New Generations: Attracting, Developing and Retaining Top Talent

There's a HUGE difference between thinking about "engagement dynamics" like attraction, development and retention - and thinking about "dynamic engagement" … it's a whole different ball game. Dynamic engagement represents the shift in thinking organisations need in order to be talent-competitive into the future.

So, for something different, here is a presentation I delivered at the "ABC of XYZ" new generations conference, put on by the good guys and girls at McCrindle Research, in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, August 2010.

Click here

The presentation explores the critical role innovative 'development' programs play in the attraction and retention of top talent. Furthermore, examples of innovative 'next generation' talent development programs are outlined. it's all about "dynamic engagement" … enjoy!

Warm regards,

Josh Mackenzie

Develop new leaders, faster.

Graduates in their 2^nd year of work who are looking to develop themselves further are not craving time management, team work and problem solving skills workshops. They want to move beyond ‘basic skills’ to ‘leadership-oriented’ skills. So what are we doing about it?

In the AAGE’s recent Graduate Development and Retention Survey for 2010, 1,754 graduate in Australia were asked what areas they wanted further education. Here were the top 10 results:

1. Technical Skills specific to my career: 45%
2. Business Knowledge: 45%
3. Industry and Business Knowledge: 40%
4. Influence and Negotiation Skills: 38%
5. Project Management: 34%
6. Analytical Skills: 33%
7. People Management: 31%
8. Relationship Building: 26%
9. Knowledge of Business Etiquette: 24%
10. Conflict Resolution: 24%

Leadership-oriented skills like these are what many top graduates are looking for. Not surprisingly; young, fresh new leaders are what many businesses are looking to their graduate programs to provide.

So my question is this:

Why not focus on these “leadership-oriented” skills in their 1^st year? Why wait?

The answer is because many 1^st year graduate development programs are too focused on ‘basic skills’ like time management, team work and problem solving amongst others. This means that leadership-oriented skills like those listed above often get held back until year 2 or 3 … or just get left out all together!

Here’s an idea … if the industry could find a way to effectively and efficiently empower graduates to self-teach the ‘basic skills’ BEFORE they arrived on day 1, wouldn’t it make sense to then focus graduate development programs on ‘leadership-oriented’ skills from that point onwards?

Let’s get a little clever and think carefully about this.

Employers recruit grads because they're smart, switched on and keen. Most 'basic skills' can be self taught with the right tools in the right environment by people who are … wait for it … smart, switched on and keen!

What’s more, an average 6 month gap between when most grads accept their job offers and when they actually start the following year could be a perfect window of time to provide them with self-teach tools to do it.

They’d turn up on day one job ready with the basic skills under their belt, and your entire graduate development program is 1 year ahead of schedule. Now you can develop new leaders, faster.

A focus on leadership development from the outset is already happening with some leading employers and it is fast becoming best practice in the industry. Why? Because it simply speeds up how quickly businesses see a return on their graduate programs in terms of creating a pool of new leaders … and does so because it invests limited training budgets in skill areas that provide more ‘bang for their buck’ long term.

Stop Training Graduates. Start Developing Leaders. Now there's an idea …

On a beautiful beach in the far flung north of Maui in Hawaii, just last week and on my honeymoon (ahh heaven), it hit me like a brick wall.

No, I hadn’t just snorkeled my head in to a wall of coral. It was a thought not so tropical, but definitely topical. (ooh, did you like that?)

As leadership teams and businesses look at plans and budgets for their 2011 graduate development programs, getting maximum return on investment is #1.

So, what is considered 'return on investment' for graduate development programs? What is 'return' REALLY all about?

Here are some Maui-inspired thoughts. By the way … I didn't have an under-water pen and pad on me at the time and it was too deep to write in the sand on the ocean floor, so I'll do my best to remember my thinking…

1) ROI from graduate development programs is really about providing a workforce-appropriate funnel of high performing, job ready YOUNG LEADERS.

2) ROI is not about improved business etiquette, time management and written communication skills.

3) Assessing ROI requires something to assess against that fits the ideal competencies, culture and expectations of the leadership teams making the investment.

Here’s an idea, a mindset, a theory, that leading graduate employers are latching on to …

STOP RUNNING GRADUATE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS.

Oh my god! Did I just say that? Really? Well, yes! Seriously, why develop graduates to be great graduates? That not what most businesses want! They want young leaders.

START RUNNING YOUNG LEADER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS.

Across the industry, let’s get smarter and even more strategic about how we use our graduate development budgets in 2011 to give our businesses what they want from us. Many basic skills can be learned well enough by reading 3 best-selling books, or watching a series of short online videos on the subject and being coached by a manager on the job to apply new skills. They don't require full day workshops.

Lets innovate highly cost effective ways to deliver basic skill development that doesn’t soak up time and budget, and leave a greater share of the pie to invest in actual leadership development.

Let's invest instead in developing real leadership behaviours in young people to give organisations their ideal funnel of workforce-appropriate, high performing, job ready YOUNG LEADERS. That is maximum ROI.

If on the other hand, a graduate development program is really about producing a production line of young monkeys, then obviously I’m wrong. I take it all back and shall return to my beach in the far flung north of Maui and shut up.

Actually … that sounds good … call me wrong ... go on … please!

Josh Mackenzie

Managing Director - Australia

Development Beyond Learning

Why Abbott's plan for Govt graduate recruitment is completely flawed and what we should do instead.

An article has been floating around the graduate recruitment industry this week in light of Tony Abbott's 2010 budget reply. It regards freezing graduate recruitment in the Australian Public Service (APS) for 2 years should the coalition be elected this year.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/051710-abbot...ts-public-sector-hiring-freeze.html

If the goal is cost reduction across the APS, Tony Abbott's plan for APS graduate recruitment is completely flawed.

I understand any government will need to take drastic measures to claw back the debt coming out of the GFC (or Labor's time in government, depending on your views) ... however freezing the very talent pipeline that provides the APS with some of its highest quality people (young graduates) for 2 years will INCREASE costs in the APS long term, not reduce them.

Freezing graduate recruitment in the APS for 2 years will:

1) Compound the massive LEADERSHIP GAP across the entire APS over the next 5-10 years as the ageing APS workforce retires on mass. More than 70% of the Senior Executive Service (SES) are aged 45 or more and will be looking towards retirement in that time. As they retire, there will be no-one to replace them. (MAC Report, “Managing and sustaining the APS workforce”)

2) Compound the massive SKILLS SHORTAGE contributed to by retention issues and career progression expectations in graduates. 62% of graduates in their first year of working in the service expect to leave within 3 years. (AAGE Development and Retention Survey, 2009) Not only will a certain percentage of graduates continue to move, they will not be replaced. Any sector needs to plan for natural attrition and will pay down the track if they don’t.

3) Majorly damage the graduate employer brands APS departments and agencies have spent the past 10 years or more building ... the employer brands that today attract the best of the best graduate talent from all over Australia and will take another 10 years to rebuild. The same challenge major firms and IT companies faced when they froze graduate programs after the dot.com bust and 9/11 in 2001 and arguably, have only recently recovered from.

The solution to cutting people costs in the APS is not to freeze graduate recruitment. That's the last thing the APS should be doing.

With all due respect to the many thousands of 45+ year old APS employees who have served our country for so many years, the people cost is in those in the ageing workforce who no-longer want to be there.

The solution to cutting people costs is to let those in the ageing APS workforce who want retire, to retire. APS statistics show retirement number will be large in the next 5-10 years anyway. We should replace them, as well as as reduce people costs, through ongoing, structured programs involving:

1) Increasing graduate recruitment over the next 5-10 years, year on year;

2) Ensuring the ageing workforce, particularly leaders and managers, are trained, inspired and rewarded for leading, mentoring and passing down decades of knowledge and experience to graduates as they move through the ranks in their first 5 years, before 70% retire in the next 5-10 years.

3) Accepting that embracing new graduates and fresh young talent consistently over the next 10 years WILL close the leadership gap, reduce the skills shortage and position the APS well to maintain the positive graduate employer brand it has built. As a result, improving the organisational culture, effectiveness and cost structure of the APS long term.

And if that's not enough, the argument is simple.

In order to best serve the Australian people and be the best APS it can be, which is what the APS exists for, shouldn’t we continue to give the APS access to our country’s best young people so they can do that?

Leading and Managing Gen Y - is it still an issue?

The evidence suggests “yes”.

Take the government sector as an example. We have been chosen (and we’re honoured!) to partner with the Australian Public Service Commission to deliver a full day program called: Leading, engaging and retaining generation Y graduates and emerging talent.

The first program has sold out. Seven major federal government departments are involving their graduate managers and supervisors because the issue is very real.

And the corporate sector has shown similar signs.

In fact, even approaching the height of the global downturn in late 2008, 61% of CEOs reported still having enormous difficulty in attracting and retaining Generation Y graduates (“Millennials at work: Perspectives from a new generation” PwC).

As the Australian economy improves and our relatively low unemployment rate of 5% stabilises, power will shift back towards the employee and young people will regain confidence, high expectations and new choices between jobs and careers. Educated graduates will again lead the charge and leadership will continue to matter.

From over 100 surveys of more than 40,000 participants conducted by McCrindle Research, 42% of Generation Y respondents reported that poor leadership and management was the main reason for leaving their previous role. (Mark McCrindle, The ABC of XYZ – Understanding Global Generations).

So is the solution to teach your leaders and managers the “Generation Y” mindset to better lead, manage and retain your graduates?

I don’t think so. Generational segmentation was designed (and is very useful) for things like marketing and workforce planning. Not for leadership. It’s all about how to lead and manage the individual.

One part of the solution is to help your leaders and managers to adopt the Multi-Generational Mindset.

The Multi-Generational Mindset appreciates generational influences but cuts through generational paradigms and assumptions by focusing on the individual’s needs.

The Multi-Generational Mindset:
* Inspires you to appreciate external influences on generational groups;
* Challenges you to rethink generational paradigms when leading and managing people;
* Develops 'behavioural flexibility' as a key still of the multi-generational leader;
* Equips you to tap into the values, styles and motivators of individuals, not their generations;
* Empowers you to better appreciate, lead and inspire people of any generation.

The more keynote talks I give to leaders and managers about the Multi-Generational Mindset and the more our team works with them in leadership development programs, the more evidence we find of this.

Helping leaders reframe their thinking about generations to adopt a Multi-Generational Mindset leads to stronger relationships, stronger coaching and mentoring and increased on-the-job development of their people.

And with this, everybody wins. The business wins because they get more bang for their buck from their people. The program manager wins because senior leadership sees they’re adding even more value to the business.

People win because they now find themselves working with more managers who are better leaders, more of the time.

So is leading and managing Generation Y still an issue? Yes. Adopting the Multi-Generational Mindset is a big part of the solution.

How could your leaders and managers also benefit from developing the Multi-Generational Mindset?


Warm Regards,

Josh Mackenzie
Keynote Speaker
Director, Development Beyond Learning

The Multi-Generational Leader

Post GFC, generational gaps continue to CLOSE.

Regardless of when we were born, we’re all looking for the same things from our leaders. Nothing has changed. Skills, behaviours, and values are breaking down traditional ‘generational’ lines and making generations similar in many ways. No longer can we make assumptions about Gen Y, Gen X and the Baby Boomers.

An example of this change lives in the use of social networking tools:

* The average age of a Linked-In user is 41 years old;

* 33% of Twitter users are more than 40 years old;

* 40% of MySpace users are 35 to 55 years old;

* The fastest growing demographic of Facebook users is women over 55 years old.

Where once the social networking world was dominated by the very young, that is no longer so.

What other assumptions no longer hold true? If traditional ‘generational’ lines are fading, do we assume we need to lead people from different generations, differently?

The truth is that regardless of generation, what is required from us as leaders is the same.

Behavioural flexibility is crucial for leaders to adapt to the individual diversity of skills, behaviours, influences and values in today’s teams. As leaders, we’re being challenged to reframe the assumptions we make about Gen Y, Gen X and the Baby Boomers in our teams.

What does this mean for how you lead, coach and communicate with your team members?

Explore 9 leadership capabilities here:

http://www.dblearning.biz/Graduates_Leader.html

Josh Mackenzie

Director, Speaker and Author

Development Beyond Learning

Demands Drive Innovation in Graduate Development

As grad programs kick off this month, employers are placing heavier-than-ever demands on graduate development programs to bring the greatest possible value to the organisation. Which makes this an exciting time. Demands are driving innovation and the employers who embrace them will benefit for years to come.

At DBL, our team is inspired about 3 strategies we’re seeing adopted in graduate development programs that will create value for organisations into the future. The great news is that each one is flexible to fit your program size, budget and organisational culture:

1) Individualise each graduate’s development to ensure relevance to each graduate’s development needs and application back in the business. Do this through using development assessments, one-on-one coffee coaching before and after each intervention, flexibility for a graduate to choose paths or streams of training within your program based on their development needs ... (the list goes on!);

2) Blend multiple delivery formats to get better bang for your buck and allow some individualisation in a tailored program that fits your business. This might mean adopting a non-traditional approach that mixes interactive online modules, individual coaching, group mentoring, workshops, practical business projects and individual challenges back in the business over the length of your graduate program. Get creative.

3) Embed senior leaders and managers into the fabric of your development program to expose graduates to their leaders, build strong relationships, and increase the chances of application of new knowledge and skills back in the business. Expose, expose, expose.

To discuss how we might be able to help you in your graduate development program, please get in touch.

Explore 9 Graduate Development Capabilities for your program here:
http://www.dblearning.biz/Graduates_program.html

Josh Mackenzie
Director, Speaker and Author
Development Beyond Learning

Help your 2010 graduates stand out from the crowd

In 2002, as a brand new graduate at a professional services firm a successful leader of the organisation passed on some invaluable career advice ...

http://www.careerone.com.au/news-advice/graduates/accounting-financial-services-graduates/stand-out-from-the-crowd-20100209

Regards,
Josh

Best Practice Graduate Development Strategies – Running Workshops for Gen Y Grads

Aas the new year rolls ahead, and graduate programs get under way, here are 5 simple best practices to consider in designing the content and delivery of graduate workshops and sessions.

Use these when you need to deliver sessions yourself or when you are reviewing sessions being run by your team or by external providers to make sure you are always striving for best practice.

And remember: getting good at communicating and training Generation Y will help to get good at commnicating and training anyone, from any generation.

1. Authenticity is king

Being ‘real’ is the first step to establishing credibility, rapport and an environment conducive to learning and growth. The greatest communicators on the planet are so because they’re authentic. Open up, be yourself and show your true colours. Yes you are representing your company, but you are also representing yourself. Grads want to know who you are, so relax and show them who you are using personal stories, experiences and your own authentic style.

2. Keep it moving

Attention spans are shrinking because finger-tip access to multiple information and stimulus points is normal. For exmple, over 100,000,000 videos are watched on Youtube every day and the average length is just 2 ½ minutes! That’s a lot of short videos being watched. Where possible, design your session in small blocks of time that are an average of 10-12 mins. This will help you keep their attention and keep it moving.

3. Learn from Facebook

People of all generations spend an enormous amount of time on Facebook. 45% of users are dominated by Generation X and Baby Boomers and 100,000,000people log in every single day. Why? Because the people behind Facebook realise that to engage people of all ages they must provide multiple delivery methods, and they do it really well ... photo’s, games, videos, live chat, profiles, links, articles, events, groups, the list goes on. Engaging grads in a workshop is similar ... music, videos, games, discussions, stories, activities, the possibilities go on. Create an environment that engages your grads by using multiple delivery methods.

4. WIIFM?#@!

Be deliberate about communicating the WIIFM factor (What’s In It For Me) early in your session and throughout. With this generation’s reputation for disregarding authority, your grads may not assume that just because you are training them on a subject that it is actually important. Crazy, I know, as if you have time to be doing anything that isn’t important (!). Directly link whatever you are delivering to what they think is important to them. Sell it up. Make it clear and make it obvious. Not only will they listen more but it will increase their chances of putting it in to action.

5. Don’t disengage the other 75%

There is a 25% chance you will disengage 75% of your audience if you design your content and delivery through your own personality style only. It’s widely recognised in many personality tools that there are 4 broad personality groups and this impacts how people process information. So, when you have designed your session, go back through it and ensure your content and delivery will speak to all 4 broad personality styles. For example, some grads will want clear results, outcomes and actions from your session above anything else. Others will need interaction, fun and a chance to talk in order to participate. Some grads will want process, stability and predictability in order to learn. While other grads will want statistics, expertise and logic in your session in order to trust. Ensure you build your content and delivery to engage everyone.

Best Practice Graduate Development Strategies – Equipping Your Leaders

If there was one thing that made a difference to my personal experience as a graduate in a large multi-national company, it was the quality of leaders I was exposed to and built strong relationships with. The same can be said for the graduates we work with at Development Beyond Learning (www.dblearning.biz).

Given that 10% of learning happens in the classroom, 20% through coaching and mentoring and 70% on the job, this is no surprise. It is fair to say your leaders heavily influence up to 90% of your graduate’s development. That’s huge!

Often graduate program ‘briefing sessions’ for managers and leades are heavily relied on to equip managers to play the crucial role they play in graduate development programs. But they’re not enough.

Partnering with numerous graduate development programs across an array of industries and employers, we have helped many employers embrace this very challenge.

Here are 5 cost-effective ways you can help your leaders realise the crucial role they play, and equip them to play it well.

1) Refresh your leaders on leading and managing Generation Y

Approaching the height of the global downturn in late 2008, 61% of CEOs reported having enormous difficulty in attracting and retaining Generation Y graduates (“Millennials at work: Perspectives from a new generation” PwC). As economic conditions improve in Australia, your leader’s ability to lead and manage Generation Y will again play a huge role in attracting, developing and retaining your best graduates. Consider delivering cost-effective presentations, half day workshops or online training modules to rotation managers and business unit leaders, as refresher courses on what it takes to get the most from Gen Y graduates in the post-GFC world.

2) Train grads and leaders on building relationships with each other

97% of Gen Y respondents value a leadership style that involves empowerment, consultation and partnership and would leave if they did not get it. In fact, 42% of Generation Y respondents reported that poor leadership and management was the main reason for leaving their previous role. (Mark McCrindle; The ABC of XYZ – Understanding Global Generations). Lay the foundations for strong relationships between graduates and their coaches, mentors and leaders by bringing them together. Deliver workshops where both groups attend, use a behavioural profiling tool such as DiSC, MBTI or PerformanSe to help them better understand how to communicate and work together and place equal responsibility on both the graduate and the leader to make it happen. Focus on setting clear expectations, communication channels and review mechanisms. This is a powerful, relevant and short session for induction or within the first 90 days of your graduate program.

3) Coaches and Mentors - allocation by design

From 4,271 Generation Y graduates across 44 countries, 98% of respondents rated access to strong mentors as very important (“Millennials at work: Perspectives from a new generation” PwC). Think carefully about the structure of your support network for graduates. To have buddies, line managers, coaches, mentors, graduate liaisons and graduate managers is great so long as there is a clear structure, roles and responsibilities for all involved. Think deliberately about how you allocate coaches and mentors to ensure the appropriate match that will both support and challenge each graduate to grow.

4) Structured coffee coaching

In designing your graduate development program, build in 20-30 min coffee coaching meetings between graduates and their line managers immediately following development interventions such as workshops. The focus should be to review the 3 things the graduate will apply back in the business. Do the same in the week or so leading up to the next development intervention to prepare. It won’t happen every time for every graduate, but even if there was a 20% increase in the frequency of these catch-ups, you will increase the return on your program back in the business. Communicate it up front to grads and their managers and re-iterate it throughout the program as an important strategy.

5) Expose, Expose, Expose

Use every development intervention in your graduate development program as an opportunity to expose your grads to your leaders, and your leaders to your grads. Consider how you might build time in to each workshop or event to achieve this and get creative – don’t just rely on a formal CEO address during induction! How can you design face-time between leaders and grads during workshops? How can you use case studies of your leaders within your program content? How can you design practical activities, such as business case projects, that require grads to meet and interact with leaders? Expose, expose, expose!