Information Outlook, Vol. 5, no. 2, February 2001
The ABC's of Gen X for Librarians
By Mary Ellen Beck
Mary Ellen Beck is manager of Global Information Services at United Technologies Corporation. She has been involved in hiring and training library staff for the past fourteen years. She may be reached at beckME@utrc.com.
information outlook
What Sets the Gen X Employee Apart from the Rest?
Jodi lunches on hamburgers and fries or a French dip sandwich, dresses in GAP clothes, listens to rock, and says, "you rock!" when she is pleased with what she hears. Mary Ellen lunches on yogurt and fruit, dresses in Ann Taylor, listens to jazz and doesn't quite understand that she manages a "cube farm" where an unusual sound can cause Jodi to engage in "prairie dogging" over the top of a cubicle wall. What do they have in common? They both work for the Information Network at United Technologies Corporation, Jodi as a new information manager and Mary Ellen as a seasoned supervisor responsible for setting up her training.
Without a doubt the library field is in the midst of a graying of the profession ("Know About Librarians," American Libraries, February 2000). Our information organizations will need to fill many positions from the pool of Gen Xers (those born between 1963 and 1977) to maintain employment levels. As we hire Gen Xers, those of us responsible for the orientation and training of new hires, as well as their retention, need to address the different styles of learning and working which characterize the Gen X generation. One year ago, I hired our first Gen X library professional, Jodi Psoter-Stacy and this article is based on my experiences as one of her supervisors.
What they are looking for:
Basically Gen Xers are looking for success and security, but they are unsure about how to find it and they do not ascribe to the same work ethic of previous generations. They are the latchkey children who as Jodi expressed it "take care of ourselves." They are graduating to one of the best job markets ever, so they don't fear finding a job, and will switch jobs often if they are not happy, or can negotiate more money. Every year more than 17 million will change fulltime jobs, others try a business venture, or decide to go back to school. Many of them are entrepreneurial and will seek out dot.com ventures as the employer of choice.
They mistrust corporations as they saw their parents downsized and restructured in the foundering job market of the 1990s. They set their security as their highly marketable job skills which they can pick up by moving from one job to another. They will aggressively seek out these new marketable job skills and knowledge, and they will be attracted to jobs that offer training and strong mentoring programs. They are enticed by companies where there is a big risk/big reward environment which allows rapid advancement for those who can meet challenges.
The best large companies for attracting Gen Xers are the ones that mimic small companies and create smaller autonomous units. They offer greater wealth opportunities for their best people regardless of age/seniority and they compensate on the basis of performance. Finding ways to keep young people connected to the larger organization and giving them exposure to top people makes a large company seem like a small company.
Their perception of the company is very important and those companies who can market their organizations as a brand will be most successful in hiring Gen Xers. They will use their technical skill and online resources to research a company, exchanging information via the Internet with their friends and checking message boards where people post information about working at companies. Some are attracted to companies with an inspiring mission which benefits pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
Be prepared to woo them and as you do, give them opportunities to meet and build relationships with potential colleagues. At some companies, the hiring process has taken on the aura of a fraternity or sorority rush with lavish events and opportunities to network with potential colleagues. Creative recruiting, beyond typical job fairs such as mobile billboards and aggressive use of the Internet such as running banner ads on sites from Scott Adams' Dilbert site to Travelocity will give your company the edge. Developing an internship program and partnering with schools offering library programs can allow you as the potential employer to test drive and fine tune potential employees.
Remember that not all rewards will be equal to them. This group, due to worries about social security, are already saving at a much earlier age. They want portable self-directed 401 K plans and lump sum distributions and they don't want to wait five years to be vested. They are a harder sell for job-based insurance; but you can interest them if you include such benefits as wellness, gym membership, and alternative health care coverage. Although they are used to having money as the children of two income families, they also want rewards other than money related to travel on the job, benefits, and perks that improve their quality of life and hours that fit in with their life style. Flextime and the ability to do work from home are also definite pluses.
Once you have hired Gen Xers, be prepared to integrate them into your work environment. Avoid micromanaging them and cramping their independent style. You may face resistance from baby boomers who resent that they have not paid their dues. Others may have trouble accepting their style of working and communicating, or may be threatened by their technical savvy. Try to establish the same benefits and perks for all of your employees if they are attractive to non Gen Xers as well.
Hanging with Jodi and doing things her way in our organization:
Supportive atmosphere
Jodi is the first person that I have hired directly from library school in the past three years; previous hires have been librarians who have worked in the field for many years and completed their MLS degrees between 1975 and the late 1980s.
Experienced new hires begin with an orientation of a couple of weeks with our central groups that offer basic research and work with the physical collection. After a few sessions of mentoring with experienced information managers at the business division where they will be working, these new information managers are up to speed. They join one of our divisions where they operate as consultants to UTC employees by providing information and the other services offered by the Information Network. In hiring Jodi, we knew that we had a commitment to provide her with a nurturing learning environment until she would be able to stake out on her own.
When Jodi arrived, we assigned her to her own office space with the Global Information Support Team who do general research. We expected her to spend five months training with this group as well as becoming familiar with the Printed Resources Group, the other team, which is co-located as a central team of the Information Network. This initial experience allowed her to be tethered to the central staff who would later be supporting her when she moved out of their orbit into the field. Her ultimate assignment is as one of two information managers at the United Technologies Research Center where she now has
her own office removed from the central groups, and the other information manager assigned to this location.
To prepare Jodi for the type of requests she would be responsible to research in her position, we gave her immediate access to the Information Network's "IN tracker." This is a Lotus Notes database where all of our staff members enter data about each research request that they complete for a customer. Participation in the IN tracker is required for all of our staff, and we use this as a training database to develop awareness for new hires or those changing position within our network of what they can expect in their new positions. This database is especially effective with Gen Xers as they can look at requests at their own pace on their desktops.
Provide opportunities for mentoring from day one
Gen Xers are social and like to feel that they are part of the group. Give them opportunities to spend time with other staffers, especially those with expertise in areas that they need to know about. Set up a rotation schedule during the orientation period so that they have a chance to spend mornings, afternoons or whole days with experienced staff. If personalities don't click as they move around, make sure that they are not forced into a situation where mentor makes them feel uncomfortable.
Although you may feel the pressure to push them into their new position, it pays to spend the time to integrate them into the group. Even a small event can make a differencean icebreaker assignment for Jodi was to have her divide up marketing giveaways and find out who wanted what which helped her to meet everyone in a non-threatening interaction. Our network has an orientation template which new hires can use to determine what they need to know and which staff members will be able to teach them. It clearly defines the baseline requirements of knowledge and specific learning goals. In Jodi's estimation it helped her to focus which was especially important in the first couple of weeks when she was overwhelmed and didn't know quite where to begin.
Be accessible, be open and listen, even if it is negative
The supervisor needs to be accessible and willing to listen to their frustrations. They are comfortable with all age levels and expect to be able to talk directly to supervisors, even those a level or two above. The perception of being able to walk into the supervisor's office to discuss question or to just chat, an "open door policy," is key for a Gen Xer. Relate to their issues and lingo but don't over identify with them.
The idea of the boss being all-knowing and not to be questioned is over as far as this generation is concerned. They are not accepting of top down authority and rules that don't make sense to them. Accept their criticism and work on the concept that they can change things and make a difference. If possible, form focus groups of Gen Xers across departments at your company to find out what they are thinking. Perception of the company is importantasking current Gen Xers what they think as a focus group can establish a baseline so that you can craft messages and select media to improve or change existing perceptions.
On the other hand, they like to see action and are not impressed when something important to them is bogged down in bureaucratic red tape. Show your Gen Xers that you can follow through and "be there for them." Try to be positive and show them the ropes instead of dwelling on the problems and obstacles of the working environment
If something is of interest, engage them
Gen Xers like to have fun at work and they want to do challenging work. If they express an interest in a project, follow up on it and get them involved. Make sure that you offer support so that they are successful. After Jodi moved to her own location, she wanted to create a Power Point presentation to update an existing presentation about the Information Network that she could use with her customers, and she wanted to include information about all of the desktop products which we offer. She completed most of the slides, but then she had to shift gears back to her workload; a few of us picked up the thread, completed the slides, and made them available to our staff to use in marketing the Information Network.
We make it a point to give Jodi credit for her efforts and to tell her when others used the slides with success. Gen Xers like to receive constant feedback for what they have done. Gen Xers may have a different work ethic in which their job is not their number one priority, but they are not slackers. They can work independently and are creative, but when the job is done, they are done.
Provide customized training and give opportunities for mentoring
No matter how impressive a library school program may be, new hires who have not had previous practical experience beyond an internship need to develop and sharpen skills. There are limits as to how much time individual staff members are able to spend in one-on-one training.
The Information Network has training opportunities provided by the vendors at our quarterly meeting; however, I also make sure to include Jodi in training events in-between meetings, as well as having vendor trainers come to give specific entry level training just for her and other new hires, and interns. In additional, we encourage her to attend outside training, seminars and conference events which are posted to the staff through our electronic staff newsletter. I encouraged her to select a strategic conference to attend. She has a science background, and needed to learn more business research skills for her position. I recommended a business conference which would enhance her skills in that area, and although initially tentative, she agreed to follow through and had a very positive experience.
We also made Jodi aware of the expertise of our experienced staff so that she could call upon them for real life help when working on customer requests. Jodi will seek out casual relationships with people who can help her. Jodi is always concerned about the appropriateness of expressing her opinion. We try to create an environment where she feels that it is safe to express her ideas in a group setting, even if they are not mainstream or are negative. Accept that Gen Xers may not have the level of analytical abilities and long-term perspective of senior colleagues. We try to give her immediate feedback on her contributions and credit for her ideas.
She regularly visits our staff at other sites to share ideas and learn. The Information Network is part of an umbrella group known as Information and Learning, and we encourage our staff to learn from each other.
Step up the pace, make it visual and relevant
Gen Xers like to move quickly, especially where technology is concerned. They also like to make intuitive discoveries rather than deducing by following steps dictated to them by someone else. Let them discover the "aha! moments" as they will be skeptical of accepting them as givens from you. It is far more motivating to offer them some visual hands-on instruction, and then give them a password and some actual questions to use in mastering the skills. Jodi processes information quickly and needs training that is fast-paced, fun, involved, and broken down into smaller chunks. We try not lecture her about how to do everything and to allow for intergenerational differences in training and learning.
One caveat is that in their familiarity with technology, they may forget that the customer's needs and human interaction sometimes override technical expediency. A Gen X intern once asked me why we call customers to refine what they need if we can send them an e-mail. After a series of e-mail exchanges with a customer, the same intern expressed her frustration to me that she still did not know what the customer wanted. I drove home the point by suggesting that she call the customer.
Targeted teaming
Jodi works best on teams that focus on solving immediate problems, like our team that works with branding our products and services, or the one governs our Information Network's intranet. Teams where the members have unique skills or knowledge, or in which the authority is fluid or where participants who have the most skills, knowledge and experience to deal with a specific matter at hand will be most attractive to a Gen Xer.
Capture their energy and use it to your advantage
A satisfied Gen Xer can become an evangelist and a powerful recruitment card. When interviewing other Gen Xers and interns, make your newly minted Gen X hire a part of the process. If you don't want them to sit in on the actual interview, invite them to lunch and give them some time alone with the candidate walking them back to the human resources department or driving them back to their hotel. Gen Xers trust each other, and will pass the word around that your information center is a great place to work.
Jodi's natural zeal has infused our network with a spark of energy that can be contagious. Although Gen Xers do not have loyalty to a company, you can dissuade them from being lured away when the headhunter calls if you develop a retention program which should start during the orientation period. This plan should incorporate manageable job expectations, a career planning component, good internal communications, freedom to balance work and life as a free agent, and clear objectives with frequent monitoring. Make sure that they have a good experience from the first day that they walk in the door to start work. Initial impressions will color the way they feel about working for you, and a day that is overwhelming and confusing will be remembered.
Make retention a top priority and let your Gen Xers know this by your actions. If you show that you value their opinion, you will be rewarded in return. Although they will most likely not be life long employees, their good feelings about your company will stay with them after they leave, and who knowsthey may boomerang back to you in the future or send others your way. So don't be a "mouse potato" (online analogue of a couch potatoGen X style)get busy and reach out to Gen Xers the next time you have a position open. 
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