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Books to consider on Gen Y in the workforce

Wracking your brain trying to figure out how to work with your Generation Y employees? Then you won't want to miss our recommendation of two must-read books about the challenges facing managers of Millennials in the workplace.

The Millennial Generation (Gen Y) is proving to be a challenging workforce for businesses today. If you would like to get clued in on how to better work with these employees, here are two books we recommend:

The Trophy Kids Grow Up, by Ron Alsop

The first wave of the Millennial Generation — born between 1980 and 2001 — is entering the work force, and employers are facing some of the biggest management challenges ever encountered. Managers are trying to integrate the most demanding and most coddled generation in history into a workplace shaped by the driven Baby Boom generation.

The Millennials are truly trophy kids, the pride and joy of parents who remain closely connected even as their offspring head off to college and enter the work force. Millennials are a complex generation, with some conflicting characteristics. Although they’re hard working and achievement oriented, most Millennials don’t excel at leadership or independent problem solving. They want the freedom and flexibility of a virtual office, but they also want rules and responsibilities spelled out explicitly. “It’s all about me,” might seem to be the mantra of this demanding bunch of young people, yet they also tend to be very civic-minded and philanthropic.

This book lets you meet the Millennials and learn how this remarkable generation promises to stir up the workplace -- and perhaps the world. It provides a rich portrait, told through the eyes of Millennials themselves and from the perspectives of their parents, educators, psychologists, recruiters and corporate managers. Clearly, the Millennials represent a new breed of student, worker and global citizen, and this book explores in depth their most salient attributes, particularly as these play out in the workplace. It also describes how companies are changing tactics to recruit Millennials in the Internet age and looks at some of this generation’s dream jobs.

WAVES for Teenage Workforce Success, by Ken Whiting

This book describes how to recruit, educate, motivate and retain today’s teens in the workplace. Based on the top-rated seminar, the WAVES for Teenage Workforce Success is full of information that will decrease turnover, improve customer service, grow sales and profits, provide recruiting strategies, develop retention programs, inspire management and educational motivation, educate you on today’s teens and help you create a vibrant workplace environment. Some of the book’s advice is timeless; other parts have been specifically fine-tuned to deal with the work ethic of the instant messaging, and texting-crazy generations now applying to and being hired by businesses, including restaurants and location-based entertainment facilities.

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