Social Media and the Gen Y

Are we tweeting, creating Facebook pages or connecting with the world through the social networking websites?

Organisations throughout the world have acknowledged the fact that the generation Y has entered the workforce and these are the employees who as we all say always ask ‘Y’. These are the employees who want to grow very fast in the organisation and earn a lot of money. These are unlike the Gen X people who were contented with what they were getting and grew steadily in the organisation. However, these out of box thinkers and entrepreneurial mindset employees want to become the CXO’s of the organisations in a short span of time. Are the organisations gearing themselves up to match the aspirations of such employees or are they allowing them to increase their turnover (attrition).

Today the Gen Y will spend at least 2-3 hours daily on either Facebook or Twitter. One comment about anything in the world will spread like fire over these networking sites. If Facebook is a country, it is now the third largest country in the world. Today, not many organisations are leveraging on this fact. They should know that any good comment or a status update about a particular company policy or organisational culture will help them to boost their image without incurring any cost. Organisations should create and update respective pages on such social networking sites because a simple ‘Like’ by a Gen Y will attract another Gen Y. This will help a lot in creating the brand of the employer. Moreover, organisations can also connect with their customers and provide them with a near real time update. Organisations should create such unique culture in the organisation wherein the existing employees can help the organisation to connect to these Gen Y people.

In organisations we often talk about what is the ROI , however, we forget about the return we would be reaping if we are able to meet the expectations of these Gen Y employees.