Military Careers, Second Careers - Air Force Times

Y? Because recruiters want a certain generation

“BTW. Im runnin late. Will still have ur report by 10. Thnx.”

Hey, baby boomers: Get ready to cringe. This is an actual text message sent to a boss (I know) from a Gen Y employee running late for work.

It’s SNF (or So Not Fair, in text-message speak). We always had to pick up the phone and sheepishly let the manager know we wouldn’t be clocking in on time. But, believe it or not, this behavior is so OK with employers. Why? They desperately want to recruit and keep this fresh-faced and aggressive group of workers known as Gen Y (loosely defined as those born in the late 1970s and early 1980s).

Logging on to Facebook on company time? NBD (No Big Deal). Making a personal call at work? Ya. It’s allowed. Leave at 3 p.m. for yoga? Totally. They are blurring work and personal life into one gray blob. On top of all that, they demand respect and leadership roles from the moment they enter the doors.

So why would any company go to extremes to please this seemingly inexperienced crew?

“These workers, if you can get them, are amazingly loyal,” said Chris Woolard, senior consultant with Walker Information, which this month released a report that Gen Y workers (38 percent) are more loyal to their employers than any other generation including Gen X (34 percent) and baby boomers (32 percent).

It’s no surprise many companies are scrambling to readjust their workplaces to fit these workers’ needs. And we’re not just talking about funky ad agencies or futuristic tech companies. Take a certain straight-suited accounting company — Deloitte & Touche. It ranked No. 1 this month on BusinessWeek’s Best Places to Launch a Career list, beating out companies like Disney and Microsoft.

Mike Becher, managing partner of the Indianapolis office of Deloitte & Touche USA, explained it this way: “As these younger people have come on board, we have attempted to no longer make their expectations match our workplace but to make the workplace match their expectations.”

Young workers want to set a career path early that’s not necessarily a straight ladder up, he said. Maybe they take off a year or two to be with young children and then return. Maybe they want assignments that let them move around. Maybe they want to work from home two days a week. Deloitte is becoming, well, kind of cool. To recruit young people? It shows a rap video about office life.

Melissa Watson was lured to the company while at Indiana University. She isn’t disappointed after two years on the job.

“Deloitte really tries to meet the expectations of our generation,” said the 25-year-old audit senior.

Watson already has stepped into leadership positions on workplace committees and ventured out to colleges to help with recruiting.

Being more than just a pretty face is important to Gen Y. They want those leadership roles and they want to make a difference, said Max Valiquette, president of Youthography, a youth marketing and research company. They are not afraid to speak up. And they sure as heck are ready to bolt if a company doesn’t offer what they want.

Which could be something as simple as being allowed to text the boss when running late.