Get ready, Gen Y is flooding the workforce and is taking a completely different approach than previous generations. This generation feels as though their work and home lives don’t necessarily have to be separate, as long as their time is spent in meaningful and useful ways. A NAS study claimed that the Gen Y crew are ambitious and question everything, demanding productive tasks and recognition for their good work. They are the most connected, educated, and socially active generation to date and growing up with the Internet has embedded a sense of independence and confidence in them that may drive you crazy, but will also produce results.
This 2006 study titled “Generation Y: The Millennials, Ready or Not, Here They Come,” identifies some common Generation Y attributes:
- They are blunt and expressive. Self-expression is favored over self-control.
- They are impatient. Technology and instant gratification dominated the world they grew up in.
- They are image-driven.
- They are technologically savvy.
- They are efficient multitaskers.
Bruce Tulgan, the founder of leading generational-research firm RainmakerThinking called this “the most high-maintenance workforce in the history of the world. The good news is they’re also going to be the most high-performing workforce in the history of the world. They walk in with more information in their heads, more information at their fingertips – and, sure, they have high expectations, but they have the highest expectations first and foremost for themselves."
Earlier this week I happened across fellow Gen-Yer Sacha Chua’s blog. The post that caught my eye, titled ‘The Gen Y Guide to Web 2.0 at Work’, was sketched by Sacha on her Nintendo DS, providing something fresh and new amongst the masses of blogs I sort through each day. Gen Y lives and breathes social networking and has expects you to as well. They like relationships, interaction, and creativity and posts like Sacha’s, which is informative while being personal and funny, is exactly what Gen Y wants to see. Keep this in mind as you develop your Internet marketing strategy, making it interactive and unique. Gen Y will love you for it.
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