Understanding your people

Mark McCrindle was the keynote speaker at our second seminar in this year’s Whitehorse Business Series. Mark has undertaken extensive research on the impact of generational and demographic change in the workplace and helped us gain an insight into these changes.
We are all aware of the tight labour market. This is great news for employees but it represents a real challenge for employers. This is not an overnight phenomenon but is rather a long term reality. Australia’s population profile means that more people are exiting the workforce than are entering it.

Understanding your workforce

It is crucial therefore for every business to understand their workforce; what motivates them, what are they looking for and what is important for them. Although this is important for every generation in the workforce, it is especially relevant for Gen Y.

In 2006 McCrindle Research was commissioned to conduct research into Generation Y and their attitudes to work. The resultant paper entitled “New Generations at Work: Attracting, Recruiting, Retraining & Training Generation Ys” can be downloaded from the McCrindle web-site and is essential reading for every employer.

Attracting and retaining employees is one of the most important issues confronting business today. We would be pleased to share some of our insights and how this might help your business. If you would like to discuss how to improve your business’s ability to attract and retain staff, please talk to your client service manager.

Just to show that the challenge of understanding new generations is not new, Mark quotes Socrates (425 BC), “Children nowadays are tyrants - they gobble their food, contradict their parents, and tyrannise their teachers!”

Published : 18 August 2007