By OMONDI AKURE
The twenty-first century has come with sweeping changes. Chief among these changes is on the demographics. Somehow, today’s typical young man or woman is more independent than his 20th century counterpart. He would like “to do his thing,” where his counterpart in the 20th century was ready to receive orders.
On dressing, your guess is as good as mine. Just as they would not like to be told what to do, today’s young people would not like to be lectured on what to dress.
They are not just out there in discothèques and cinema halls; they are also in the workplaces. Should employers compel them to toe the line and dress well pressed suits and ties, speak in Queen’s English, or unilaterally take orders from their superiors?
Recently, when announcing the release of Deloitte’s report, Top Ten Global Workplace Trends, 2015, Deloitte East Africa CEO Sammy Onyango cracked the ribs of a gathering of Human Resource executives when he said that should they interview a job applicant and find that the applicant can only speak in Sheng, they should not be quick to dismiss him.
“You never know, some of the sheng speakers are the ones who will be able to speak well with the customers,” noted Onyango. In other words, who is best placed to interact with the huge number of people who feel like “doing their thing”? It is certainly those who think and feel like them.
“It is about responding to the market. If the market acts in a certain way, organizations should align their workplace practices accordingly. If you go to an agricultural environment you should dress like a farmer,” he said.
Mr Onyango noted that customers’ needs underpin a company’s strategy. “Do not start managing unless you are sure you have the right people,” said Onyango.
Mellineal is the term that is used to describe this new independent and self-conscious demographic group. Most experts describe a millennial as a person reaching adulthood around the year 2000. However, although several studies put mellineal birth dates between 1980 and 1995, it can extend up to 2004.
Mellineals, or Generation Y, have different traits from their predecessors- Generation X and the Baby Boomers. They are said to have a high level of confidence and tolerance. Also, they have a sense of entitlement and narcissism.
A 2014 research by the American research firm Pew Research Centre found that millennials in adulthood tend to be “detached from institutions and networked with friends.”
Human Resource experts have attributed Mellineals’ distinct behaviours, and values to the technological and economic implications of the Internet. According to Sammy, there are about 20 million people who are using the Internet-and especially the social media. One of the raging debates has been on whether or not organizations should restrict the use of the social media at the workplace.
Onyango concedes that there are both positives and negatives on the social media. “However, the social media has more positives than negatives,” he said. Onyango advised employers to keep engaging employees on the social media as most people are on the social media.
Deloitte’s report, found that mellineals now make half of the workforce. Their expectations, read the report in part, are vastly different from those of the previous generations. They expect accelerated responsibility and paths to leadership.
Global tech firm, Google, is perhaps one of the organizations to have aptly tapped into the distinct traits of millennials. “The Mellineals do not like a command structure. And Google gives them just what they want-freedom to share their ideas. In our weekly all-hands (“TGIF”) meetings—not to mention over email or in the cafe—Googlers ask questions directly to Larry, Sergey and other execs about any number of company issues,” said David Radcliffe’s who is in charge of creating the perfect work environment at Google.
An article on CBS NEWS noted that there is a mix of work and play at Google’s workplace. “Casual collisions are what we try and create in the work environment. You can’t schedule innovation, you can’t schedule idea generation and so when we think our facilities around the world we’re really looking for little opportunities for engineers or for creative people to come together,” said Radcliffe.
Moreover, Google has some rooms for creative people. They include ski gondolas in the Zurich office, a pub-like meeting room in Dublin, and sidewalk cafe in Istanbul.
The tech firm also has what is known as a conference space. The idea behind the conference space is to let employees own “their individual space, be as creative as possible” without necessarily getting in their way.
For persons such as Googlers who are super-busy trying to come up with tech solutions, taking a nap to re-invigorate the brain is critical-hence a nap pod. “No workplace is complete without a nap pod. We found that the five-to 15-minute power nap, works on Sunday before you watch the football game, why not here at work?” wondered Radcliffe.
One might think such casualness as explained by Radcliffe an exaggeration. But it is not. Fred Karisa – a Kenyan – after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, having studied Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, joined Google for a year-long internship program. He was part of the team that helped build Google Maps.
Karisa-who later moved to Sony and worked there for four years, as the head user experience – says working for Google was exciting as “you could go to your office in your casual clothes.”
At Google, he also met smart people who wanted to do things- “people who would like to make things happen,” adding that Google never restrained anyone from putting forward their ideas. One is put in an environment where you think of things and they happen. “There are no boundaries, even financial boundaries. If the idea is good the organization will fund it,” he says.
“You would find a lot of inspiration in how their organization structure has been developed.” At Google, he says, “There is no boss per se. You are peers just trying to deliver the same thing”.
Our high bureaucratic organizational structures, Karisa says, are constraining our innovation. This is totally unlike the way such global powerhouses like Google and Sony operate.
The Kenya Human Capital Trends, 2015, report says that of the 43 organizations surveyed on the 10 major talent challenges, 93 percent ranked culture and engagement as the greatest concern. This was also reflected on the global firms. “Lack of employee engagement is the number one Human Capital challenge facing organisations today,” said Senior Manager at Delloite East Africa, Debbie Hollis.
“Despite recognising the costly bottom-line impact of disengaged employees, majority of organisations are still failing to take action to improve their culture, potentially jeopardizing their future growth,” she added.
The Deloitte report notes that companies that managed their culture out-performed their peers, with stock prices escalating by 90.1 percent for companies that invested in their culture, compared to 7.4 percent of their counter-parts that disregarded the parameter.
Some organizations are taking cue. The Managing Director for Kenya Orient, Muema Muindi, knows how important it is to fully engage your employees -especially the young employees that he has. He has heard his young employees complain about the need to put on ties even when it is hot.
And that is why, very soon, Kenya Orient will be the first financial organization to allow employees to go to work without ties. Muema says that his workforce’s average age is 28. This age group, he acknowledges, do not like the traditional formal, top-bottom work environment.
“Our workforce’s average age is 28 years so we also have to look at it from their perspective. For us we are thinking: ‘It is not such a big deal when you are working and you have a tie.’ We are just trying to make the work environment less tight, a lot more easy and enjoyable,” said Muema.
