Breaking The Gen Divide Presentation To Mma 28th Oct 09

Breaking the Gen-Divide:Understanding Women professionals through the Ages

Saundarya Rajesh, Founder – President AVTAR Career Creators

ISO 9001:2008 Talent Strategy Consulting Firm

Breaking the Gen-Divide:

Understanding Women professionals through the Ages

Talent is GOD…

Omnipotent

Unfathomable

Means Different things to different people

Better to have ON YOUR SIDE!

www.avtarcc.com



Over the next half hour..

Current workplace scenario

The IWP & Gen

Differences

Defining what a

generation is?

The 4 Cohorts of

IWP’s in the Indian workplace

What is the Gen Divide?

Breaking the Divide &

Opening lines of communication

www.avtarcc.com



Careers are changing..

www.avtarcc.com

Linear Careers

Activity Based Careers

What Does

this mean

for the IWP?



Hybrid Careers

www.avtarcc.com

Flexi-fixed hoursWeekends

Fixed Part-time

Compressed Work week

Term-time Working

Project Based

Home-based

TelecommutingJob Sharing

E-Working

What Does

this mean

for the IWP?



The IWP……???

International

War

Prevention?

Institution

for

Wise

Professors?

Indian

Wedding

Planner?

Inspector of

Warehouse

Practices



The Indian Woman Professional!

www.avtarcc.comPicture courtesy: OF SUCH TIMES: THE

MODERN INDIAN WOMAN : VANDANA KOHLI



Who is the IWP?Age between

21 and 50 -Constitutes 13% of the

population of India and 27%

of women

Indian Woman

Professional



The Case of the IWP & the Many Lenses

Gender

Life Stage

Generation

Education & SECPersonal Value Systems

www.avtarcc.com



A Definition of Generation

A Generation is a group of people defined by

Age boundaries who were born during a certain

era and share similar experiences and social

dynamics when growing up

www.avtarcc.com


Understanding Women professionals through the AgesGenerational

Diversity OF

Indian Women

Veterens• Born: 1920-45

• Pre-Independence Cohort

• Unsure and Wary

• Very rarely in active employment today

Free- Gens• Born: 1948-1960

• Post Independence cohort

• Believe in concept of life-time employment

• 20% of today’s workforce

• Interim Seniors

Gen X’s

•Born: 1960-1970

•Socialism-to-Liberalization transitionary cohort

•Saw the upswing of economy and hastened to catch up with younger cohorts

•Believe in the power of change

•Account for about 25% of the workforce

E-Gen’s•Born: 1971-1980

•‘Confident India’ cohort

•Comfortable with change – largest cause of attrition at the Indian workplace

•Constitutes 29% of the workforce in India today

•Has seen the sharpest trajectory of success, inspite of 2 large downturns

Gen Y’s• Born: 1981 – 1990

• Constitutes about 26% of workforce

• Feels less guilt in being an aggressive consumer

• Has seen one significant big blip – the Recession of 2008

www.avtarcc.com



Generational Diversity

Hard Focus : FREE-GENS

VeteransBorn: 1920-45


• Unsure and Wary






• Interim Seniors

Gen X’s

•Born: 1960-1970





E-Gen’s•Born: 1971-1980




•Has seen the sharpest trajectory of success, in spite of 2 large downturns

Gen Y’s• Born: 1981 – 1990




www.avtarcc.com



Free-Gens – Why they are who

they are…

Independence in 1947

• Planning

• New found national freedom

• Responsibility

• Awareness of being a NATION

• Bureaucracy

• Negative corporate experience

www.avtarcc.com



Pluses and Minuses of Free-Gens

PLUS

• Service oriented

• Willing to go the extra mile

• Naturally relationship driven

• Want to please

• Very good team players

MINUS• Uncomfortable with conflict

• Social ‘shyness’

• Give more importance to

Process rather than results

• Not willing to go against the flow

• Highly conscious of peer

pressure

• Very sensitive to feedback

• Judgmental of those bucking the

trend

www.avtarcc.com




Hard Focus : GEN-X’s

Veterans• Born: 1920-45


• Unsure and Wary






• Interim Seniors

Gen X’s

•Born: 1960-1970





E-Gen’s•Born: 1971-1980





Gen Y’s• Born: 1981 – 1990




www.avtarcc.com



Gen-X’s – Why they are who they

are..

Indira Gandhi, India’s first

women Prime Minister

• Teething troubles of a democracy

• War and its after-effects

• Doubts about sustainability of

growth??

• Women make progress

• Progress will be slow

www.avtarcc.com



Pluses and Minuses of Gen Xs

Plus

• Adaptable

• Techno-literate

• Creative

• Multi-taskers

• Aggressive in driving growth

• Leads with ease

• Values self-reliance

• Pragmatic

Minus

• Impatient

• Poor people skills

• Cynical

• More reactive than proactive

www.avtarcc.com




Hard Focus : E-GEN’S



• Unsure and Wary






• Interim Seniors

Gen X’s

•Born: 1960-1970





E-Gen’s•Born: 1971-1980





Gen Y’s• Born: 1981 – 1990




www.avtarcc.com



•Protectionism

•“Hard work combined with direction results in progress”

•Success is a linear journey and follows the right education•Progress is a function of your own speed

E-Gens – Why they are who they are…

Emergency

IBM and Coca-Cola being 'thrown out

of India' during the Janata Party regime

in 1977.

www.avtarcc.com



Pluses and Minuses of E-Gens

Plus

• Flexible

• Global thinking

• Techno-savvy

• Results ahead of process

• Environmentally conscious

• Focus on Education

• Wants a ‘life’

Minus

• Inexperienced

• Hates micromanagement

• Strong polarized likes and

dislikes

www.avtarcc.com




Hard Focus : GEN Y’s



• Unsure and Wary






• Interim Seniors

Gen X’s

•Born: 1960-1970





E-Gen’s•Born: 1971-1980





Gen Y’s• Born: 1981 – 1990




www.avtarcc.com



Gen-Y’s – Why they are who they are..

Economic Liberalization in early 90s & Nuclear

Testing by India

Outsourcing (World as well as India) &

Phenomenal Growth of the IT, BPO and also

other Industries creating demand for talent

Women’s 33 percent reservation Bill was originally drafted and introduced by former Prime

Minister HD Deve Gowda in September 1996.

10 out of 13 women chief ministers during this period. 2 from 1970 to 1980, 1 from 1960 to 1970

www.avtarcc.com

•Women no different from Men•Common prevalence of flexibility in careers•Sexual preferences very open•Disposable Jobs•Suspicious of corporate lives



Pluses and Minuses of Gen Y’s

Plus

• Collective Action

• Optimism

• Tenacity

• Techno-brilliance

• Resilience

Minus

• Need for Supervision &

structure

• Inexperienced

• Needs a paternal, inspiring

leadership but constantly

challenges the same

www.avtarcc.com



www.avtarcc.com

What is the Gen Divide??



What is the Gen Divide?

• Resounding clash of values

• Behavior fuelled by strong perception

• Sharply different POV’s on work, life, sex, marriage, money

• One cohort polarized to a particular level – hence conflict of

levels

• Traditional motivators jangle

• Differing attitudes on saving v/s spending, on personal

loyalty v/s organizational commitment

www.avtarcc.com



Age and generations viewed

through the workforce engagement lens

Engagement Segments Free-Gens Gen X E-Gens

Passionate Advocates

Enthusiastic Followers

Under-Rewarded

Supporters

The Disenchanted

Unrealised Potentials

Detractors

AVTAR Career Creators

ISO 9001:2008 Certified Talent Strategy Consulting Firm

• Although all Generations will be found in the 6 engagement segments, Matrix below

depicts higher proportionate representation

Adapted from ‘Generations at Work’ by Ron Zemke



For Individuals: Breaking the Gen Divide

Fragile! Handle with Awareness!

• Finding the right talent versus Being the right

person!

• All twenty something's are rebellious

• All Gen X’ers expect PROOF

• All Parents are naturally responsible

• EVERYONE WANTS WORK-LIFE BALANCE!

www.avtarcc.com



To be a cross-gen successful IWP –

Dont’s

Assume Stereotype

Ridicule Exclude

www.avtarcc.com



To be a successful IWP –

Do’s

Be open about your ‘triggers’

Be ready to flex

your style a bit

Focus on what matters – customer relationships, team

dynamics and overall growth and productivity

Raise awareness

about generational diversity

www.avtarcc.com



To be a successful IWP

Do’s

Recognize generational differences

Find common ground

Acknowledge that

everyone needs

respect

Accept that Diversity is

beauty!

www.avtarcc.com



For Organizations – Breaking the Divide

• Aggressive Communication – top down stance on

Generational awareness

– Anticipate potential conflicts and potential solutions

– Surfacing unarticulated assumptions and unconscious criteria

• Difference Deployment – Diversity Strategy

– Tactical recruitment of a diverse workforce

– Bringing together / deployment of a diverse group with varied

backgrounds, opinions, skills and experiences to ensure that

there is beauty in Diversity

www.avtarcc.com

What is AVTAR Div-In?

A unique consulting service which enables high-growth organizations to focus sharply on an inclusive talent strategy

Entirely Indian – fully based on Indian work systems and cultures

50 years of consulting experience

30 clients including MNCs, Indian Conglomerates, Indian SMEs

Key insights / solution derived from surveys, experiences, focus group studies in the Indian Context

Successful projects with a range of industries

Industries: Retail, FMCG, IT / ITES, Banking & Financial Services

Clients: SCOPE International, Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd, Citicorp, Heinz, Unilever, Thomson Financials, Cognizant

www.avtarcc.com



Thank You

www.avtarcc.com

Saundarya Rajesh

AVTAR Career Creators,

INDIA

Email – [email protected]

www.avtarcc.com; www.avtariwin.com

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.avtarcc.com/

Breaking The Gen Divide Presentation To Mma 28th Oct 09

Documents

Transcript of Breaking The Gen Divide Presentation To Mma 28th Oct 09