How the transition will need to be managed both, by the country and organizations, in order to be able to maximize the opportunities and benefits of this enviable demographic that we have in India
India’s large Gen Y cohort is young and eager to learn and advance. Managing this workforce through robust talent identification and development plans will be the only way that organizations will reap the benefits of the dividend promised by Young India. Managers will learn what they and their organizations must do to help this cohort realize its potential.
Gen Y is willing to work hard and long, but the workplace must be fun. Work-life balance for them is not only about going home and managing family time. It is also about life balance at the work place. Having forums that allow various sections of the organization to come together regularly, not to discuss work but to get to know people outside of their job and make friends, and being able to infuse fun to foster innovation at the workplace are important. One example is a large online travel portal – one of the top 25 Great Places to work in 2012 according to a recent survey. It has in-house ‘Hackathons’ wherein a bunch of people get together and hack code all night — a 24-hour event that the co-founder and COO fondly dubs “pajama party.” A lot of innovations emerge as a result of these Hackathons, which encourage not only the launching of products for customers but live products that can be shared with user groups.
Reprint from Ivey Business Journal
[© Reprinted and used by permission of the Ivey Business School]