What do Gen Y employees want from employers? They’d like to stay with a business they admire, but they want more “freedom within form”, says Sylvia Ann Hewlett, the founder of the Center for Work-Life Policy and author of “Off-Ramps and On-Ramps”.
In this odd but interesting Big Think interview, Hewlett uses jazz as a metaphor for the “ebb and flow” pattern of work that she believes will become the norm, not just among twentysomethings but across the workforce.
Developing on the work she did in “Off-Ramps”, where the focus was on women as an under-used talent pool, the idea is that the companies that allow for a certain fluidity in work patterns will be more likely to retain talent longer term.
Increasingly, argues Hewlett, employees want “odyssey”, and a “360-degree work experience” with meaningful work an important component, according to a Work Foundation study.
She believes it’s possible to handle the inherent tension between the employer’s need for productivity and the employee’s desire for ebb and flow, using a “jazz-like arrangement”.
There are some obvious holes in this idea and the idea jars in light of the current economy. Allowing people to pursue their own passions clearly pays for companies like Google (which Hewlett calls “smaller” here.) But I suspect there’s a fair bit of infrastructure and planning that underpins all this groovy ebb and flow. And the more structured, in-work community ventures — AI Digital in Brighton’s a good example — seem more in keeping with today’s team-centric workplace.
Jazz never was the easiest form to master. But Hewlett is surely right in recognising the major shifts in the way we do work. The more adventurous employers will already be dusting off their Blue Note sleeves.
