April chapter mtg notes

Thanks to everyone who participated in our April 16, 2009 session “Engaging Employees Under 30.” With a 50/50 split in the audience of GenY/Millennials and Xer/Boomers, the shared insight was a win-win for everyone. Special thank you to our panel:

Patricia Clark, retired guidance counselor and career education teacher
Erin Cullin, lead trainer for Red Robin Gourmet Burgers
Kelly Kennedy, Wright State University psychology student
Amanda Minehart, Service Quality Manager at Wright-Patt Credit Union

To summarize the meeting, we each wrote one burning question about connecting with and/or engaging younger employees (under age 30) currently in the workforce. Below are the questions presented to our panel:

> How do we get younger employees to understand their changing role?
> How do you help GenY/Millennials accept that you have information and knowledge to share?
> How important is maintaining the self-esteem of the under-30 learner compared to the over-30 learner?
> Is it true GenY/Millennials can concentrate better with an iPod on?
> Regarding your career, what significant worries keep you awake at night?
> What are you going to do to facilitate change with your teaching/management style when adapting to working with a younger culture?
> What are your biggest fears of my generation (20s-30s) coming into the workforce?
> What do you feel you do differently than your parents or grandparents that allows you to effectively multi-task?
> What is the difference between a leader and a manager you respect?
> What is the toughest aspect of training for you?
> What is the worst characteristic of a boss that you have the hardest time dealing with?
> What makes you bored and impatient with training or user/instruction guides?
> What skills would you recommend students emphasize when creating a resume?
> What would you say is the average attention span of the under-30 workforce?
> Why do Millennials/GenYs always text?
> Why do you feel that it is so important to stick with the “old ways of business” instead of opening up to new ideas?
> With the baby boomer generation reaching a retirement age, a lot of management positions will be opening to a younger generation. How do you think the industry, as a whole, will shift with this influx of younger supervisors? (Creativity vs. “this is how we’ve always…”)