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Out with the Old, In with the New—Labor Force Dynamics¹

I WRITE A LOT—BOOKS, reports, blog entries, tweets, articles, and emails. I like writing because when I feel inspired I can really rip and get my ideas into type form. On one particularly fine day I was one with the keyboard. My fingers were dancing and the ideas were flowing like snowmelt down a mountain stream. My keyboard and I had gotten into a perfect Zen-like rhythm.

Then it happened. Suddenly everything I had written morphed into hieroglyphic symbols—everything.

I stared at the screen, totally befuddled.

What was this?

I could feel the panic coming on, so I paused and breathed deeply.

Let’s take a look in the “Documents” folder, I thought. Maybe this is just a localized issue.

Nope. Every document I opened displayed the unreadable hieroglyphics. Not a “localized” problem.

I started to perspire. I had not backed up anything because I do not do things “real men” should, you know, like ask for directions when lost.

I envisioned the days, weeks, and months of work that was now lost.

My life felt like it was over. The perspiration started to stream. Strange, cough-like grunts pushed up from my chest as I struggled to breathe. . . .

At some point I heard my as-of-then teenage Generation Y daughter Libby walking up the steps to our home office, where she often works on her schoolwork. I heard the tinny sound of music coming from her earbuds and the rapid-fire tap of her fingers texting on her iPhone, her fingers moving so fast that it was hard to believe the tiny keyboard could keep up with the keystrokes.

We do not make eye contact. She walks behind me and stops. With a free hand she reaches over my shoulder and manipulates the keys on my computer. All of the odd symbols disappear and order is restored. Problem solved. No words exchanged. She slides into her desk chair while still texting and listening to music. Within seconds she has Facebook and Twitter up on the monitor of her desktop computer and begins interacting with other friends and colleagues while still managing her text conversation. At some quick instant, perhaps with a fourth arm that I am not aware of, she gets a hold of the remote control and starts channel surfing the office’s flat-screen TV.

I view her silently. I have raised an alien. I want this alien to work for me.

Baby Boomers speak cyber with what sounds like a slow, thick foreign accent—lots of hesitation, grunts, and exasperated wheezes. For the most part we are immigrants in the cyber world. We get by, but we are not comfortable.

Generation X is bilingual and much more comfortable in the cyber realm than Boomers, but Generation Y dreams in cyber terms—it is second nature to them. Boomers and many Gen Xers have to think when making cyber decisions. Generation Y does not. It is part of who they are. Is this a big deal? More than you can imagine.

Generation Y is flooding the U.S. workforce at the rate of about 4 million potential workers a year. The leading edge of Generation Y had their careers put on hold for several years after Boomer retirement was held hostage due to the bursting of the housing bubble and subsequent Great Recession. Boomers couldn’t sell their homes and access the remaining home equity, and they suffered a huge collective hit on their stock portfolios, so millions didn’t retire as they reached the first of their golden years. In essence, Generation Y couldn’t check into the hotel because Boomers were extending their stay. That seems to be over now. Boomers have finally started checking out of the workforce hotel in large numbers, allowing Gen Y to start checking in.

For businesses heavily reliant on computer systems, the Internet, and data processing, the fun is about to start. Gen Y entry-level new hires will run cyber circles around older Generation X and Boomer employees.

My Generation Y daughters are always pointing out features on my phone and computer that I never knew existed. How do they know these things? I don’t know. They just do. I think it’s in their DNA. I warn my clients about Generation Y’s innate cyber abilities and caution them about squeezing another year out of older IT systems. “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is an outdated axiom that does not apply to cyberspace. In fact, I wonder if that colloquial rule ever really applied to advancing organizations. Imagine if Edison had been really happy with candles. Would we have lightbulbs today?

Generation Y will move into the work space and be very amused and then frustrated by outdated systems. Some businesses might even find their anachronistic accounting systems have been hacked and that their new Gen Y employees are driving expensive cars.

Organizations that understand the capabilities of these young workers will not have to worry about what new systems to embrace, as they have just hired the experts on the latest and greatest. Some business leaders may want to remove themselves from the decision-making process and let those who understand advancing technology make the decisions.

Control the money but be prepared to invest in technology on a continuing and ongoing basis. You will never catch up—don’t expect to. Just when you think you have spent enough, the IT department will need something new. Buy it. Because if you don’t, you run the risk of having your company or organization fall behind, and you can’t be leading edge if you have fallen behind.

All indications suggest that Gen Y will make the biggest labor impact through their cyber skills. Consider an article I read several years ago about how Best Buy wanted to create a new employee portal and contacted an outside tech firm that came back with a multimillion-dollar quote. The bid was denied and outside help was not needed. Gen Y Best Buy employees surprised their management bosses by accomplishing the task internally for about $250,000.

Little doubt that staffing and employment services companies are going to be busy in the coming years. Should you want to apply your demographic acumen on this specialized sector for investment purposes, you could check out these companies as a starting base (pssst: “DD”²).

ManpowerGroup Inc. (MAN)

Kelly Services, Inc. (KELYA)

BG Staffing (BGSF)