Generation Y that closely referred to as millennial is latest member in the multigenerational workforce. In fact they are the newest and the last members of the workforce, born between 1982 and 2003. Although they grew up with technology and never knew a time without mobile phones and the internet, they have some values held by traditionalists like patriotic and willing to fight for freedom. They often think in bullet points and are ravenous researchers. Speed is important and they prefer rapid feedback. Moreover, they perform best when their abilities are identified and matched with challenging work.

Until recently, companies all over the world have been wrestling with the challenge of attracting, managing and retaining the next generation of workers. Members of Generation Y have an incredible amount of talent but they also have incredibly high expectations about their work environment, growth opportunities and rate of advancement. To some extent, the recession has pushed this issue out of the spotlight as companies shift their focus to downsizing. The issue really has not gone away. Although there might be a near-term surplus of labor, good talent is always in short supply and in the future, more and more of that talent will come from Generation Y. Companies must step up and put their focus on Generation Y workers and cater to their needs. The other question is should they just dismiss the issues as just another generation gap that will eventually fade away. Generation Y is too big to ignore.

As a group, they are nearly as large as the baby boomers generation. As such, generation Y will make up an increasing part of your workforce. Generation Y has a lot to offer. They are confident, connected, optimistic and technical savvy. Generation Y would also be a growing part of your customer base and becoming increasingly influential factor that affects the buying process. We say that technology is becoming a critical factor for business success, on view of the fact that when these different workforces will work all together, the multi generational differences in attitudes, approaches, and styles related to work could create conflicts that in turn could considered as potential threats against reaching organizational goals. Besides, this situation will decrease or even destroy employee’s motivation, as we know motivation can be induced by the employer or reside within the employee and the key to motivating employees is remembering that not all employees are the same. In order to achieve motivation, managers must know each employee and must have a wide range of motivational techniques available, since each employee has a different set of values and personal experiences that brought them to where they are today. If management could come up with these actions, they could raise the organization towards its goals.

In addition, for most companies retaining talent and developing future leaders are organizational goals, hence to meet these goals, companies must understand the needs of today’s diverse workforces. Since failure to embrace these differences will result in not only having limited talent required for success, but also an employee population that is not engaged as they could be. Therefore, the level of engagement is critical to an organization’s overall activities. In this study, we have investigated about behavioral differences that could lead to diverse motivational levels, retention strategies in challenging labor shortage, and the effected of leadership to management style in that by knowing about these conditions, the organizations not only could prevent the failures that are more probable for them, but also could achieve their goals more rapidly. As such to be successful in managing generation Y, employers needs to know how to attract, retain and motivate these leaders of the future.

Literature Review

Generation Y has been deeply affected by several trends of the 1990s and 2000s: a renewed focus on children, family, scheduled and structured lives, multiculturalism, terrorism, heroism, patriotism, parent advocacy, and globalization. Coincidentally, Generation Y has been socialized with several core messages: be smart – you are special, leave no one behind, connected 24/7, achieve now, and serve your community (Raines, 2002). It tends to ignore traditional media and advertising channels, play video games, and watch DVDs rather than listed TV programming. Those in Generation Y tend to live with their parents before college, plan to return to their parents’ home after college, and are less at home in the real world than in the virtual world – in which they spend more than six hours a day online. As a consumer, Generation Y is likely to be independent and not brand loyal. Traditional at home, it tends to be nontraditional and sophisticated in the marketplace (Weiss, 2003).

Generation Y’s entrance in to the workplace would seem to present many opportunities in today’s ever-more competitive organizations in which high-performing workers are an asset, and demographic shifts point to impending labor shortages. Generation Y workers would seem to be a timely addition. They tend to be goal-oriented (Southard and Lewis, 2004) and interested in self-development and improvement. They are likely to have high expectations of personal and financial success, feel that hard work pays off, and have a get-it-done result-producing attitude (Breaux, 2003). They are inclined to plunge into work they find interesting and important even when they know little about it (Lewis, 2003).

Some of Generation Y’s characteristics may make it easier to manage than Gen X. Generation Y tends to value teamwork and fairness and is likely to be more positive than Gen X on a range of workplace issues including work-life balance, performance reviews, and availability of supervisor (What You Need to Know, 2003). Moreover, Generation Y descriptors include attributes predictive of high performance. Generation Y workers are inclined to he sociable, hopeful, talented, collaborative, inclusive, and civic-minded. In addition to being well educated and technically savvy, they tend to be open-minded, achievement-oriented, and able to work on parallel tasks (Raines, 2002). Cautiously they are optimistic and enthusiastic about their future. Generation Y is likely to have a solid work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit. At the same time, it tends to acknowledge and admire authority, especially Traditionalists. Strength, cooperation, energy, conformity, virtue, and duty tend to be among Generation Y’s values (Pekala, 2001).

Generation Y has a strong sense of company loyalty, is at least as satisfied with supervisors as are older workers, is as content as the others with the amount of praise received, and is as satisfied as the others with amount of vacation time and work flexibility or hours required. Additionally, Generation Y feels no more workplace stress than the other workers and is as satisfied as the others with retirement and health benefits (Saad, 2003).

At the same time, Generation Y’s entrance to the workforce seems to present some challenges. Although Generation Y workers tend to be more positive than Gen X about working in general, Generation Y tends to be less satisfied than Gen X with their jobs and employers. The survey described earlier in this paper pinpoints several dimensions of that dissatisfaction. Further, Generation Y is more open than Gen X to leaving for something better. Generation Y is likely to equate job satisfaction with a positive work climate, flexibility, and the opportunity to learn and grow more than any prior generation. Generation Y tends to have less respect for rank and more respect for ability and accomplishment. It is likely to trade more pay for work it feels is meaningful at a company where it feels appreciated (Alati, 2004). Generation Y tends to value respect and wants to earn it. Acknowledgement and freedom to perform as it finds best tend to matter to Generation Y, too (Dealing with Your New Generational Mix, 2004).

Additionally, Generation Y workers are likely to dislike menial work, lack skills for dealing with difficult people, and be impatient (Raines, 2002). Less than half of this youngest generation describe themselves as confident or prepared to enter the workforce. Their strong technical skills are not matched by strong soft skills such as listening, communicating, independent thinking, being a team player, and managing time (Pekala, 2001). Mercer Human Resource Consultant’s 2002 People at Work Survey found Generation Y rating employers lower than other employees do on being treated fairly, getting necessary cooperation from others, and having opportunity to do interesting and meaningful work (The Next Generation, 2003).

Moreover, Generation Y workers tend to look for instant gratification rather than long-term investments of time and effort (Southard and Lewis, 2004). In addition to demanding immediate rewards, they are likely to prefer special projects rather than “dues-paying chores.” They often prefer being given time off to receiving money; putting in face time tends to puts them off. Accustomed to coming, going, and staying as needed, and being involved when present, Generation Y workers tend to be constant negotiators and questioners. As one author describes it, “The forty hour workweek doesn’t apply . . and ‘how’ meetings become “why’ meetings”(Lewis, 2003). Intergenerational management expert Bruce Tulgan describes the resulting challenges of Generation Y workers this way: “Generation Y’ers are like X’ers on steroids. The