EB Connect 2017: Future workplaces will be vastly different to today as generation Y employees require innovative ways of working, according to Adam Kingl (pictured), executive director of thought leadership at the London Business School.
Addressing delegates in the opening keynote session at the 6th annual Employee Benefits Connect, Kingl explained that in order to meet the needs of this generation of future leaders, continuous innovation is going to be the only source of competitive advantage today’s employers have.
Employers will need to change their long-standing ways of working to suit the characteristics of generation Y, compromising individuals born between 1982 and 2004.
Generation Y employees are likely to have 15 to 16 employers in their lifetime, double that of generation X which is expected to have 7 to 8, and quadruple that of the previous generation that will have three to four.
The London Business School’s survey of generation Y participants in its Leading teams for emerging leaders programme, meanwhile, found that 90% plan to stay at an employer for between one and five years.
The top three factors in selecting an employer for generation Y are work-life balance, organisational culture and development opportunities.
Kingl said that organisations need to reframe career conversations to concentrate on progression rather than promotion in order to create an attractive employee value proposition for these employees. This could include offering a wide suite of development opportunities that do not necessarily have to cost employers a lot of money, such as mentor programmes, new challenges or projects, and more responsibility.
“I urge [employers] … to reinvent work-life to follow the leads of gen Y who say, work life doesn’t simply have to be working for a pay cheque,” said Kingl.