Management Innovation: Generation Y and Web 2.0

 

   The CIPD report on management innovation focuses specifically on HR responses to two unprecedented challenges that potentially require novel solutions: Gen Y, and Web 2.0.  They comment that "most organisations have not fully embraced the needs of Generation Y employees or the opportunities afforded by Web 2.0 technologies".

They also note that "there is a clear link between these two trends: Generation Y employees are more likely to be early users of Web 2.0 technologies as they are were brought up in the digital world, and they are the most avid users of social networking sites."  (What they don't seem to pick up on is that responding to Gen Y and Web 2.0 are also very related challenges - both enabling and requiring more collaborative approaches within organisations.)

The report includes a couple of examples such as Bytes Technology's bite-size training modules supported by rooms in which employees can practice their new skills at their convenience; Infosys' swap portal enabling employees to exchange jobs across locations; and Informa's use of Second Life to provide information on job functions, competencies and opportunities.

But the CIPD found that none of these practices were radically different to what had gone before.

A shame given the extent of the opportunities! (your can read more about these on my Social Business blog).

 

Technorati Tags: CIPD,Innovation in the Workplace,Generation Y,Web 2.0

The world may be flat but people are not

I've already posted on the need to personalise HR activities to each person in an organisation (or at least those identified as talent).

I'm just listening to a really great HCI webinar by Amy Finn at Saba (so this is my first live blog).

Great content and a great title which refers to the need for individuals of every generation to be recognised for what and who they are. Difficult when each generation requires different things (see slide).

I'm going to review the archive recording again, and will come back with a longer post after this.

The future of work

One of last month's most important pieces of writing was Business Week's articles on the future of work. Definitely worth reading.

Key findings:

1. An impossible 90% of respondents believe they're in the top 10% of performers (where does this leave the policy of robust feedback in performance management?).

2. The rise of the CEO's role as Casting Agent:

"You think "people are our greatest asset" is an overused bromide today, just wait. The talent war is only expected to worsen as boomers begin retiring en masse and emerging-markets managers remain scarce. CEOs who can retain the best people and deploy them adeptly will be hot commodities."

3. Young execs and managers are far less likely than their elders to put work first in their lives or to be content with their bosses (how quickly are organisations going to need to change in response? Disappointingly, not that much according to Business Week that sees the command and control focused Organisation Man in charge for some time to come).

But what's behind this one?

A higher proportion of younger people believe that employees get away with murder when they work from home, perhaps agreeing with Boris Johnson that working from home is a euphemism for sloth, apathy, staring out of the window and random surfing of the internet.

Why is it that a higher proportion of younger people feel this way? Any thoughts?

Social media and the case for asynchronous communication

SystematicHR comments in Asynchronous Communications, HR 2.0 and the Future of Work that we (at least pre-GenX and GenX workers) are very into real time communications.

"But the world and technology is increasingly lending itself to non-real-time conversations. GenY millennials are increasingly comfortable with conversations that span hours or days or longer. Ideas from these conversations hang around and tickle the backs of our brains until the become useful in some unexpected context."

I largely agree with the post. Even when we send an instant message or e-mail we know that a response may not come back immediately because the recipient is in a meeting or has other priorities. And debates in the blogosphere can develop over an extensive time period.

But I don't agree that asynchronous communication is that new. After all, when I started in consultancy 20 years ago, Partners still used to meet round the table to open their letters together every morning, looking for responses to their own letters, sent maybe a good week or so before!

In fact, if anything, I think business is demanding ever more real-time communication. The increasing use, and mis-use of blackberries is a good case in point. As Knowledge Infuser has commented in their post, Crackberry's: are you addicted?, the blackberry “shifts expectations of availability”:

"When everyone in a firm keeps a Blackberry as constant companion, the
temptation to send messages during evening and other downtime hours grows. There is “escalating commitment and dependence on the Blackberry, a spiral
of expectations and feeling constantly on call.” The work day simply has no
end."

This clearly is a problem. As Systematic notes, "real time transactions, while growing from a data perspective, are shrinking from a human perspective".

I agree with this point. Asynchronicity allows people to review content, think about their responses and publish worthwhile contributions. I certainly find I often need to think about other people's posts for a couple of days before I want to comment on them - so some of my posts do and will continue to comment on material that may seem rather dated to some.

And it's a reason why, although I want to continue to learn about and develop my practice in social media, I can't ever see myself being drawn to Twitter.