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© 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM 1 Generations: A Perspective to Employee Engagement Santanu Basu
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Generations: A Perspective to Employee Engagement

Jan 11, 2017

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Page 1: Generations:  A Perspective to Employee Engagement

© 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM1

Generations: A Perspective to Employee Engagement

Santanu Basu

Page 2: Generations:  A Perspective to Employee Engagement

© 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM2

My task is to prepare an engagement model which would help to improve employee motivation & to reduce attrition.

But the work force is so diverse in terms of the behavioural traits!

How can I ensure this diversity is factored in to my engagement model?

Wish I could segment the work force basis commonalities and prepare my engagement model accordingly…..that would definitely improve the effectiveness of the model!!!

I tried need based concepts however that does not help quantifying the segment and also does not help to categorize who would fit in to which segment

Is there any theoretical base which would help to segment the work force ??

The Challenge with Diversity

Page 3: Generations:  A Perspective to Employee Engagement

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A social generation is an aggregate of all people born over a span of approximately two decades or about the length of phase of life i.e. Childhood, young adulthood, midlife & old age.

Generations are cohort groups who have come out of age together and share primarily three criteria:

• They share an ‘age location’ in the history. They witness key historical events and social trends in the same phase of their life.• Members of a particular generation are shaped in a lasting ways by the eras they witness in childhood and as young adults and basis that they develop

and share certain common beliefs and behaviours.• As aware of the experience and traits they have in common with their peers, they develop a sense of common perceived membership in terms of

generation.

Solution could be found in Generational Theory

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Strauss & Howe identified four stages of distinct social moods or era or generational events recurring in cyclic order in American history and named those as ‘Turning’ (Table 1). Each ‘Turning’ remains about 20 to 22 years. A complete cycle of all four turnings, as they defined it, is a ‘Saeculum’, a Latin word which means both “a long human life” & “a natural century.

Strauss & Howe further postulates that two different ‘turnings’ associated with two different formative age location build four generational

‘archetypes’ that repeat sequentially. They named these archetypes as Prophet, Nomad, Hero and Artist

Cyclic Order Turning Era Distinct Behaviour

First Turning High Post ‘Crisis’ Strong Institutions Week Individualism Society is confident about destination collectively

Second Turning Awakening Post ‘High’ Institutions are attacked for personal & spiritual autonomy People are tired of social discipline ‘High’ is looked as an era of cultural and spiritual poverty.

Third Turning Unraveling Post ‘Awakening’ Institutions are week and & distrusted Society wants to atomize and enjoy

Fourth Turning Crisis Post ‘Unraveling’

Institutional life is destroyed and rebuilt in response to a perceived threat to Nation

Civic authority revives Cultural expression redirects towards community purpose National identity redefines

Turning Prophet Nomad Hero ArtistHigh Childhood Elderly Hood Midlife Young Adult

Awakening Young Adult Childhood Elderly Hood MidlifeUnraveling Midlife Young Adult Childhood Elderly Hood

Crisis Elderly Hood Midlife Young Adult Childhood

Generational Theory: Strauss & Howe

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Generational Theory: Strauss & Howe

Archetype Example In living Generations

Collective Persona

Prophet Baby Boomers Born near the end of a Crisis Grows up as increasingly indulged children Come of age as self -absorbed young crusader of an Awakening Emerge as elders guiding another Crisis Main social contributions are in the areas of vision, values & religion

Nomad Gen X Born During an Awakening Grown up as under protected children Come of age as alienated post-Awakening Adults Become pragmatic midlife leaders during a Crisis Age into resilient post crisis elders Main social contributions are in the area of liberty, survival & honour

Hero G.I. Generation & Millennials Born after an Awakening Grown up as increasingly protected post Awakening children Come of age as team oriented young optimist during a Crisis Emerge as energetic, overly confident mid lifers Edge in to politically powerful elders to be attacked by another Awakening Main social contributions are in the areas of community, affluence & technology 

Artist Silent & Home Landers Born During a Crisis Grown up as over protected Come of age as socialized and conformist young adult of a post Crisis world Break out as a process oriented midlife leader during Awakening Main social contributions are in the area of expertise and due process

The generations in each archetype share a similar age location, some basic attitude towards family, risk, culture, values and civic engagement. In short, generation shaped by similar early life experience have imprinted collective persona

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Veterans Free-Gens Gen X E-Gens Gen Y

Born: 1920-1945 Pre-Independence Cohort Unsure & Wary Very rarely in active employment today

Born: 1945-1960 Post- Independence Cohort Believe in the concept of life time employment 20% of today’s work forceInterim Seniors

Born: 1961-1970 Socialism to Liberalization Transitory Cohort Saw the upswing of the economy & hastened to catch up with younger Cohorts Believe in the power of change 25% of the work force

Born: 1971-1980 Confident India Cohort Comfortable with change-largest cause of attrition 29% of work force Has since sharpest trajectory of the success despite 2 down turns

Born: 1981-1990 26% of the work force Feels less guilt being an aggressive consumer Has seen one significant big blip-the recession of 2008

Generation Born Between Entered Workforce Work Values Work is……..

Free Gen 1945-1960 1960-1980 Hard working, Conservative, Loyal

Inevitable

Gen X 1961-1970 1980-1990 Flexibility, Job Satisfaction, Duty, Work Life Balance

A Challenge

E Gen 1971-1980 1990-2000 Customized Careers, Entrepreneurial, Own-time

Exciting

Gen Y 1981-1990 2000-Now Value Diversity, Techno Brilliant, Global Mindset, Portfolio Careers

A means to an end

Basis a study done by AVTAR Career Creators, an organization that works in the field of diversity and inclusion in India, 5 existing generations in India can be contextualized and defined as in the above table.

There are other scholars (Roongrengsuke-2010, Erickson-2009, Ghosh & Chaudhari-2009 etc.) who tried the similar and came up with different models with some deviations from each other however for this particular study we would go with the above as NASSCOM have accepted this model for work force in Indian IT BPO farms

Generations in Indian Work Force

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Dimensions of Work Force Attitudes

Gen Y1981-1990

E Gen1971-1980

Gen X1961-1970

Free Gen1945-1960

Outlook ExploringExperimentingAdventurousHigh RiskOpen to Mentoring

FocusedCherry PickedRapid Growth

StabilityConsolidationAptitudeModerate Risk

ConservativeAnalyticalCommitted 

Work Ethic InformalCreativeFun Loving

CollaborativeSmart WorkResult Oriented

ResponsibleProcess OrientedMentor/Coach

AccountableExperiencedLeading

View of Authority Competency Based Role Based Hierarchical Hierarchical

Leadership Transitional Consensus DrivenEmerging

Transformational InspirationalDirective

Relationship E-RelationshipUnclear between personal/professional Boundaries

Balanced Professional NetworkingStable

ConservativeCommittedSocietal 

Perspective Carefree Ambitious Cautious Traditional

Turn Off Micro-Management Lack of Freedom Non-Recognition Non-Inclusion

Once we know this contextualization, next step would be to try & identify typical attitudes for each generation which would in turn help us to relate that to job motivation factors, communication medium, attitudes towards hierarchy etc. Based on studies conducted by NASSCOM, dimensions of such attitudes for different generations in Indian IT-BPO workforce are as above

Generations in Indian Work Force

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Gen Z is commonly defined as “people born between1990 and 2010”. They are also known as Gen M or “Digital Natives”

Behavioural Traits of Gen Z

• Always ConnectedCommunicating through various social media across the globe and cultures which significantly influence their decision making process.

• Constantly MultitaskingWith a variety of sophisticated electronic device and appreciate simple interactive designs

Gen Z: The next generation

Traits Identified among Gen Z Globally: • Gen Z is the first ever generation, born & grown up in digital world where technology was ever present. This shaped their mind set in a completely different

way.•  • Within the age group of 6-12, 31% of US children wanted an iPad over any other electronic devices as Christmass gift, followed by a computer (29%) & an

iPod Touch (29%)•  • Online shopping or visiting online shopping web sites are becoming more popular among the girls•  • The way they prefer to learn – according to a study by ‘Habbo Hotel’, the world largest virtual community for teens, 43% prefer learning from Internet or

digital media, 38% prefer a combination of online & print, only 16% stated that they prefer printed books.•  • The design they prefer: Gen Z prefers simple and interactive product design which would have the flexibility to help multi tasking.•  • Sense of Social Responsibility: Access to the large information pool has made them aware of current pressing challenges like global terrorism and climate

change. 74% of teens, globally, consider climate change and global warming are bigger threats than drugs, violence or war. Close to 75% of teens, globally care if their family is purchasing green products, saving energy, byuying recyclabale products etc.

•  • Gen Z prefers to be constantly connected with their peers world over through Internet, instant/text messaging and social networking websites. They

consider emails as thing of yesterday. They are very much emotionally attached to their digital habits & high online activity. Conectivity with their global peers through the social networking sites provides them a greater exposure to cultures & languages which actually have made this generation truly global. These peers greatly influence their decisiions as well.

 In short Generation Z:  • Want to Speak• Need for Community• Need for Branded Communities• Trust Communities-Word of Mouth• Trust content on branded communities• Branded Communities influences their behaviour & decissions.

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The Generation Z in India:  Below are some interesting facts about Indian Gen Z, published in a report by Ericsson Consumer Lab, in Oct, 12. For this research Ericsson Consumer lab

reached out 7785 urban house holds, conducted 3421 face-to-face interviews with 9-18 years old mobile phone users accoss 16 cities in India, 1000 face-to-face interviews with parents & 2000 face-to-face interviews with mobile broadband users in the age group of 9-18 years.

 • Out of roughly 200 million of total population below 18 years in India, 69 million resides in urban areas.•  • 40% of urban children from metropolitan towns regularly dine out at expensive restaurants, 23% uses their parents credit card to purchase things.•  • 30 million urban children have their own mobile phones, 11 million share one with their family while rest 28 million do not have access to mobile phones.•  • 2 out of 5 children studied had more than 5 gadgets/devices in their bed room.•  • On an average 2:18 hours are spent over Inetrnet per day per children.•  • 58% of Gen Z in India is now willing to give up watching TV to use Internet through on mobile phone.•  • 7% of Gen Z owning a Smart Phone•  • 26% spend 90-100% of their Internet time on mobile phones•  • Children belonging to 9-11 years age group on an average spend 67 minutes per day on Facebook.They are not even aware of any age limitations to sign up

in Facebook.  Key findings of this study is as below. • Connectivity forms part of Gen Z’s digital lives from an early age.•  • Kids and tweens mirror their older (16-18 years) counterparts usage pattern.•  • Gen Z turns to social media first to complain or share bad experience & want to be engaged through a social form of Cutomer Care.

Gen Z in India

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Average TenureHead Count Head Count Average Tenure Head Count Average Tenure Head Count Average TenureGen X 1 4.9E Gen 51 2.9 7 5.8 2 7.1 3 3.3Gen Y 181 1.6 7 4.9 5 6.6Gen Z 25 0.8Total 258 1.8 14 5.4 7 6.7 3 3.3

GenerationsProduction Agent Supervisor - Level 1 Supervisor - Level 2 Supervisor - Level 3

Generations in our Work Force…

Free Gens

Born between 1945 and 1960

Generation X

Born between 1961 and 1970

E Gen

Born between 1971 and 1980

Generation Z

Born between 1990 and 2000

A typical distribution of work force in aligned to a global telecom major (network provisioning):

Generation Y

Born between 1981 and 1990

Cautions while applying the Generational Theory:  While formulating engagement models basis the Generational Theory one should be cautious of the fact that though this helps

with segmentation to a great deal, there will be variation within the cohort hence this theory should not be used to over simplify the model. Secondly, India, as all the scholar over the world has treated, is a country with composite culture (non unitary or homogeneous). In any composite culture, each generation cohort has its own separate but overlapping regional, religious & linguistic cultures which are respected by and interact with their shared culture. This also needs to be factored in while designing any employee engagement model.

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Thank You