A few key facts about Gen Y and their expectations:

• They are the most educated generation in American History
• They are social media communicators
• 75% have a profile on a social networking site
• 44% read blogs
• 76% use instant messaging
• They are the most child-centric generation and grew up with excessive positive reinforcement from Baby Boomer parents (which they now expect from employers)
• They seek real-time communication

Are you getting the picture? This generation is characterized by the here-and-now and other differences that are game-changers for supporting a people-centric culture. Companies with people-centric practices and a culture of engagement report revenue growth at a rate 2.5 times greater than others in like industries according to the 2010 Hay Group Employee Engagement Survey.

Since recognition is an important piece of this high-growth environment, organizations need to understand how changes in the makeup of the workforce are impacting the “who, what, when, why and how of recognition.” It’s now about total recognition, and the rules have changed.

New total recognition rules

1. Why? The focus of recognition has shifted from tenure to results that are aligned with company objectives.

The days are gone when years of service were rewarded with the symbolic gold watch. Total recognition acknowledges the employee’s initiative, creativity, willingness to go above and beyond, and the role these actions have played in an achievement that is critical to meeting or exceeding company objectives.

2. When? The timing of recognition has accelerated, with meaningful recognition occurring on the spot, in step with when contributions are made.

Employees can no longer wait until the next quarterly meeting or the employee’s annual review, which could be months later and diminish the impact. The real “now” generation are Gen Yers despite Pepsi’s moniker for Boomers. In an instant world, delayed recognition loses its fizz. Think of ways to develop a consistent rhythm of recognition to fully integrate it into your culture.

3. How? The availability of social and corporate networks supports accelerated, in-the-moment recognition and provides additional outlets to more formal methods of recognition.

Facebook, LinkedIn, corporate blogs and intranets also enhance recognition by broadening its reach, so those who matter to the recipient can share the pride. From a pat on the back (electronic or in person) to a note or email to a formal piece in a newsletter, today there are more ways than ever to convey recognition.

4. Who? Recognition solely bestowed by executive leaders has been replaced by peer-to-peer recognition.

Additionally, in a more democratic workplace where teamwork is emphasized, this is a natural shift. The flow of recognition has expanded across the organization to include other functions and departments, bottom-up, peer-to-peer and colleague. Although recognition in general is valuable in creating employee engagement and inspiring team effort, managers must take the lead in recognizing their reports to support their coaching and development efforts.

5. What? The individual is king in a people-centric culture.

Total recognition chucks the one-size-fits-all approach and takes into consideration how to make it meaningful to the recipient. For starters, managers should acknowledge what the employee specifically did and its importance to the big picture and the manager, as well as its contribution to the organization’s values and culture. Consider whether the reward should be public or private, whether it should be sent to the home to share with family, and whether it should be presented to individuals or a team. A choice of awards conveys a respect for the individual’s preferences. Today’s most popular rewards are often experiential in nature, interactive (including travel, cooking classes, go-carting, spas, etc.), a product of choice, or a product that reflects the accomplishment, the task and is aligned with the company identity.

Bottom line

So you can see that meaningful recognition doesn’t need to be expensive or flow through rigid corporate channels. Everyone can participate in making employees feel like what they’ve done really does matter. Remember, what gets recognized gets repeated.

Now picture someone coming up to your glorious picnic and yanking the blanket out from underneath it all. You stand there, watching everything come crashing down in complete disarray.

Well folks, that’s exactly what’s happening to the workforce.

First it was a demographic shift. About 10 years ago, younger generations with very different values and approaches to work started to influence –and change– the way we work and do business.

By 2015, we will observe the largest turnover in human capital in history and Generation Y (currently ages 17-30) will outnumber the Baby Boomers in the workforce. This is a substantial change in and of itself considering the Boomer generation has been in power for more than 40 years.

But now another wave of change is occurring. For the first time in history, women now fill the majority of jobs in the U.S. and in many instances, they are out-earning their male counterparts.

In other words, not only is the workforce getting younger — it’s becoming more female.

There goes that picnic basket!

At XYZ University, our specialty is teaching organizations how to engage Generations X, Y, and Z. And right now you can’t really talk about generations without also talking about gender.

Throughout most of the history of the world, men have done the work that generated the family income while women did the work of having children, raising the family, and creating community. Older men held the power, and younger men were trained to follow in their footsteps.

This model lasted so long because it worked: One could make plans for their life with confidence that things would stay pretty much the same.  Everyone in society had a role to play.

But today, by most indicators, that model is now finished.

The media is buzzing over the gender shift, which has been a remarkable shift even in comparison to 10 years ago. 

• BusinessWeek  reported on the househusbands to the rich and famous female CEOs.
• The Washington Post reported on women making more money than their “recliner-king” husbands.
• The Atlantic reported on the gender shift under the controversial title, The End of Men.
• The Economist reported that girls and women are a better investment for the economy because they are better equipped for the new jobs of the 21st century, where brains will count more than brawn.
• Time Magazine‘s cover story, The Richer Sex, revealed that the majority of working wives will out-earn their husbands in the next generation.

Some game-changing statistics shared in these articles:

• Women now fill a majority of jobs in the U.S., including 51.4 percent of managerial and professional positions;
• Women 30 and under make 8% more money, on average, than their male counterparts in all but three of the largest cities in the U.S.;
• Young women (ages 18-34) value a high-paying career more than young men;
• 23 percent of wives now out-earn their husbands;
• During the recent recession, three men lost their jobs for every woman;
• For every two men who will receive bachelor’s degrees this year, three women will do the same;
• 60% of all Masters degrees are going to women;
• Homes are now purchased twice as often by women than men.

No organization or industry is exempt from these demographic or gender-shifting trends. Regardless of whether you’re a man or a woman, a Baby Boomer or Gen Y, they will impact everyone from now on.

It’s fascinating, really. We are witnessing more socio-economic change than at any time in modern history.  However you see or experience the world, be prepared for a massive re-think.

Be prepared to start your picnic over.

You are not a celebrity!

One of the unique aspects of Twitter vs. other social networks is you can follow whomever you want without their permission. And that’s the fundamental key to building an audience on Twitter – you must follow other people first. Oh sure, you may think that the content you post is incredibly compelling and everyone that sees it will share it, and you’ll be exposed to thousands of Twitter users that are just dying to connect with you, but rarely does content alone build a relevant Twitter audience – unless you’re a celebrity.

Audience matters

That leads us to the second point – quality over quantity. It’s actually a very simple concept that unfortunately gets lost with social media. So many people compete to have the most friends or followers regardless of who (or where) they are. What matters most for organizations is having followers that are interested in your content and can take the relevant actions you want them to take.

Follow these steps and your audience will grow

You want to engage and gain Gen Y followers, here’s how:

Step 1: Build your Twitter profile. Make sure you use a good photo, write a compelling bio and link to your website. You can even customize your Twitter background.

Step 2: Post some content. When people look at your Twitter profile, make sure they see you’re active and are posting content. Feel free to post all types of content: events, offers, awards, new hires, community involvement, etc. What matters most is being authentic!

Step 3: Build your audience. We want to focus in on Gen Y. Since Twitter doesn’t track age we’ll have to get creative. Ask yourself this question, “What types of Twitter profiles would Gen Y follow?” Think about musicians, brands, Gen Y bloggers, etc. Once you find a Twitter profile you believe has Gen Y followers, click into it and look at the followers. Their picture, location and bio will tell you a lot about them and whether you want to follow them. Remember you need to follow them first and hope they follow you back. I would recommend you not follow more than 100 more people than are following you. It’s very important to keep your Twitter ratio of followers/following close to 1:1.

Step 4: Audience Pruning. Ok, you’ve followed 100 new Gen Y’ers…now what? Let a couple days pass and you’ll see who has followed you back. Anyone that hasn’t followed you back you should unfollow. Again, you want to keep your follower/following ratio close to 1:1.  Once you’ve unfollowed those that didn’t follow you, find 100 more users to follow.

Step 5: Audience Growth. This action of following and unfollowing is how you grow your audience. Of course continue to post compelling content and hopefully that will also get you new followers.

Make life easier with Twitter tools

Here is a short list of tools that will help you in your audience building efforts.

• Wefollow – follow people through popular tags
• Twello – user directory with location
• SMBtweet – audience building software (happy to provide free trial, simply contact me)

Well, there you have it…not glamorous, but effective. Your Twitter audience will grow by using the method above and while it does take some time, it’s well worth the effort when you’re engaging with Gen Y’ers that can sustain and positively impact your association for the foreseeable future.

But changing an entrenched culture is the toughest task you will face. To do so, you must win the hearts and minds of your staff and membership, and that requires a great deal of effort and persuasion.

Culture is not something you can actually see, yet it permeates the environment and experiences your association creates for its members. It’s the values, beliefs, assumptions, experiences and habits that create your association’s behavior and ways of working together.

Culture is powerful. Now, more than ever, culture has the muscle to make or break your association.

Here’s why:

• The recent recession, coupled with an extraordinary technology boom, has forced members to question the value of your association’s membership.
• Younger generations are driven by personal happiness and are heavily influenced by an organization’s culture.

In other words, culture makes a significant difference in how effective your association is and will be at recruiting and retaining members and generating revenue.

Economic decline and rapidly changing technology have made associations vulnerable. Members of all ages are likely questioning the return on investment for their dues. The youngest will continue to pose this question largely because these generations define and respond to culture differently.

Generational differences can spur cultural challenges for an association, but there are other causes, as well. Resistance to change, lack of management savvy, poor customer service, unwieldy boards and role confusion can all lead to culture problems.

Here are a few red flags that will pop up when culture is a concern:

• high turnover among staff, volunteers, or board
• difficulty recruiting or retaining members
• negative feedback from your members or others
• emotional outbursts (e.g., arguments, storming out of a meeting, and so forth)
• No-shows (e.g., board members not showing up for meetings or continually calling in excuses)

If you suspect your culture has taken a turn for the worse, it’s imperative you pinpoint the source of negativity, effectively resolve conflict, and improve member relations. Your association’s success hinders on it.

Want to promote positive culture in your association? Read my latest post “Creating positive culture for your association“.

Here are a few tips for creating a positive culture for your association:

• Gain support. Start with people who have considerable influence in the organization. (Note: The board and senior staff aren’t always the most influential.) If you get the influencers committed to change, cultural challenges will be easier to resolve.
• Provide proof. In the 1990s a New York Police Commissioner made his top brass—including himself—ride the subways day and night to understand why frightened New Yorkers had come to call it the “Electric Sewer.” Instead of just lecturing on the need for change, get people to experience the harsh realities that make it necessary.
• Focus on values. Core values form the foundation on which the association performs work and behaves. Core values are who you are and why, not who, you serve. If you’re serious about your values, and if you hire (and even fire) around them, you’ll have a culture that speaks of who you are and who you want to be.
• Welcome. Associations have about a 60-day window of opportunity from the time a member joins until that member decides whether to renew the membership. An association should strive to create a positive experience for members year-round, but that first 60 days is especially critical to making members feel welcome, appreciated, and engaged.
• Details, details. It’s hard to feel good about your membership if you don’t have any idea how it’s benefitting you. There should be no mystery or exclusivity within your association. Be open with, and effectively communicate to, the membership on a consistent basis via multiple communication streams.
• Celebrate. Every person, regardless of age or influence, wants to be appreciated. How do you express your appreciation for, thank, and celebrate the membership? A culture of gratitude is an environment that members will always value.

Associations with unsupportive cultures will certainly underperform, experience declining membership and revenues and meet an untimely fate.

There is an alternative. If you eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive, your association will be capable of tremendous growth, success, and prosperity.

At XYZ University, our area of expertise is teaching organizations how to engage Generations X, Y, and Z; those skeptical, instant-gratification generations who were raised on technology and credit cards and are often labeled socially inept, entitled slackers.

Indeed, these generations are different from the generations that have come before them. They are moving to a different beat –but it’s their beat that has the power to make or break any organization. At 120 million people, by 2015 Generations X and Y will be the majority; the majority vote, majority workforce, and majority consumer spending.

Is your organization prepared and capable of engaging a young, powerful group of employees, members, and consumers? Here’s how to capture – and lose – the favor of the future majority.

5 Ways to Engage Us

• Include us: In marketing, there are still messages being delivered without inviting participation. In boardrooms, the average age of directors still hovers at 58. Younger generations want to be valued. We want to participate.

• Make it easy: If we don’t get it right away, or at least see how to get it, we’ll lose interest and move on to something or somewhere else.

• Share: Make everything you do accessible and interactive everywhere, from Facebook to Twitter and especially new trending sites like Pinterest.

• Take a risk: From politics to products, we’re looking for something that’s honest, heartfelt, and stands out from the crowd. Perfection doesn’t resonate with us; reality does.

• Give it meaning: Generations X and Y readily seek out opportunities to make a difference in the world. Do good and we will engage with your brand.

5 Ways to Disengage Us

• Take yourself too seriously: Being funny and having fun is powerful, especially with Generations X and Y. Laughing makes us feel closer to each other and closer to your brand.
• Be vague: Mission statements sound great in the boardroom, but they but mean next to nothing to a 20-something who will skip an ad after about 0.7 seconds.

• Sell us something: From the moment we consider buying a new car to the moment we trade it in for a new one, we want to be engaged. Give us an experience, not a product.

• Talk down to us: If you don’t respect younger generations, it will be obvious throughout your entire company culture and turnover will be imminent. We go where we are wanted.

• Do nothing: The worst thing you can do is recruit a Gen X or Y to your company, board, or association and then do nothing. We expect to be challenged, motivated, and included each and every day. We expect to be engaged.

However, the smooth sailing has passed. With a tough post-graduate job market, we’ve got a hard road ahead of us. Things won’t be so easy. In fact, if this economy continues on this path, we’ll also have the record for being the most unemployed in four decades. Now that doesn’t seem like a future too bright. It seems our backs are against the wall.

Despite being more educated than our parents, Generation Y is relying on our parents more than ever. In fact, 36% of Millennials rely on parents for financial assistance and 14% of 24-34 year-olds are actually living with their parents.

That is probably because we don’t have jobs.

Or, maybe it’s because we expect a lot.

Case in point: Millennials expect their employers include promotion within a year, flexible hours, more vacation and higher pay. So, it’s no wonder that 85% of hiring managers feel Millennials are more entitled than older workers.

As Millennials, we are still optimistic, expecting to be more successful than our parents. If we are to be more successful, we probably think luck will play a role. Studies reveal that those growing up in an economic downturn believe that success in life depends more on luck than on hard work and effort.

Image courtegy of OnlineGraduatePrograms.com

Luck doesn’t equal loyalty

Millennials who are lucky enough to have jobs certainly are not trying to hang onto that success by giving a company loyalty. According to the Work Trends study by Rutgers, among new Millenial hires, 22% voluntarily quit their jobs within the first year, and 44% say they would renege on a job commitment if a better offer came along. The same study showed that about half had moderate to high superiority ideas about themselves.

Only time will tell if luck, work ethic, or a little bit of both will make my generation as successful as we hope.

Now you know why this generation is screwed, but the question arises – What will you do about it?

Generation Y is on the move. Most leave their first job within two years and your company could be the right place for them to land–but you need to entice them by building a job description they can’t refuse. How do you recruit Gen Y from where they are working now? How do you develop the right talent for your company?

Pay attention to where Millennials are now.

A recent poll shows that seven of the top 10 employers of Gen Y are retailers: Walmart, Starbucks, Target, Best Buy, McDonald’s, Abercrombie & Fitch and CVS. What is it about these retail jobs that appeals to Millennials? Are they working retail because selling burgers is the positive change they’ve always wanted to make in the world?

Probably not.

But, you can certainly use the appealing aspects of these jobs to attract Millennials to your organization. Think about it. There’s a reason Millennials flock to these retail positions:

• These are not 9-5 jobs. While Gen Y may still be working 40 hour weeks, the hours are more flexible. These are jobs worked in shifts, possibly shorter than eight hours at a time, and not likely five days in a row.
• Training is offered on the job. Gen Y can get in and get started in retail almost immediately. We thrive on being able to learn as we go and enjoy immediate tasks and gratification for work well-done.
• Management positions and growth opportunities surround us. As we are trained in each retail process, there is room to move up into management positions. We like to know what are possibilities are.

When you build job descriptions and recruit new talent, be sure to build in flexibility, on-the-job training and professional grow opportunities. And, if you can throw in an employee discount or some free food, that doesn’t hurt, either!

An excerpt from Sarah Sladek‘s “The End of Membership As We Know It?” article in the January 2012 issue of Association News.

For most associations, 1946 to 2000 were standout years. With the active support of the baby boomers–the largest generation in American history–membership associations thrived. Yet, as the saying goes, what goes up must come down.

Since 2000, associations have experienced a barrage of challenges that have weakened their position in the marketplace. Financial decline. Demographic shifts. Technology. All have played a role in the altered business environments associations now face.

However, with the right vision and structure in place, your organization can evolve and realize its full potential once again. Here’s 5 steps for how your association can flip its fortune:

Step 1: Find your focus

Why does your association exist? Define, with absolute clarity, your association’s reason for being and its niche. Don’t try to be everything to everyone–you’ll become diluted, lose value and shrink your membership. If you’re diligent about focus, your association will continue to be competitive, productive and successful.

Step 2: Set significant goals

It’s easy to set short-term goals. What you need to do is set a stretch goal–something with significance. Meet with your leadership team and discuss where you want to take your association (think 5 years from now). Allow the team time to mull over this question until there is an established goal that excites everyone. You want your team to be really inspired. Mediocre goals are simply not worth the effort.

Step 3: Make the most of marketing

If you want to sell more membership, you’ve got to know exactly who benefits from being a part of your association and their motives behind their membership. Only with that information can you then begin marketing. Marketing success relies on a 4-step process:

1. Determine what differentiates you from the competition. Survey members and request feedback from your membership sales team. What do your current members really like about your association? Why did they choose to join? Compile the answers, then use it to determine which three aspects of the association your members value most.
   
2. Determine your guarantee. An example is Domino’s Pizza, which guarantees 30-minute delivery or your order is free. Meet with your leadership team and list what you believe to be the biggest frustrations, fears and worries of your members. List all possible guarantees you’d be willing to offer to put their concerns at ease.
3. Identify your core benefits. What you offer is a critical selling tool. You must add value. Provide potential members ample information on what they will gain from these nenefits and include member testimonials or measurable data (such as 60% of our members observed an increase in business”) whenever possible.
4. Determine your target market. These are your ideal members, the ones most likely to value a membership in your association. Put a lot of thought into your target market and develop a list based on members’ key characteristics: geography, industry, title, age range, etc. Then, develop a list of prospects within your target and start the relationship-building process.

Step 4: Troubleshooting

Here’s where you identify your association’s obstacles to growth. Do you need to introduce new technology or membership models? Should you target a younger audience? Whatever the case, your goal here is to eliminate negative influences and focus on your association’s potential.

Ask your team to identify obstacles the association is likely to face on the road to achieving its goals. List your challenges then whittle it down to your top three. Discuss what the real problem is behind your challenges. If you have an aging membership or declining revenues, it’s for a reason. Pinpoint what they are and then discuss possible solutions for resolving those challenges.

Step 5: Target your progress

After all the strategy, it’s time for plan implementation. Here’s how to implement a growth-oriented strategic plan:

1. Set a 1-year goal. Meet with your team and determine the following goals for the association to achieve within the next year: a retnetion goal, a recruiting goal, a revenue goal and a profit goal.
2. Set priorities. Revisit your 5-year goal (step 2). Decide on between 3 and 7 priorities that must be completed this year in order for your association to be on track with your 5-year goal.
3. Set 90-day targets. Break the year into quarters with 90-day targets focused on the implementation of your priorities. Breaking down goals makes progress more manageable and possible.

It may be that we are in a period that is the end of membership as we know it, but that doesn’t have to mean it’s the end of your association. Now is the time to look at the best ways to flip the future of your organization and build a revenue-generation, membership-making machine.

I recently read a 2011 opinion piece from the New York Times entitled “Boomer Parent’s Lament”. The writer of the piece, Timothy Egan, despairs at the future for those who, like me, are members of Generation Y. In today’s harsh economic climate, many of my peers are burdened with heavy student loan debt and if they have a minimum-wage job that needs no degree are still considered lucky to at least have a paycheck.

Egan goes on to blame the parents, the Boomers, for filling our heads with the idea that our generation is special and focusing our self-worth on our grades, our jobs and our incomes. We were expected to achieve greatness, but were rewarded for mediocrity.

Now, in an economy where greatness is even harder to achieve, many of my generation are left with a feeling of failure, but are unprepared to deal with it.

There is certainly an amount of truth to his arguments. I experienced the rewarding for mediocrity, evidenced by the multitude of rainbow colored “participation” ribbons from elementary school summer swim team next to the sparse collection of blue first-place ribbons. I also experienced the expectations of greatness, from good grades in school to taking on leadership roles in activities. My Boomer mother pushed me to tour what became my alma mater, St. Catherine University, a women’s college where the mission statement of “lead and influence” is a recurring theme.

I am grateful for these experiences and do not lament anything instilled in me by my Boomer parents.

Take a lesson from the past

Yet, Egan is only really taking into account two generations: the Boomers and their Generation Y offspring. This, for me, is the key. In addition to my Boomer parents, I have had the influence of all four of my Traditionalist grandparents.

Along with all those aggrandizing comments and expectations typical of my generation, I was instilled with a sense of history. I learned of my grandparents’ childhood during the Great Depression and their young adulthood during WWII. They worked hard in order to provide for their families and their true accomplishment was seeing that all their families truly needed was taken care of.

Egan remarks on his father, but makes no reference to making an effort to instill his father’s work ethic and values into his children. It is my grandparents, not my parents, who have truly shaped my view of accomplishment. My parents pushed me to achieve, my grandparents’ work ethic showed me how. They also taught me to be grateful for what I have and to experience the feeling of accomplishment in small things, in family moments and in giving back to the community.

Perhaps instead of lamenting what Boomer parents “should have done” with their Generation Y children, we should all follow the example of my grandparents. Accomplishment comes in many forms and self-worth is not found in a paycheck.

If you have a job, you ARE lucky. Now work hard and do the best you can and keep going. If you have a loving family, friends and time to be with them, you ARE lucky. Now make sure you spend time with them and cherish it. If you have the opportunity to give back somehow, you ARE lucky. Now go see if you can help make someone else’s life a little easier, and perhaps discover new opportunities, passions and even self-worth.