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Wednesday, 08 Feb 2012

Young People Predict the Future

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By Christopher Aesoph, MA

      If your organization isn’t fascinating to people in their 20s and 30s, watch out. The experience of younger employees is twice as likely to predict the company’s financial performance. In other words, high satisfaction ratings from employees in their twenties and thirties are more than twice as likely to predict solid financial performance, versus ratings from employees 40 and over.

This doesn’t mean we should put our veterans out to pasture, or that you shouldn’t care what your older employees think. It does mean that we need to pay close attention to the level of satisfaction and loyalty we generate in younger employees. If employees in their 20s and 30s are feeling flat in their roles, the bottom line will soon follow (From “Practice What You Preach” by David Maister).

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# Greg Guse 2010-06-23 05:29
This is especially true in the marketing communications industry. As our industry undergoes hyper-change, it's important that our next generation of leaders and managers are totally engaged as to where our business is heading. Keeping our younger staff enthused about our success certainly contributes to our financial performance and overall stability.
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# Chris A. 2010-07-04 10:07
Greg knows what he's talking about. He's president of Paulsen Marketing, one of the top ten agrimarketing firms in the USA. This company believes in their people, so much so that when they reach a productivity target, the entire company takes a Caribbean cruise. That does tend to keep people enthused. Keep up the good work Paulsen!
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# Bruce Johnsen 2010-06-24 16:17
Chris, you have provided an excellent contrarian thought for many older business owners and organizational leaders - paying more attention to the attitudes and opinions of youngsters in their work force. The need for that attention is so important! Thanks for reminding all of us.
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# Chris A. 2010-07-04 10:11
Bruce, I see many people worrying about coaxing retirees to keep working, and that makes sense to a point. What I don't see is enough attention being paid to developing the next generations. Part of the difficulty is understanding the next generation enough in order to trust that they will be able to carry on. Thanks for writing.

Bruce runs a consulting firm in California, and has helped many family businesses make generational handoffs.
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# Rob Cahill 2010-07-27 05:15
Chris, this is good food for thought, reflection -- and action. My own work experience... buttressed per my perspective as a parent of four offspring in their 20s... reinforces the credence of this caveat and prediction. In the same breath, I'm glad to see you include, "This doesn’t mean we should put our veterans out to pasture, or that you shouldn’t care what your older employees think." It's a both/and for me.
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# Chris A. 2010-07-27 05:38
Our generation used to complain that young people had no loyalty--that they could walk away from a job without a word and find other work in five minutes. Since things have shifted, some of them can't find work at all. Parents have to stay patient and supportive, because some of our young people have never experienced anything like this before. Let's help them keep a good perspective. Great to hear from you.
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