Flávio Massano, Unit Director, is the author of an interesting article about new generations, talents and companies. You can read it in Económico and below.     

The generation that threatens leaders

Flávio Massano, Unit Director agap2 May 10, 2018, 00:06

Why do companies insist on enticing a thirsty generation of opportunities with indefinite employment contract proposals, a fixed salary and an eight-hour work schedule?

Get ready for the storm to begin: Generation Z is coming to work. It is made up of young people in their 20s who have grown up with full access to the internet and technology and who are intensely connected with social networks. They will be the next puzzles of our world.

However, it is still about the previous one - Y or millenials - that are the biggest challenges and uncertainties. Notably the behavioral and positioning disruption that brought with it into the busy and schizophrenic professional world. Professionals born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s are everywhere and always connected.

TED speaker Simon Sinek gave us in one of his lectures a simple and crude message: a low self-esteem, technology-dependent and socially-dependent generation, impatient and in need of instant gratification, and a victim of an unhealthy corporate environment and weak leadership and business strategies.

The time has now come to assess what leaders and millenials can do to prevent the positive disruption brought about by a highly skilled and informed generation from turning into a dark and unfortunate period of their lives. In fact, only the maintenance of old and extemporaneous behaviors explains why we find, in the businesses and social groups in which we move, such a large number of dissatisfied faces, eager and determined to leave their jobs as soon as possible.

Change leadership and stimulate a generation

Leaders and business actors have to embrace a new approach, redefining recruitment and management strategies for their employees.

In the case of technology consultants, which will continue to grow in the domestic market and represent a sector where millenials are already the rule, the problem seems particularly demanding given the high demand for professionals and the ease with which they exchange projects and companies.

The change in strategy will have to start with how they identify and recruit new employees. The scripted and dispassionate interviews conducted exclusively by the department created for the purpose and the unclear recruitment processes, particularly as regards what the company has to offer to the candidate, will fall out of favor by the obvious lack of effectiveness. Agility, transparency and feedback will have to be the paradigm, and the flexibility to be hired on time will have to be part of everyday business.

Change will also have to happen at the level of working conditions. We must ask ourselves: Why do we continue to entice an irreverent and thirsty generation of opportunities with proposals for an indefinite employment contract, a fixed salary and an eight-hour work schedule? Wouldn't companies be better off if they tried to figure out what these professionals were really motivated and wanted, and made available to them with variable pay packages, intrinsic rewards, flexible working hours, and well-defined projects?

These counterparts are not the determining component of millennial choices and satisfaction with their working life. What has been seen is that millennial are eager to identify with their roles and objectives, to be recognized for their efforts and the results they achieve, and to appreciate their peers and superiors.

Managing their careers has to be oriented towards orientation and coaching , rather than the usual typically formal leadership and subordinate relationship. The constant exchange of voluntary feedback between the parties will be the “glue” of a relationship of trust based on values ​​such as transparency, involvement, autonomy and mutual professional and personal respect.

Customers are a fundamental part of this process.

Not least, the exchange of information between technology consultants and their clients, where part of this generation provides consulting services, is required to be as close and close as possible, based increasingly on the idea of ​​partnership and less on mere traditional customer and supplier relationship. It is the responsibility of these agents to maintain a real time communication line, which allows the employee to know at all times what is their role, performance and impact on the whole.

Faced with a generation that does not wait for results and does not like to see itself as a number, the solution involves leaders who can listen to their employees, show the big picture when the results are late and teach them socially cooperative behaviors. professional.

In order for this change to achieve its intended objectives, it is imperative that there is a global corporate strategy, shared and implemented by all actors in the organization. Those who achieve this will be, compared to everyone else, much closer to achieving what this generation really seeks and compromising it with their vision and mission, thereby creating the most important sustainable competitive advantage.