Gen Y at Work: Not So Different After All

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Second, they have been more open to hiring boomerang employees (employees who have left the company and then returned). Boomerang employees tend to be higher performing when they come back, because they are already familiar with their employer and have gained valuable skills by working at a different company.

Myth 3: Gen Y Communicates Differently

A third major believed difference across generations centers around communication styles. While Gen Y is significantly more likely to use text messages and social networking sites in their personal lives as a method of communication, this is not true when it comes to communication within the workplace. When communicating with their manager, 18 percent of Gen X and Gen Y employees indicate that they predominately use networking tools, text messages, or instant messaging communication tools. By comparison, 15 percent of baby boomers say they predominately use the same tools when communicating with their managers.

The contrast is greater when it comes to communicating with peers: 25 percent of Gen Y employees use new communication tools in peer interactions, compared with 19 percent for Gen X and 16 percent for baby boomers. New communication technologies will continue to expand in the workplace, but a communication tool gap is unlikely to emerge across the workforce, because older generations in the workplace are already adopting these tools. The objective of executives should be how to improve communication across the organization rather than focusing on specific communication tools for different generations.

The reality of Gen Y in the workplace is that they aren't as different as we might think. What motivates their performance is relatively similar to other generations, but the best companies meet these needs in new and different ways. Those companies focus on clearly communicating around compensation differentiation, creating multiple career paths and options, and enabling peer-to-peer communication tools for all employees to attract, manage, and retain Gen Y employees.

Tiffany Fountain, a consultant with the Corporate Executive Board's Corporate Leadership Council, contributed to this article.

Dr. Brian Kropp is a managing director in the HR practice of the Corporate Executive Board.

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