Want to know how to encourage younger people to stay at your firm? Re-assess their supervisory relationships.
It may sound simplistic, but the lack of day-to-day management interaction is one of the major issues that younger, less experienced people face when entering a new working environment - i.e., supervisors or managers who are too hands-off.
"Typically, the young folks show up on Day One and say, 'Look at me, I'm here, remember me, from the interview!' and it's like, 'Oh right, we forgot you were starting today,'" said Bruce Tulgan, co-author of Managing the Generation Mix: From Urgency to Opportunity and founder of RainmakerThinking Inc., a New Haven, Conn.-based research and training firm that has been studying generational differences since 1993. "The old-fashioned, long-term hierarchical structure is a bad fit for today's transactional environment."
Advertisement
As staff retention continues to challenge many accounting firms, the numbers show it's not going to get any easier. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for accounting professionals is expected to grow by 18 to 26 percent through 2014. Meanwhile, January 2008 findings from the American Institute of CPAs reported that 75 percent of the organization's members would be eligible for retirement in the next 14 years.
As a result, more midsized firms are starting to address this issue by paying attention to what younger people need to stay engaged. Some are including younger staff members in more significant firm decisions through advisory boards; others are pairing younger staff with older partners in mentoring relationships; and some have even postponed accepting large proposals until there is an assurance that a particular department can handle the increase in hours and staff demands.
"Partners listen and make adjustments to schedules if people are struggling, so we are not pumping people through with all the hours," said Lori Colvin, marketing director at San Ramon, Calif.-based CPA firm Armanino McKenna. "We know we can't afford it, we can't lose people. If we have a proposal for $100,000 or more, it must be approved by the department head."
FIRST X, THEN Y
Not surprisingly, with the Baby Boomers leaving the workplace, it's the younger generations that are left to pick up the reins.
However, the younger generations - Generation X (those born between 1965 and 1977) and Generation Y (born between 1978 and 1990) - have a different way of doing things, and what's probably more threatening is that they have the upper hand in negotiations.
"For the first time, there are multiple generations at work where the younger generation has power," noted Penelope Trunk, the author of Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success and career columnist at the Boston Globe. "They have the balance of power because companies cannot hire enough young people to fill the positions they have open."
A common misconception that Baby Boomers have about Gen Yers is that they feel entitled, and don't want to "put their time in." Trunk, however, said that the opposite is true. "They have worked harder than any other generation in school," she said. "They've done more hours of homework, achieved higher rates of graduation and are much more productive than any other generation in history because they have great productivity skills. The young people's demand for personal growth at work is actually very similar to what Baby Boomers want."
