What makes up and coming HR talent tick?

What makes up and coming HR talent tick? Some young HR professionals met recently with their more seasoned HR and managerial colleagues to discuss what motivates and engages them, what would push them to leave and how they view their role in the future of HR

HR recruitment and consulting firm PerformanceHR recently convened a focus group of senior HR professionals and managers along with talented Generation X/Generation Y HR professionals to discuss their career needs, motivations and aspirations, attraction and retention trends, the challenges of working in their current role and where they see themselves fitting into the future of HR.

Following is a summary of the discussion, with some insights into just what makes up and coming HR talent tick.

Opportunity cost

This generation of career-focussed talent has embedded in their career the notion of ‘opportunity cost’. This is the underlying platform of their career blueprint, and one of the key motivating principles in their decision making around employment. Organisations that waste their time, energy and resources in non-career developing activities are at risk of losing them. Money per se is not the issue, and time is today’s scarce resource. This generation does not have the time to hang around while an organisation sorts itself out. They want to work simultaneously for an organisation and themselves – they want to work on their own career. When they are able to achieve this they have achieved an elegant deployment of their resources: a win/win scenario they are happy with.

Life is expensive: houses, cars, lifestyle, toys, clothes, holidays and so on. Gen X and Gen Y have a sense of entitlement and want the lifestyle trappings of their parents; they are not prepared to step down from the standards of luxury they have become accustomed to and feel they have to earn the big bucks quickly. They need a fast track to a senior, well paid position if they are going to stand any chance of acquiring the ‘essentials’ of life. They are impatient and will not waste time or energy on an organisation that isn’t going to provide opportunities that accelerate their careers. This desire for career acceleration applies a good deal of pressure and any number of expectations – both on the organisations they work for and on themselves. They demand a lot but in return they are prepared to give a lot.

The psychological contract of trust

Trust is the crucial element in the workplace psychological contract, and one of the cornerstones in the younger generation’s decision to stay and the first causality in their reasons to leave. What this career-focussed talent want more than anything, once the ‘opportunity cost’ has been sorted, is the opportunity to excel. When there is a high level of trust, when they are assured of the support of managers, line managers and the whole work environment, they are prepared to give everything and achieve their personal best. What they don’t want is to ‘walk the gang plank’ when implementing key strategic HR policies. They become angry when they are not supported in implementing unpopular initiatives, when they get the blame if policies backfire and when management ‘shoots the messenger’. But when they have the full support of the whole team, just sit back and watch them perform – you will be amazed.

An ethical organisation

For the purposes of this discussion, ‘ethical’ refers to the way people who come into contact with an organisation are treated. This refers to employees as well as suppliers, customers and the public. When they saw, heard and were sometimes asked to participate in unethical practices, they felt compromised. They also knew that managers who lied, cheated and behaved unfairly to others would have no compunction about treating them similarly. Questionable ethics erodes trust. Once the trust has been eroded the psychological contact begins to deteriorate. Unethical behaviour is worse than a lack of emotional intelligence. Where a lack of emotional intelligence exists there is the belief that with the right input and training some of the skills and knowledge needed can be acquired and an undesirable environment changed. This same belief does not exist where there is a lack of moral and ethical fortitude, and without radical change in management there is little hope that things will improve.

If the ethics of an organisation are not what they are supposed to be, practical day-to-day practices must be above board. This will assist in establishing the right boundaries for the younger generation to excel within.

Clear expectations

In order to maximise the opportunities that exist in an organisation, the lines of communication need to be clear. Ambiguity is synonymous with unreasonable expectations, unwanted conflict and an inability to prove oneself and one’s accomplishments. The greater the ambiguity of the situation the less they can shine. They are prepared to work very hard to achieve great results, to excel in their tasks and go all out to do the remarkable as long what they are expected to do is clear.

There is sense of futility when things are ambiguous. Young career-focused talent has little tolerance for meaningless tasks – tasks that don’t matter in the larger scheme of things. They have a sense of ecology. They abhor situations that waste their time, their energy, and the resources of the organisations. They are thoroughbreds and need to know where the track is. They do not want to take part in a cross-country steeplechase as their career is not an adventure. Brilliance within boundaries is on offer although clear boundaries are crucial to ensure they can achieve their much desired bonus.

For example: “I want what I have worked hard for, for my achievements – how will the organisation know how well I have performed if things are ambiguous?” They can cope with rapid change as long as they are told what their roles are. Indeed, they thrive on rapid change if it is fuelled by market and/or strategic reasons – not if it is the result of incompetence. They gain a sense of excitement, challenge and stimulation when things are moving fast in a meaningful way.

When things are in a state of flux, their viewpoints are considered and all options are explored. There is the possibility for carving out a niche when the pace is fast – the future doesn’t belong to anyone – and this is far more difficult when things are static.

Being treated as a valuable resource

A desire for strong learning and development opportunities linked to strong promotions and advancement opportunities is very attractive to emerging talent. They see themselves as a very valuable resource both to the organisation and themselves. Lost is the notion that you can rely on an organisation for your future or wellbeing. Today you must rely on yourself. Although as discussed earlier they want well-defined roles and clear accountabilities, they also want to be challenged. Boredom is a major health hazard for this generation. They are very attracted to organisations that demonstrate a commitment to their personal growth and individual career.

Stretch me and see what I can deliver

Regular feedback on performance is all part of the ‘me-focussed’ process. The younger generation abhor the possibility of going the wrong way; they feel strongly they’ve only got one chance of getting their career right and they don’t want to mess it up. They want all their effort to count and organisations that provide internal mentoring and access to external coaches will go along way in attracting and retaining this generation.

Self preservation

Linked strongly with the notion that they are a valuable resource is the belief that they have to put in place mechanisms for self preservation. They are very aware they will need to perform at their personal best for a long time, therefore they will have to incorporate into their lives strategies that would help maintain this effort. They know that they will need to refuel along the way. This discussion was not about getting more time off from work for life but about how to be more effective at work as well as in life.

I want a life outside of work

The more an organisation assists them, therefore, to achieve the right work/life balance the more they can give back to the organisation. One of the biggest threats to their self-preservation strategy was a regular long commute time. Most said they would resist working more than 30 minutes from home. Again this is consistent with their view on the value of time, especially their time.

What they are prepared to give

Much of the discussion focussed on the ‘get gap’, that is, what they wanted to receive from an organisation and their frustration when this gap was too big. There was as much, if not more, frustration expressed about the ‘give gap’ and their inability to give to the organisation because of the organisation’s own limitations. They were full of desire to give to an organisation their very best – if only the organisation would allow them to perform at their personal best. They were convinced of their own self-potential and were fuelled by the belief they could achieve whatever they wanted to if only they were given the right circumstances, the right opportunities. This up-and-coming career focused talent were saying to the baby boomers, currently running the show: “If you were really smart you’d get your stuff sorted and let me have a go at making this organisation amazing.”

If all the factors are right, including the right culture with good supportive managers and a work/life balance, there will be no holding back. They are prepared, and will able to, achieve brilliant outcomes for the organisation: “I want to be challenged – given the opportunity to show you what I’m made of.”

The future of HR

Is HR the invisible profession? Many in the groups admitted to “just falling into HR”– to not really knowing much about the HR profession before they stumbled into it. Now, however, they saw HR as a serious profession and one in which they could map out a respectable and exciting career. They believed, based on their own experiences, that HR was slowly being taken more seriously and that it was involved more and more in the major strategic decisions of the organisation. Other parts of the organisation were beginning to respect and listen to HR professionals.

Are we going to see a problem in the future for small, private organisations to be able to attract career focused HR talent given the allure for this group of the large/multinational organisation that appears to guarantee so much?

For more information on upcoming PerformanceHR focus groups visit www.performancehr.com.au