《文化对比阅读》(上) Unit 10--New Generations 5. Gen Y One Size Does not Fit All at the Office.docVIP

Gen Y: One Size Does not Fit All at the Office Ronald Alsop To recruit millennials, employers should tout their leadership development programs, putting these desirable but impatient young people on the management fast track. Right? Well, that’s certainly the conventional wisdom about the generation of workers born in the 1980s and 1990s. And that would indeed be the right way to go in some countries such as France, where half of the millennials in a recent global survey said attaining a leadership position is very important. But not so much in Sweden and Norway, where only 20% of Swedes and 15% of Norwegians said they value becoming leaders. Of course, attitudes about work and career goals will differ, but it turns out the millennial generation is even more complex than one might expect. In an extensive new study of more than 16,000 millennials in 43 nations, consulting firm Universum and the INSEAD business schools Emerging Markets Institute found surprising generational disparities across countries within the same region. Based on such studies, as well as their own experiences, corporate recruiters are realising that this group of young people isn’t nearly as homogeneous as they once suspected. Most multinational employers create a global recruiting strategy, but now, some are wisely beginning to customise their messages country by country to stress what’s most relevant to the local population. In addition to differences in millennials’ career priorities, recruiters are factoring in historical and cultural influences, as well as a country’s stage of economic development. “We are setting up internal recruitment teams in various countries to tailor our employee value proposition,〞 said Roberto Blanda, head of global talent acquisition at British American Tobacco (BAT). “It’s a challenging marketing job to find the right formula to attract local talent, but doing it well can really make a difference.〞 Stability? Or competitive spirit? In Russia, BAT found that the