Mark Arnold :: Blog :: Hiring Young Observers

"These kids have ambition and aspiration coming out of their ears. They want to be leaders when they grow up. They want to change the world."

—Small Business Labs (Talking About Gen Y)

In the Spring, I wrote about “Recruiting Generation Y.” In that piece, I offered tips on how to recruit those twenty-something Generation Yers. While those five tips might help you in the interview process, perhaps a bigger question worth exploring is “why would I even want to hire someone from Generation Y?”

Turns out there are lots of reasons. Of course, this generation is smart and energetic (perhaps more so than any previous group). In many cases, they have unbridled passion. They blend the work ethic of the Greatest Generation, the fun-loving nature of the Baby Boomers and the technology of Generation X. This hybrid makes them an uber-generation of sorts.

Perhaps one of the best reasons to hire someone under 30 is simply to have them observe your credit union (or company) to examine ways you can improve. Gen. Y is a group of keen observers. Not only that, they will ask lots of questions. Yes, lots! While that may annoy you at times those questions could also result in you digging deeper. Deeper into your policies. Deeper into your procedures. Deeper into products. Deeper into why you do the things you do.

Here’s how it could work. Hire someone just out of college and pay them a reasonable salary. Then have them spend a month in each department both observing and doing the work that group does. Each Friday management could sit down with the employee and ask them what they observed. Pretty simple stuff. But it could turn enlightening.

With today’s economy it might be impossible to hire someone like this just to do some observing. An alternative is to task every new young hire with observing their job and one month later develop two new ideas for how the company can improve. Catch them while they are fresh and not tainted by office politics or your current work culture.

This idea of having young people share and implement their ideas is being fostered at the upcoming Southwest CUNA Management School. The school has developed something called “Connect to Collaborate,” which is a way to engage those under 30. You can read more about it in this CU Grow blog post.