Bidiversity

Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald reports on research that shows short bite sized learning and peer teams are the way to motivate gen Y workers

Generation Y – teens and twentysomethings – are either pains in the butt to manage or a force for change, depending on your experience.

They’re the ones who want to be your boss, get bored easily, and believe the boomers “royally screwed the economy”, as one blogger put it.

But they also clamour for more information about the expectations of their job and like regular communication with their supervisors, according to a study by the Brotherhood of St Laurence.

Some businesses have built an empire on gen Y buying habits, such as JB Hi-Fi and Boost Juice Systems, while other business owners struggle with the “whys” – as in “Why do I have to do that?”

McDonald’s Australia works hard to understand young workers because 90 per cent of its 75,000 employees are aged between 15 and 21 years.

The company’s human resources strategy with these younger workers is to manage tiny groups by peers and to use new media to keep everyone updated.

John Whitehouse, the company’s national people resources manager, explained: “Gen Ys do get hired on attitude rather than skill level, so we need controlled criteria for crew trainers who control the 14 teams in each restaurant [three to four people] on various shifts.”

Next year McDonald’s HR focus will be on crew trainers and their training, given their ambassadorial role with younger staff.

“The crew trainers are the next generation of talent for us so they’re important,” Whitehouse says. “We find that the way teams are structured, they run themselves. Crew trainers are very passionate and want to be managers and relate well to fellow gen Ys.”

So the plan is to get the trainers involved in promotions and operational challenges, such as reducing drive-in times, to elevate their role.

“We want to make these jobs aspirational and let the crew trainers access some management tools, such as a communications portal, and change their uniform so they stand out more.

“You have to have subteams because having one person managing 15 people effectively won’t allow enough development time” and maintain work flows.

Jane O’Brien, a multi-shop franchisee with Baker’s Delight in Adelaide, found the experience of working with almost 30 teens and twentysomethings has “shown me that I am a good manager but it also showed me that if it doesn’t work then maybe it’s not for you”.

She said understanding young adults means creating teams to enlist peer pressure to the full (she favours a “buddy system”, with older staff responsible for teens).

She says that getting angry with young workers doesn’t alter their behaviour, although it has to be made clear that people turning up late, or giving away stock to friends, is unacceptable.

“Sometimes even your best girls will do something naughty, such as eating Mars bars out the back instead of serving, but you have to cut a bit of slack and have fun.”

Whitehouse agrees that being “directive” with young staff does not work – but a softly-softly approach and peer group management do.

“Gen Ys don’t always have loyalty to the business, but they do have loyalty to friends, so one of their strengths is that they will help each other,” he says. “Communications is challenging. We’re changing lot of our strategies and looking to put computers in crew rooms so there’s a screen with rotating messages.

“We see that [young workers] like bite-size learning and ticker-tape info rather than two-pagers. So we’re moving into bite-size info – a bit like a webpage.

“If you put information on a notice on a board, then they don’t look at it. If you put it on a screen then they will read it.”

Gloria Jean’s group capability manager, Karli Fumage, cites a recent innovation, an electronic learning program called Gloria, in which staff maintain their coffee training and can chat to each other as well as being able to look up rosters, use a library and check on polling.

“The most popular area is a forum, and because it’s international the baristas share latte art ideas and we tier the forums so that master franchise partners can talk to each other about team management [and] cost of labour, while the teen labour talks about their new drinks and the celebrities who may wander in.

“You can only look at the tier you’re assigned to.”

Every six months, the franchisors do a “health check” or satisfaction survey on staff and managers via the platform.

The Gloria Jean’s franchisee partners range from young entrepreneurs in their first business to near-retireds, so there is diversity in the ownership profiles and the platform serves as a valuable tool.

O’Brien, the mother of two young adults, describes another benefit in getting support from her co-workers: her own children, now aged 18 and 20, thought better of her.

“My secret was that the younger girls loved and trusted me and were loyal; it was a personal bond,” she says. “My children liked me a lot more for it because I showed I could work with their peer group. Personality counts for a lot.”

O’Brien and husband, Michael, are selling their last franchise to focus on other commitments. She says she will miss the interaction with “her girls”.