Who Is Generation Y

When it comes to attracting strong talent, it can often be hard to compete with the large businesses, which can offer great compensation and benefit packages. As a result, you are faced with limited access to professional or trade experts. 

With thousands of Baby Boomers retiring every year, it has become the younger Generation Y workers, which businesses are focusing on. But this generation is hard to attract and retain: entering businesses big and small, and advancing quickly through the ranks. 

As a small business owner, you have an advantage. You’re more agile than your large company competitors. You’re able to be flexible to change. If Gen Y doesn’t like what you offer, you do not have to get permission from multiple levels of management to change. By using this agility to focus on the evolving employment practices favored by Generation Y workers (rather than compensation) you will be one step closer to successfully finding and keeping talented Generation Y staff.

Who Is Generation Y?

Generation Y (also known as the Millennial Generation, the ME Generation, and Echo Boomers), has different belief and value systems than their parents’ generation, the Baby Boomers. Composed largely of individuals born between 1980 and 1995, this generation grew up with more adult supervision than any other. North American parenting practices during this generation’s development period were focused on positive reinforcement rather than punishment, empowering the child, and ensuring that there were no winners or losers by eliminating competition in school and other activities. According to Stats Canada, 51% of this generation still lives with their parents.

They are the first generation to have the Internet in their world from infancy and, for most, their bottle and baby food was warmed in a microwave. They are used to instant information, instant food, and instant entertainment. They want instant answers or solutions to problems and they expect success to come quickly and easily. 

From a retail marketing perspective, Generation Y is well targeted. Thousands of products are successfully sold to them every day. But when it comes to offering attractive work environments, compensation, and benefits for Generation Y workers, employers have been slow to understand what they want. Possibly because it is so different from the priorities of their Baby Boomer parents.