Articles

Generations shift - a new challenge for the local HR market

by Irina Ivan 

Starting with 2008, the Romanian labor market entered an era of change determined by an infusion of a new kind of workforce. As of the last year, the first generations born after the '89 turning point are ready to enter the labor market. Barely visible until now, the phenomenon will grow deeper in the years to come. And its effects as well.

The major change that the newcomers will bring on the labor market is tied to their acquaintance of the new communications technologies, as well as to their unrestrained access to information. They are the generation that grew up with the new technologies in their hands. From this point of view, they are an equivalent of the Y generation in the Western world. But from the timing perspective, they are the successors of the Y generation - the Z's. Time it's just one of the gaps between the generations that live simultaneously in the Western and Eastern European space.

First used in an Ad Age editorial in 1993 to describe the teenagers born between 1974 and 1980, "Y generation" term has known a lot of changes in meaning since then. Today, there are still no certitudes regarding the time limits of this generation, but it is commonly accepted that the main feature of its members (also called Millenials, Net Generation, N-Gen, Generation NeXt or "NeXters," Generation 2000, Hip-hop Generation, the Digital Generation, the Explorers, generation.com or Generation WHY) is the fact that they grew up at the same time with the new technologies. Initially used to define the American young generation, the term Y Generation has fast expanded to all West European countries and finally started to be used globally.

In Eastern Europe, Generation Y is defined as the first generation without mature memories of Communism or dictatorship. But unlike their fellows from the Occident, the members of our Y generation cannot praise themselves with evolving along with the technology, but rather with catching up with it.

Alongside with the infusion of the Hi-Tech skilled young people, the Romanian labor market will also witness an outlining and enhancing of its main body. At this moment and for a long time from now on, the specialists, the Middle and, in some cases, even the Top Management positions are held by people born between ‘70/'75 and ‘80/'85. These generations are fundamentally different from the ones that are coming, with a mix of characteristics that are not going to be ever retrieved. How are they behaving in the workplace? What are their priorities and their goals? What makes them happy and what are they intolerant to? How can their employers get the best out of them? These are all questions that can be answered by taking a look at their cultural and social background.

Beyond the individual traits determined by each one's personality and life conditions there is a set of common attitudes and characteristics of people born during a time span with similar political, social and cultural features. According to the sociologists, each generation is defined by major historical events. For example, there is no doubt that for the generation of the Baby Boomers (born between 1945 and 1956) the defining moment was the Second World War. In the case of the Y generation, the difficulty of identifying a path in their behavior comes also from the lack of an event of such an importance. Also, from psychological point of view, it is said that a generation's dominant traits are formed when its members are early teenagers - 11 to 13 years old. This is when children tend to shift their attention from figuring out how tangible objects work to making sense of the events they see in the world around them. This is when they start dealing with concepts and ideas, fitting the pieces together, working out in their own minds what matters and having some idea of how their life could look like.

If in the Occident, nothing seems to have influenced more the young generations, besides the technological boom, the Eastern Europe and Romania maybe more than the rest of this area, is not poor in events with a huge impact on people's lives. Definitely what made a difference for the people that form today the main body of the Romanian workforce was the fall of the communism in '89. Another thing these generations share is the fact that they were born within a demographic experiment. In '66, a Decree banning the abortions was being adopted for the increase of the birth rate. As an effect, in only three years, 1,5 million babies were born. For this reason, people born after '66 are labeled as the Romania's baby boomers or "decreţei" (children of the Decree).

Commenting on a survey on the main features of three generations (Baby Boomers, X, Y), conducted by BBDO Worldwide in 18 countries, Marian Preda, the deputy dean of the Sociology Faculty of Bucharest University thinks that, for the Romanian space, we cannot talk about a delimitation between the X and Y generation, because they experienced similar life conditions: they were educated in an overcrowded and breaking down system, they entered the labor market during tough times and they could not buy houses anymore. According to him, these generations are extremely unlucky, the unluckiest after those born in 1922 - 1923 and during the Second World War.

Born and spending the first part of their life during two of the harshest decades of the history, the baby boomers of Romania were there to provide the support that the new realities of the capitalism required in terms of workforce, after ‘89.They were the first entrepreneurs, the first who experienced the private work environment, the first who freely went to work abroad, the first who worked in multinationals. Their attitudes at and towards work are influenced by the freedom they enjoyed after the fall of the communism, but also by the memories they keep from the first years of their life. Let's review the way life felt for the generations born from the early 70's until the middle of the 80's during communism and early transition an the impact that these experiences had on their perceptions on the work life, later on:

• As children and teenagers, they endured severe privations (anyone from these generations recalls the hard time their parents had in finding basic food and goods, the queues they had to put up with in order to buy something or the daily electricity break offs). The consequences are their full surrendering to the consumerism and their quest for wealth. People from these generations assess their jobs depending on the possibility to get access not only to a decent life, but to a high level of comfort or even luxury. Given the importance they attach to the financial incentives, they do not see any problem in shifting jobs frequently and their loyalty is highly questionable. But the same need for a wealthy life is the reason why they are deeply anchored in their professions, leading their life upon the principle "Career first and all the rest secondly".

• Being formed in an education system that, for years, did not know any update to the social and economic needs, they turned into very fast learners, who value and take advantage of any opportunity to learn. Trainings, internships, participation in events where they can acquire new knowledge, on the expense of the employers, are benefits that make the members of these generations tick.

• The external policy of isolation carried on by Romania during the last two decades of the communism and the lack of circulation freedom for its citizens led to an increasing interest of today's young people in traveling abroad. That's why trainings will be more appreciated, if they are to take place abroad. As a result of the restraints to travel from the past, people from these generations, also encouraged by the older people around them who did not enjoy this freedom, invest a lot in their vacations outside the country and therefore they will value the opportunity to take off the time they need for traveling for leisure.

• As a reaction to the censorship specific to communism, they appreciate workplaces that provide full disclosure and fairness and they become very critical and demotivated when they don't feel encouraged to express their opinions. They also resent being watched every move they make, associating these practices with the old regime.

• Evolving slowly but steady is no longer a reliable career model. People born in the above mentioned time slot lack the patience to build their career step by step. They want to skip the entry level of their career (a trend that is intensifying as time goes by) and instant reward and gratification, totally ignoring that benefits come after and in accordance with their performance. 

In few words, Marian Preda defines the generations born during the last two decades of the communism as anxious, stressed, ambitious, but skeptical and lacking the positive attitude that the older and younger generations have. The great add-ons that they bring to the organizations they work for as well as their weaknesses come from their tendency to cover for everything they were deprived of during childhood and teen-age. They definitely lack the rich package of technological know-how that the younger generations will bring on the labor market, but they have a much higher level of emotional intelligence, with all the advantages that comes from it: intuition, high involvement in their work, creativity, risk taking attitude and most of all responsiveness to emotional leadership. 

Resources:

Bercea, Maria; Sofronie, Raluca (2008), Varstele Romaniei de astazi, http://www.adevarul.ro

Erickson, Tammy (2008), Welcome to the Post Y Generation,  http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/erickson/2008/07/welcome_the_new_generation_the.html

NAS Recruitment Communications, Generation Y: the Millenials. Ready or not, here they come (2006), _{www.nasrecruitment.com/talenttips/NASinsights/GenerationY.pdf}