How to attract Generation Y employees

© yeyen - Fotolia.com

These are some of the findings of a research study led by Prof. Nicolene Barkhuizen of the Department of Industrial Psychology at the Mafikeng Campus. "Many employers are currently facing challenges attracting, developing and retaining Generation Y employees," Prof. Barkhuizen says. "Our aim was to determine the reward and remuneration practices that will attract them to organisations."

Generation Y refers to the age group born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s who, it is believed, are constantly looking out for better prospects and more rewarding jobs in reputable companies and prestigious settings. For the study, 202 final-year undergraduate students completed a survey questionnaire measuring 17 reward and remuneration practices on a five-point scale, from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree".

"Some of our findings were quite surprising," says Prof. Barkhuizen.

Rapid career progress a priority

One surprise was that, for the group as a whole, the most important employment requirement of Generation Y employees was career development, which came in slightly ahead of a good base salary.

"Base salary is important to them but career development is more important," she says. "It seems that Generation Y employees want to start their careers in more senior positions than earlier generations; they also want to progress more quickly and are not willing to wait long for promotion opportunities."

Another surprising result was that retirement benefits were the third most important factor for survey participants. "It's very interesting that such young people are already thinking about their retirement." The fourth and fifth most important reward and remuneration practices overall were training opportunities and work-life balance.

Differences between English- and Afrikaans-speakers

However, there were some differences in the priorities of English-speaking survey participants - who were in the majority in the study - compared to the priorities of their Afrikaans-speaking peers. After base salary and career advancement, Afrikaans-speakers listed their most important remuneration practices as performance management, recruitment and work-life balance.

For the English-speaking respondents, healthcare emerged as the greatest employment drawcard - more attractive even than base salary and career advancement.

The picture changed slightly again, however, when the whole group was asked to rank their most and least important reward and remuneration practices (as opposed to using the five-point scale to agree or disagree with statements in the questionnaire).

"The ranking results showed that base salary was by far the most important, followed by work-life balance, career advancement and healthcare," Prof. Barkhuizen says. "On the other hand, the least important practices were shares, followed by perks, savings and leadership style."

She says the study has opened up new avenues for further research, and the team is eagerly preparing to delve deeper into the issues uncovered, including Generation X employees' attitudes to healthcare and retirement. Employers will no doubt await the results with eagerness.