Take a punt. Risk everything. “Big risks open up the opportunity for big rewards”. Easy to say if you have the cushion of a baby boomer parent who has worked hard all their life in order to provide for their family – the 30 year mortgage of their life to one multinational corporation, in return for tie pins, pats on the back and eventually a final salary pension. 

The appetite for risk in this new, energetic, capricious generation seems to be so much higher. And then we stumble upon the realisation that of course they would be. Maslow described this many moons ago. They have the privilege of an enormous ‘leg-up’ on the pyramid. Many in Generation Y are starting their careers today in the layers of ‘esteem’ or ‘self actualisation’. They're taking a job because they ‘like it’ or think it would be good for their ‘life quality’ (note: this isn’t about ‘work-life’ balance anymore as it was for the baby boomers and generation X). Who can blame them?  Who can judge them for taking it? Carpe Diem. Or does this all seem a little too easy? Hard work is still required. You don’t get anything for nothing.

Careers in particular are seeing a huge shift. A pattern of job hopping and a patchwork quilt CV are mainstream features of Generation Y. 18 months in a role is quite common and the statistics on the number of different jobs or even employers before the age of 30 are startling. I found myself a few months ago congratulating a friend because he’d decided to leave his employer – and then caught myself – we’re still thick in a recession.

Then I began to wonder: has the recession created an even playing field where Gen Y attitudes are reflecting the same values of Gen X and baby boomers?’ The McKinsey research over the last ten years finally ended in multiple sources declaring: 'Talent has won'. But maybe this isn’t quite true. Gen Y are holding on to their seats, and where they aren’t successful they are definitely trying to. But then again, so is everyone else. Everyone wants to take home a salary to the girl/ boyfriend or wife/ husband. 

But this is only temporary – much like David Attenborough’s Chameleon’s adapting to their environment in order to avoid becoming the victim of a predator, as soon as the recession is over expect Gen Y to go back to their patchwork quilt career habits.

During the recession much of the conversation has been that the employer now has the ball back in their court. Not so. Generation Y are ‘footloose’. They have a set of skills that they intend to market to lots of different companies, rather than ‘climbing the ladder’ in just one organisation. But why are companies afraid of this? Let’s embrace it.

The fact that your staff are put out to ‘graze’ in different fields for a few years is not a bad thing. Think of it as free skills development – then hire them back. Generation Y work for people or causes, not companies. Companies that get lazy about their top Gen Y talent during the recession will certainly not have them around after the recession. 

If organisations want to keep Generation Y during (yes, we are all too happy to take a redundancy payment for 6 months) and after the recession, make sure that expectations are really clear (stretching but achievable), that you are giving and demonstrating trust, and that Gen Y are getting ownership within your business (this can range from control over a project or business area to giving them or allowing them to buy into equity – more likely in smaller organisations).

At Naked Generations we talk about producers, leaders and collaborators. ‘Producers’ are worker bees. The ‘9-5 ers’. The people that essentially ‘get the job done’. They are not there to give you their extra effort or stay late, they just want a straight time for money swap. Then we have the ‘leaders’. These people can motivate and have networks far beyond the physical walls of a single company. In fact these people should be being paid because they have these networks – and be allowed to use them. Then we see an emerging trend in a growing group of people we call ‘collaborators’. People who don’t ever join a company but in-source their skill set. They are generally innovators and problem solvers. They’ll be on site for high value projects and then they leave back to their world of ‘life quality’. They just use the tools of the online world and their extensive networks of influence to market themselves to multinational organisations and SMEs. The opportunities to sit in a ‘long tail’ niche are so plentiful that they no longer need the security of a multinational name to hide within. There is a big trend towards this type of personal brand building.

So, what role will Generation Y play? What kind of Generation Y worker does your organisation need now? You decide.