healthcare is a must-have.  Forty-six percent of job seekers say they won’t compromise when it comes to healthcare/insurance. Salary was the second most popular non-negotiable, followed by commute/transportation, 401(k)/retirement options, vacation time and stock options.
10. Most job seekers will go where the jobs are, maybe. While 22 percent of job seekers are willing to relocate for a job, nearly the same amount (19 percent) would refuse the job.  The rest, however, say it depends on one of three factors: the offer (for 37 percent of job seekers), the location (18 percent) or the company (4 percent).

Do any of these findings surprise you? What fascinates of confuses you most about job seekers today?

For more information, download the complete report here.

“We need to look around our environment and say, ‘Is our environment encouraging the best talent possible? Are we choosing the right generational mix of people?’” Meagan Johnson says about the responsibilities managers have today.

Johnson and her father, Larry, are multigenerational workforce experts who recently spoke with me about their new book, Generations, Inc.: From Boomers to Linksters–Managing the Friction Between Generations at Work, and the challenge of managing multigenerational workforces.  One of the unique challenges managers face today, they told me, is learning to work with and manage a new generation of workers they refer to as “Linksters.”

Who are Linksters? A Cheat Sheet

• Also known as “The Facebook Generation,” this group of 15- to 19-year-olds live and breathe technology
• They still live at home and, unlike previous generations, are typically best friends with their parents
• They are more tolerant of alternative lifestyles than their predecessors
• They’re very much involved in green causes and social activism

Despite all they have to offer, however, Linksters are still very young and inexperienced, and managing them requires understanding the environment in which they grew up as well as the unique way in which they communicate. During our interview, the Johnsons shared 10 tips for managing this generation.

10 Tips for Managing Linksters

1. Ride herd on them. They have short attention spans and lose interest if the work is boring. If there’s a way to incentivize task accomplishment, do it.
2. Provide them with job descriptions. Linksters need clear direction about what you expect. This includes basics, such as when you expect them to arrive, number of hours, and duties of the job. They are used to being told what to do, in detail and explicitly.
3. Treat them like valued coworkers. Linksters are used to a steady diet of connection and communication from family friends. If you have a company party, be sure to invite them. Same with meetings, where appropriate.
4. Lead by example. Linksters are still trying to figure out how to act and behave. They will look to older coworkers and managers to shape their workplace identity and demeanor.
5. Orient them to the obvious. Be specific about expectations that may seem obvious. For example, teenagers are used to having their parents cover for them. Make sure they know the consequences of showing up late, taking lunch breaks that are too long, or texting on the job.
6. Welcome them with open arms. Let your people know them Linksters are joining your team and ask everyone to welcome them. Pair Linksters with buddies — good role models with good work ethics. Call Linksters the night before their first day. Remind them of dress code, arrival time, items to bring, traffic, snacks and water, where to park, whom to contact once they arrive, and quitting time.
7. Know what songs are on their iPods. Young people have a language that’s distinctly their own. Make an effort to get to know their culture.
8. Create microcareer paths. If you have a young person manning the cash register, give her other tasks that help her understand different aspects of the business from time to time. This keeps her challenged, engaged, and feeling valued — and sets her up for more responsibility.
9. Reexamine your uniform policy. Part of being young is having a heightened interest in how you look. Are you asking your Linksters to wear embarrassing uniforms? Are they comfortable? Are they outdated? Try to remember what being a teen felt like.
10. Thank their parents. Linksters are young and may still live at home with parents. Invite their parents for a visit, call and express appreciation for raising a great kid, and thank them for helping to get your young employee to work on time, well rested and prepared.

Meagan and Larry Johnson are the founders of the Johnson Training Group, which help companies manage multigenerational workplaces.

I know what you’re thinking: “Linkster? I hardly even know her! What’s a Linkster?” Linksters, also known as The Facebook Generation, are members of the population who were born after 1995, according to Larry and Meagan Johnson, authors of the new book Generations, Inc.: From Boomers to Linksters–Managing the Friction Between Generations at Work. I recently spoke over the phone with the father-daughter workplace expert team and founders of the Johnson Training Group, to discuss how companies can help manage multi-generational workforces.

What gave you the idea to write this book?

Meagan: Back when I graduated from Arizona State in ’93, I got a job with Quaker Oats, and I absolutely hated it. I hated the way boss managed me, I hated what I considered stupid rules, and I thought the reward system and bonus system was archaic. I was complaining to my parents about it when my dad said, “Hey, you should be grateful. When I was your age, I would’ve removed my left arm to have this great job, and a company car and make more money than my peers.” I think that was what planted the original seed of the book.  I started speaking about generational differences in the workplace, and, finally, the idea of the book came into fruition: Our own experiences with the generational gap and our own perceptions about what the worklife world should look like.

You talk specifically about this generation you call “Linksters,” which refer to teenagers still living at home, working part-time.  Where did the term Linksters come from?

Larry: Meaghan and I were looking at the new generation coming up into the workforce, and the most obvious thing about them, is that they’re digital natives, as opposed to digital immigrants. Most of us who are older have learned to be digital. For instance, I have a Facebook page, but I’m struggling with it. These kids, they were born into it. They think as much about it as I think about using a toaster. They seem to all be “linked up,” so Meaghan and I came up with the term “Linksters.” It seems to fit.

Meagan: Linksters, when they came on board – when they came back from the hospital – Facebook was already set up. Landlines were already obsolete. They are coming on board where technology is already a part of everyday life.

Is this a detriment to them, too, though? Does it hurt them to not know a world without high speed technology?

Larry: It has its pros and its cons. If you spend all of your time texting, you don’t get as much practice in personal interaction and face-to-face communication, so… it’s a scary thought to see them dealing with customers, because they have a tough time carrying a conversation and maintaining eye contact because they don’t have as much practice with it.

Meagan: The danger is that baby boomers have information in their head that’s not written in the books. If baby boomers leave without you creating some sort of mentor/mentee relationship, they’re going to walk out of the door with some very valuable info.

Larry: There’s truth to that movie Space Cowboys, about the old astronauts who had to go do something because no one else knew how to do it. It’s true! And it’s true in most organizations. These people who have implicit knowledge of the way things work – procedures that need to be adjusted as they go, or the quirks of all the big customers – that implicit knowledge you gain over years of experience…The nation, our national security and economy will be at threat by boomers exiting the workforce.

You’ve touched on how Linksters don’t have the same soft workforce skills that their older counterparts have, so what’s the solution to that?

Meagan: We need to look around our environment and say, “Is our environment encouraging the best talent possible? Are we choosing the right generational mix of people?” Making the right choices is still essential. Look around and say, “Is my environment encouraging highly talented young people?” Are there certain rules at your organization that young workers are hitting their head against, but that you’re reinforcing? If so, you need to ask yourself what I call “the three layers of why:” Ask yourself, “Why is this rule important?” And if none of the answers have to do with cost/safety, customer service or quality, I suggest getting rid of the rule because the rule is no longer serving you. Sometimes, these rules have been put into place 10 or so years ago and no longer serve a purpose.

So you’re saying that the workforce has to change to adapt to this generation. Is this a change you’ve found managers are willing to make?

Meagan: What I hear a lot is “Why should I have to do this?” Managers feel that they’re the ones doing all the bending. But it’s not about making the effort – it’s that we do things differently when we gain more information. There was a time we didn’t wear helmets or seatbelts, but then we learned that we were much safer when we did these things. It’s the same thing in the workforce – when we gain more information, we learn that we need to do things differently to be more effective. We have a whole new generation of workers whose brains are wired differently, so now we have to change the way we interact with them, so they can be more productive for us.  We operate differently as we gain new information.

I’m looking at some of your tips for managing Linksters, and you talk about calling them the night before their first day to remind them of the dress code and what items to bring, but to me, that seems like a lot of handholding.

Meagan: Rather than seeing it as handholding, it really is creating an environment where they can be successful. Now, I’m not saying you have to look the other way when they don’t do a good job, but why not create an environment where they can be successful?

Larry: It really boils down to playing the hand you’re dealt. If you’re a manager today hiring young people, you’re dealt a different hand than you were in the past, and it’s not only that they think different, but they’ve been raised differently. They’ve been raised by baby boomers who are doing it the second time around and they can be attentive at the least and in some cases, they can be…what do you call them Meagan?

Meagan: “Snowplow parents” because they remove any obstacle that might be in their child’s way.

Larry: Yes, these parents who’ve coddled them. So these young people have lived pretty structured lives and need a lot of direction. So you need to manage them differently.

Meagan: But just because management styles change doesn’t mean you lower your expectations. Just make your expectations clear to make sure they perform.

So when it comes to managing this generation alongside older generations who have an entirely different working style, how can managers work to make both parties productive (and keep them happy)?

Larry: One thing we suggest is using older employees as mentors and then reverse mentor with younger employees. By that, I mean, older employees have a lot to offer in terms of teaching and developing younger people, and so if, say you’ve got a Baby Boomer who finds it irritating to work with some Gen Y-er, one way to overcome that difference is to ask him to teach and develop this person – not just work with him. Make that a formal relationship where both of their success depends on the success of the younger person developing; likewise, you can reverse that [with a reverse mentorship]. A lot of companies are doing that, where young people are teaching the old folks to do their Facebook page and what not.

Any final thoughts?

Larry: I’d just like to add that for the older generations, rather than cry and moan about the younger generation, this is really an opportunity to make a difference for the future of the world – by the way you treat and develop and mentor young people.  It’s really a responsibility we all have – to develop them.

Meagan and Larry Johnson are the founders of the Johnson Training Group, which help companies manage multigenerational workplaces.  For more information on multi-generational workforce management, check out my follow-up post, in which I list the Johnsons’ 10 tips for managing Linksters.

What’s Niche?

Let’s start with the word “niche.” What does it mean? Is it something you snack on with cheese? (Example: “A little niche would really amplify the flavor of that Gouda.”) A compliment you give to nice fella who pointed out to you that you had stray toilet paper dangling off your stiletto heel? (Example: “That was so niche of you to notice — let me buy you a coffee.”) Or a quick fix for that scraped knee you got while chasing after the ice cream truck and… failing to catch it? (Example: “Quick! Put some niche on it to stop the bleeding and chocolate cone cravings!”)

No, but all are good guesses. We sometimes talk about niche job websites, as several of them are associated with CareerBuilder, but we don’t always define what “niche” really means. So here, I want to break it down for you in the case that you’re not familiar with them, tell you about some of our niche job sites, and talk a bit about why these job sites are an important way to complement the ways you’re reaching candidates.

Niche Job Sites — A Definition

The word niche, in the manner we’re using it here, is most simply defined by Merriam-Webster as “a specialized market.” Niche can also mean “a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted” — which is also related to what we’re talking about.

How so? Well, niche job sites are those websites dedicated to a specialized market — whether that market is health care or retail or Gen Y folks — and the people who frequent a certain niche job site are attracted to it because they identify themselves as a great fit to that job site’s specialized market.

A website focused solely on a particular market + job seekers interested in that market seeking out and flocking to that website = a pretty great way of connecting the right candidates with the right types of employers. You might say these Internet users have “found their niche.”

Finding a Niche — Why It Works

These days, job seekers have more choices than ever before when it comes to where they’re able to find jobs online. The Internet is huge, and one way to narrow in on job listings is by going to very specialized sites.

For example, if I want the latest celeb gossip, I don’t always go to a huge news site. I might look at celeb gossip while I’m on a big news site or click on a celeb gossip item of interest, but more times than not, I’ll go to a blog that focuses exclusively on celebrity gossip ’round the clock when I’m really looking for my gossip fix, rather than a site that’s focusing on many different types of news coverage. This way,  I don’t have to sift through all the unrelated stories to zone in on what I want. My celeb gossip blog is dedicated to giving me exactly what I want, when I want it. It’s easy, it’s content-rich (yes, I realize we’re talking about celeb gossip here), and it cuts down on time.

Niche job sites work essentially the same way, as job seekers are going to these sites to connect with employers who are in their field and offering the type of job they are looking for. Niche sites are specific — which is why both job seekers and employers are drawn to them. They enable you to cut down on time sorting through unrelated candidates applying to your jobs, and focus only on those candidates in your specialized market.

CareerBuilder’s Niche Job Sites

CareerBuilder has launched several of its own niche job sites – some of which have been around for a bit (like WorkInRetail.com), and some which are brand new (like MiracleWorkers.com). These niche job sites are all very different as far as the specialized market on which they focus, but they have a common thread: They bring job seekers and employers who are looking for each other together in the online place that caters most to their specialized market needs.

What Can CareerBuilder’s Niche Sites Do For You?

If you’re looking for extra, exclusive exposure to those job seekers in your specialized industry or market, posting your jobs on a niche job site may be the perfect solution for you:

• As an employer, you can post your jobs on any of these sites to get in front of the exact type of candidate you’re looking for, whether that’s a line cook, a contract consultant, an employee fresh out of college, or a physical therapist.
• Our niche sites are a great way to complement the other ways in which you’re currently reaching your target audience; as there isn’t a lot of overlap between CareerBuilder.com’s audience and the audiences on our niche job sites, you’re significantly extending your reach to your particular market.
• Post your jobs directly on your niche site of choice, and enjoy access to a large pool of job seekers serious about the types of jobs you’re listing. It’s like a special interest group for jobs!

Below, I list each of CareerBuilder’s niche sites so you can get a little more familiar with them.

Sologig.com

Sologig.com is a niche CareerBuilder job site that connects your company with consultants, contractors, contract-to-hire, per diems, and other seasoned professionals geared toward the IT/Engineering fields. Sologig is perfect to use when you’re looking for more short-term or part-time help, particularly in IT or Engineering. On average, 62 percent of job seekers classify themselves as IT/Engineering professionals. (Access Sologig.com)

JobsOnTheMenu.com

JobsOnTheMenu.com specializes in corporate, management and hourly restaurant and food service jobs. Job seekers range from experienced servers, to district managers. to those just starting a restaurant career — but all are in the restaurant and food service business. (Access JobsOnTheMenu.com)

CareerRookie.com

CareerRookie.com is dedicated to the complete collegiate solution. This job site connects students and recent graduates seeking internships, part-time jobs and entry-level positions with the employers looking for them.
(Access CareerRookie.com)

WorkInRetail.com

WorkInRetail delivers both hourly and salaried candidates to fulfill your company’s retail hiring needs. Need an hourly sales rep, retail manager, or executive? WorkInRetail’s got you covered. (Access WorkInRetail.com)

MiracleWorkers.com

Miracle Workers, launched in July 2010, is a niche job site connecting health care organizations to qualified nurses, physicians, CNAs, pharmacists, social workers and many other types of health care professionals. (Access MiracleWorkers.com)

Questions about niche job sites or success stories to share?

That internship application from the guy with 15 years of management experience? Don’t send it to the shredder just yet – it might not be a fluke. It may simply just be part of a growing workforce trend in which older workers are competing with their college-aged counterparts for open positions.

According to a new survey released today by CareerBuilder, 23 percent of employers are seeing experienced workers (those with more than 10 years of professional experience) and mature workers (workers aged 50 or older) apply for internship positions at their organizations. (The results are consistent with a 2009 survey that indicated that more mature workers were considering internships as a way to break into a new industry.)

Of the more than 2,500 employers surveyed, more than one quarter (27 percent) said they plan to hire interns during the remainder of 2010 to help support workloads, the majority of whom plan to offer paid internships – with hourly pay ranging from $10 or more per hour (for 55 percent of employers) to $25 or more per hour (for 5 percent of employers). You can see more statistics from the press release here.

The Atypical Intern: Consider It
If you’re among the 23 percent of employers seeing more experienced workers apply for your positions, do yourself a favor and take them seriously. Today’s workers – regardless of age and experience level – view internships as a way to explore new opportunities, according to Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, while the companies that hire them can leverage these workers’ years of professional experience, strong work ethic and extensive skill set to benefit their bottom line.

The outlook for college grads is not the same as it has been in the past — like, say, in 2007, when 79 percent of employers indicated in a CareerBuilder survey that they planned to hire recent college grads. Still, although it appears the overall job market for 2010 college graduates will remain highly competitive, this year’s job forecast is showing some signs of improvement.

Although the number of employers planning to hire recent college graduates in 2010 is 44 percent — relatively unchanged from 2009’s number of 43 percent, one in five employers (21 percent) who are planning to hire recent grads said they will hire more of them than they did last year. On top of that, 16 percent (as opposed to last year’s 11 percent) reported they will offer higher starting salaries than they did in 2009.

Wait — how high?

• Thirty percent of employers plan to offer recent college graduates starting salaries ranging between $30,000 and $40,000.
• Nineteen percent will offer between $40,000 and $50,000
• An additional 19 percent will offer $50,000 or more.
• Thirty-three percent will offer less than $30,000.

“Even though companies are gradually starting to hire again, the job market will still be challenging for college graduates this year,” said Brent Rasmussen, President of CareerBuilder North America. “To take advantage of the opportunities that exist, it’s important for recent graduates to start their search early, remain positive and keep an open mind. In addition, networking and showing relevant work experience – whether it is internships, class work or volunteering – can help make your application stand out.”

Work experience — what counts?

When looking at a candidate’s resume, particularly of a soon-to-be or recent college grad, what really counts when it comes to work experience? If you’re only looking at a candidate’s paid work, you ought to broaden your considerations. Experience can come from many places, and particularly in light of a tough economy, candidates are exploring new areas to gain the experience that can sometimes be hard to find in the traditional sense.

Employers reported that the following activities qualify as pertinent work experience for recent college graduates to include on their resumes:

• Internships – 62 percent
• Part-time jobs in another area or field – 50 percent
• Volunteer work – 40 percent
• Class work – 31 percent
• Involvement in school organizations – 23 percent
• Helping managing  sorority & fraternity activities – 21 percent
• Sports participation – 13 percent

More than just that je ne sais quoi

Furthermore, experience, whatever parameters you define it in, is not the only important factor in a candidate’s application. While employers in our CareerBuilder survey said that experience is one of the most influential factors in their decision to hire a recent college graduate, they also pointed to the following attributes:

• Good fit with company culture
• Comes in with good ideas and asks good questions
• Educational background
• Level of enthusiasm
• Comes to interview prepared and is knowledgeable about company

Speaking of recent college grads doing their homework, it may be a good time to make sure you’ve done yours by tweaking those tired interview questions. It’s almost graduation time, and while you may be screening new grads, they’ll be screening you too. It’s a new class, with new expectations.  Are you ready?

You can find the full press release about 2010 college graduates here.

Millenials. Comprised of those born after 1980, or those 18-29 years old, they’re America’s newest generation.  (And it’d be more fun if they were called this, no?) But what else are we learning about them, particularly when it comes to the workplace? A new report aimed at Millenials attempts to answer some of our unanswered questions.

Who are Millenials?

Fifty million people currently fall into the “Millenials” category. Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world, has just released a report called “Millenials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change.”

The report, conducted by Pew Research Center’s “Social & Demographic Trends Project,” compares the values, attitudes and behaviors of Millenials with those of older adults, and seeks to shed some light on which formative experiences Millenials will carry throughout their life cycle. Among other findings, the report found that personality-wise, Millenials are confident, self-expressive, liberal, and upbeat, and are open to change.

Dissatisfied With Work Now — But Optimistic for the Future

Interestingly, although Millenials’ careers have been derailed — or at least detoured — with a recession, they are more upbeat than their elders about both their own economic futures and the state of the nation.

Having a high-paying career is cited by only 15 percent of 18- to 29-year-old respondents as one of the most important things in their lives, while things like a successful marriage and being a good parent rank much higher — even though unemployment for this age group is higher now than it has been in more than three decades.

Unemployed Millenials

• Only 19 percent of unemployed Millenials say they have enough money to live the kind of live they want

• 89 percent, however, believe they will have enough income in the future

Employed Millenials

• Just 31 percent of employed Millenials reported making enough money to lead the kind of life they want — leaving 69 percent who are not satisfied.
• They are less satisfied than previous generations; 46 percent of Gen Xers, for example, cite satisfaction with their income.
• Among those employed Millenials dissatisfied with their income, 88 percent are confident that they will be able to earn enough in the future.

How They View Their Elders

They respect their elders. Surprised? According to the report:

“A majority say that the older generation is superior to the younger generation when it comes to moral values and work ethic.”

New Einsteins

This generation is also poised to become the most educated generation in American history — a trend which, according to the report, is driven largely by the demands of a modern knowledge-based economy, but also by the millions of 20-somethings enrolling in educational institutions like graduate school or community college due to lack of a job. A record share of 18- to 24-year-olds (39.6 percent) were enrolled in college in 2008, according to census data.

BlackBerrys in the Bed

As we’ve discussed on the blog before, the lines between work and personal lives are getting blurrier by the minute. And now, Millenials are being called the first “always-connected” generation in history. According to the report:

“Steeped in digital technology and social media, they treat their multi-tasking hand-held gadgets almost like a body part — for better and worse. More than eight-in-ten say they sleep with a cell phone glowing by the bed, poised to disgorge texts, phone calls, e-mails, songs, news, videos, games and wake-up jingles,” the report says.

Social Media? Yes Please!

A whopping 75 percent of 18- to 29-year-old respondents said they have a social networking profile. And although this generation is characterized as wary of human nature and many have their profile on lockdown, there are still great ways to c0nnect on public pages and forums.

If you’re an employer and you’re not involved in social networks, you’re missing an opportunity to get in front of a huge group of potential candidates.

Education

When ranked with older generations at comparable ages, Millenials are shown to be more highly educated (in the formal sense).

• More than half of Millenials (54 percent) have at least some college education, compared with 49 percent of Gen X, 36 percent of baby boomers, and 24 percent of the Silent Generation
• Millenials, when compared with previous generations at the same age, are also more likely to have finished high school
• Conversely,  Millenials are less likely to be employed than their elder generations; 63 percent of Millenials are likely to be employed, compared to 70 percent of Gen Xers or 66 of baby boomers had been at the same age
• Compared with the Silent Generation at the same age, Millenials are overall are more likely to be in the labor force

We’re Different

Like many of us (see what I did there?), sixty-seven percent of Millenials also see their age group as unique, according to the report. When asked why, the most popular response at 24 percent was “technology use.” Other responses included music, pop culture, and tolerance. And 6 percent say it’s because they’re smarter.

There’s much more to the report — you can read it in its entirety here.

Employers, what do you think, based on what you’ve experienced with Millenials in the workplace? And Millenials, do you agree with the report’s findings?

No, I mean you’re kind of living In Good Company, the 2004 film where Dennis Quaid’s character finds himself working for a much younger boss, played by Topher Grace.  Oh, and also, you actually are in good company…

According to a new survey by CareerBuilder,  43 percent of workers ages 35 and older said they currently work for someone younger than them. (Sorry…no data on how many of these workers’ daughters were also dating their younger bosses.)

That figure increases to 53 percent when looking at workers age 45 and older, and to 69 percent for workers 55 and up. Perhaps not surprisingly, the survey showed that the younger boss/older worker dynamic can be a source of friction in the workplace, with 41 percent of those who work for someone younger saying they had difficulty taking direction from a younger boss. 

The reasons it’s so hard to work for someone younger? According to survey participants:

• They act like they know more than me when they don’t.
• They act like they’re entitled and didn’t earn their position.
• They  micromanage.
• They play favorites with younger workers.
• They don’t give me enough direction.

(What do you think about these findings? Are you on either side of a younger boss/older worker relationship?  If so, does that dynamic affect your workplace? Tell us in the comments section below, or keep reading for tips on how to better manage these types of relationships.)

Despite the differences between you and your younger boss or older employee, if you can recognize that you each bring something different and valuable to the table, Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, says that will be the key to getting along and driving the business forward.  

“By looking past their differences and focusing on their strengths, workers of any age can mutually benefit from those around them, creating a more cohesive workplace,” Haefner says in the press release.

PrimeCB.com, CareerBuilder’s job site for mature workers, offers the following tips for bridging generational differences at work: 

• Understand others’ point of view: Different generations tend to have differing opinions on a variety of topics, from management style to pop culture. Put yourself in others’ shoes to better understand where they’re coming from.
• Adapt your communication: Younger workers tend to favor communicating frequently using technology, such as e-mail and instant messenger. Older workers may prefer more face-to-face contact. Both parties should take this and other communication differences into consideration when interacting.
• Keep an open mind: Try not to make assumptions about those who are of a different age group than you. All workers have different skill sets and strengths, so see what you can learn from others rather than making judgments based on their age.

Ever had to answer to someone younger or manage someone older? What advice would you give to others?