Generation Y places new demands on employers

Janet Ouko is a bright upcoming engineer with a leading pharmaceutical agency.

She consistently performs at par with her peers.

She is bright and confident just like most of her colleagues at the company.

While working on a project, she came up with what she considered brilliant ideas to resolve issues on the assignment.

She went on to discuss them with the manager who was, however, hesitant to implement them, saying they were radical.

She constantly shared her frustrations with her colleagues in the office through Twitter and Facebook

On a separate occasion, Janet bumped into the managing director at a golf tournament and told him of her ideas.

She immediately tweeted her colleagues with the news and updated her blog.

The boss liked her ideas and recommended that the manager implement them.

Welcome to the world of Generation Y— a group that is hungry and in a hurry for success. Constantly in need of feedback.

Organisations around the world are grappling with the challenges arising from managing different generations at work.

The Baby Boomers (those born between 1955 and 1964) are now at the top of their game in the workplace.

According to research, nearly 90 per cent of the world’s top 200 firms are currently led by Boomers or people from an even older generation.

Only 23 of them are led by members of Generation X (those born between 1965 and 1971).

It is worth noting that by 2014, nearly half the employees in the world will be those born after 1980.