The Generation Y in Russia

The current wave of young job candidates entering the labor market are presenting unique challenges to hiring managers, experts said at a forum dedicated to human resources on Tuesday.

Freedom loving, soul searching and socially conscious are some of the hallmarks of young professionals from Generation Y, an age group born in the period from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s. And they are the kinds of potential employees that can leave employers disoriented, especially if these employers have not updated their corporate values.

The problem with current human resources methods is that they are based on ideas that originated in the 1950s and 1960s, said Andrei Rossokhin, professor at the Higher School of Economics, during Vedomosti’s annual Human Resources Forum.

Namely, employers still believe that job candidates are primarily motivated by money. But for Generation Y, money is no longer the key factor when selecting a job, and they are not willing to sacrifice their dreams for a good paycheck.

Young professionals are paying more attention to factors other than remuneration, such as the location of the company offices, quality of executives, flexible schedules and relaxed dress code, said Yelena Novikova, business development manager at Hays Group consulting firm.

“We can try to break them to make them like Generation X, but this is impossible. These methods will just incite rebellion,” Rossokhin said of the challenges these new values pose for recruiters. “Or we can really understand how to incorporate their personal interests, how to make them company co-investors in the psychological sense.”

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via Hiring Professionals Challenged By Generation Gap | Business | The Moscow Times.