Supervising Net Gen

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Managing them successfully is, of course, a challenge. For starters, managers will have to rethink the traditional pillars of HR. As youth researcher and author Robert Barnard and I have concluded, the old model of employee development—recruit, train, supervise, and retain—is outdated. This is, after all, a generation that has grown with a digital technology that is, at its very core, interactive. These Net Geners expect a conversation, not a one-way lecture. So now employers have to think about a reciprocal relationship with their employees. This can mean customizing jobs, as Deloitte is doing. "We believe that it is a new strategy for the workforce of the 21st century, and the workforce of the 21st century is different than the workforce in the last century," Deloitte CEO Jim Quigley told me.

Yet too many companies make no effort to learn from the Net Geners. Too often the young people go to work and hit a wall of corporate procedure and a deeply entrenched hierarchy that rewards those who command large numbers of followers. The widespread banning of Facebook at work is a classic example of misguided supervision. The Net Gen wants to take a digital break; the boomer employers shut them down. Get ready for the generational clash at work as a generational firewall builds up frustration.

A Quicker Performance Review

To avoid this clash, the new credo for managing Net Geners should go like this: initiate, engage, collaborate, and evolve. What does this mean? Take a look at a new service called Rypple that is designed to replace the old-fashioned performance review. Instead of waiting an entire year to find out what the managers think of them, employees can send out a quick (50 words or less) question to people they trust—a manager, a co-worker sitting in the meeting, even a client or a supplier. The questions are supposed to be pointed: What can I improve? What did you like? The recipients can answer quickly and anonymously, and the employee can track performance over time. It's just-in-time performance improvement—just the kind of regular feedback young people need to improve.

"We recognized, especially for the Net Gen, that work is learning, and learning is work," says David Stein, Rypple's co-founder. "They want useful feedback, frequently. However, current systems for feedback and development are exactly the opposite—infrequent, top-down, and vague—and they don't have to be."

Employers have two options. They can absorb the Net Gen way of doing things in a quick collaborative way, as Best Buy and Rypple's clients are doing. Or they can stick to their old hierarchies, and reinforce the generational barrier that separates the managers from the newly hired minions. But if they do, they will forfeit the chance to learn from the Net Gen—to absorb both their mindset and their tools of collaboration.

I think the winners will be those companies that choose the Net Generation culture. Just watch: It will be the new culture of work.

Don Tapscott is the chairman of nGenera Insight and has written 12 books on the impact of the Internet on society. He is also an adjunct professor at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. His 1996 book, Growing Up Digital, defined the Net Generation and the sequel, Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World, was just released.

Don Tapscott, author of Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World, is the founder and chairman of nGenera Insight. Other books he has authored or co-authored include Wikinomics, Paradigm Shift, The Digital Economy, and Growing Up Digital.