COMPANIES need to acknowledge and adapt to the changing values of Millennial Generation or iPod Generation employees if they want to draw new blood.
Four human resource firms my paper spoke to said that traditional factors such as pay and company reputation are not enough to attract or retain fresh talent.
Ms Dawn Plunkett, operations director for Kelly Services, said other factors such as personal development are also important, and suggested tweaks such as giving employees more say in decision-making processes, more overseas exposure and flexible working schemes to promote work-life balance.
Mr Victor Lai, head of business development at The Achieve Group, said: "This current generation is less inhibited
than those before."
Partly due to the access of information on the Internet, "they do not need or want to rely on people with 15 to 20 years more experience than themselves", Mr Lai added. He pointed out that more firms here are giving their staff portable communication devices such as PDAs and Blackberries so that they can communicate and work effectively outside the office.
Miss Tiffany Low, 24, who has been working in the finance industry for almost a year, said: "Young people now aren't afraid to explore options, even if they are outside their comfort zone."
However, Ms Huang Shao-Ning, director of JobsFactory, cautioned companies against making drastic changes to accommodate their iPod Generation employees.
She said: "They should remember that there are lots of older employees on the payroll. They must find a middle ground. Young people, too, have to tweak their expectations."
