(From Globe and Mail)—More than 12 million strong and representing more than one-third of Canada’s population, Generation Y is the largest demographic cohort to come after the baby boomers.
Born between 1981 and 2000, members of Generation Y, also known as millennials, are already stirring things up in the workplace, according to their boomer bosses. After just a few years in the labour market, millennials have earned a reputation for being lazy, unprofessional, entitled “digital natives” who expect to start as interns on Monday and be chief executive officers by Friday.
Those are the stereotypes, anyway. The reality? Gen Y is the most educated and most diverse generation in history, and the first to have more women than men obtain postsecondary education credentials. They have also been using computers, mobile phones, the Internet, social media tools and other technologies since childhood – the youngest of them essentially since birth.
Whether boomers like it or not, Gen Y will continue to transform the workplace to better suit their needs. After all, the boomers won’t be around forever.
In just 15 years, by 2028, the last of the boomers will be reaching retirement age and leaving the labour market. Generation Y will make up roughly three-quarters of the work force by this time and the oldest millennials, still quite young at just 47, will be entering leadership positions in corporate Canada in large numbers.
These young managers, directors, vice-presidents, presidents and CEOs won’t just be rearranging the furniture and hanging their diplomas in their new corner offices – they will be making sweeping changes to the way organizations and their people work. Here are the top six ways Gen Y leaders will change the workplace:
More women in leadership roles
As of 2006, women accounted for 60 per cent of university graduates. While they still comprise only about one-third of master of business administration students, Canadian schools are actively looking for ways to increase the number of women in their programs – and in the boardrooms of Canada’s largest companies.
Plus, the majority of millennials’ parents both worked, creating positive role models for Gen Y as they went to school and prepared to enter the work force. Millennials are already accustomed to working alongside female leaders and, as more of them reach leadership positions, they will bring in even more Gen Y women into the fold.
When it comes to offices, less is more.
One of the first changes Gen Y leaders will make is getting rid of those cushy corner offices altogether.
Millennials aren’t fond of the top-down leadership style that has until now dominated the professional world, preferring instead to collaborate in teams. Cubicles, walls, closed doors and even assigned desks will be removed in favour of open-concept work spaces that promote engagement between all workers – regardless of their seniority.
Already making waves at forward-thinking organizations, concepts such as telecommuting and “hoteling” (temporary workstations used on an as-needed basis) will become the norm rather than the exception under Gen Y leadership. According to a 2012 study, organizations are set to reduce office space by 17 per cent by 2020, leaving as few as six desks for every 10 workers.
Millennial-dominated offices will have smaller footprints and, as a result, generate numerous economic and environmental benefits for their organizations. Under optimal conditions, each telecommuting employee can save employers about 34 gigajoules of energy a year – enough to heat a typical Canadian home for four months – and a single hoteling employee saves slightly less, about 32 gigajoules a year.
These downsized offices will also allow organizations to move out of the suburbs and back into the core of Canada’s largest cities, where millennials prefer to live. These more central office locations will reduce workers’ commute times as well as their impact on the environment, and increase job satisfaction and overall happinessas a result.
Forget work-life balance, it’s all about blending
The term “work-life balance” implies an equal amount of one and then the other; a separation. Boomers are obsessed with finding work-life balance and, as a result, many prefer to disconnect completely from work when they’re not in the office.
