No promotion - I'm off, young workers say

Insights into Generation Y is just one of many revealed as part of research on workers in New Zealand and Australia. Photo/Jimmy Joe

Nearly one in four young workers say they would leave their employer if they missed out on a promotion or pay rise.

Yet just 14 per cent of hiring managers say their organisation has a programme to fast-track young talent.

The insight into Generation Y is just one of many revealed as part of research by recruitment consultants Robert Walters on workers in New Zealand and Australia.

Generation Gaps is aimed at dispelling myths and assumptions about the different working styles and career aspirations of the generations.

Despite there being a perceived gap between what the Gen Y want compared to Gen X and the baby boomers, all three say the most important factor when choosing an employer is the salary and benefits offered.

But career progression was next on the priority list for Gen Y while other generations favoured a strong company culture.

Gen Y were also much more likely to say they had been overlooked for promotion because of their age, with 84 per cent citing that as an issue.

It was also a concern for baby boomers with 54 per cent saying they had been skipped by for promotion because of their age.

There were also similarities between baby boomers and Gen Y when it came to motivation for work with both generations saying their ability to make an impact by doing meaningful work was the biggest reason they did their job.

But for Gen X, the top motivating factor to work was to meet financial commitments such as supporting a family or paying a mortgage.

When it came to reasons for leaving a job, poor leadership was the number one reason across all ages.

The leadership trait all generations wanted to see in their manager was openness and honesty.

But Gen Y-ers also wanted someone they could learn from, an attribute that was far down the list of hiring managers when they were asked about what they thought their workforce valued most in leaders.

Only one in five hiring managers also said their employer offered a mentoring programme for young people.

When it came to conflict in the workplace between generations more than half of Gen Y-ers said they had experienced it and baby boomers were the ones they were most likely to clash with.

One in four Gen Y-ers said a source of conflict was the reluctance by colleagues to use new technology at work and the same number said the thought older generations were set in their ways.

However eight out of 10 Gen X and baby boomers said they prefer to use new ways of working rather than tried-and-tested ways and said technology is a part of their daily life that they would be lost without.

At the same time almost half of baby boomers said that "differing levels of work
ethic and commitment" was the most likely cause of conflict between the
generations.

Age discrimination was a big issue for baby boomers with three-quarters saying they had experienced it during job interviews compared to 34 per cent of Gen Y-ers and 36 per cent of those in Gen X.

This was backed up as a real concern with half of hiring managers reporting age discrimination in the recruitment process and 58 per cent saying they had seen people passed over for promotion because of their age.

Shay Peters, country manager for Robert Walters New Zealand, said there appeared to more commonalities across the generations than expected.

"Age discrimination is felt by all the generations interviewed, however younger and older workers share more in common in terms of working styles and career aspirations than previously thought, and it's these commonalities that employers should nurture and develop."