Chapter 3: The Talent Remix The Fall of Loyalty and the 80-Year- Old Lifeguard

Question 1

IN THE PAST, the most common metaphor for long-term employment was the _______, provided by an employer, that an employee would climb up until reaching the top rung and retiring with the proverbial gold watch.

Answer 1

Career ladder

Question 2

As a leader in the workplace today, you must accept that your employees and colleagues may view their career paths very differently from the way you have envisioned yours, especially if you are a Traditionalist, Baby Boomer, or Gen Xer who embraced the career-ladder climb.

Some of this is because most younger Americans don’t want to spend their lives advancing up the ranks of a _________. More of this is because employers are no longer offering this possibility.

Answer 2

single organization

Question 3

Back in the 1970s, over 70 percent of workers had health coverage through their employers and about 50 percent had defined benefit plans that guaranteed them a set amount of income for life.

This made it appealing for employees to stay at one organization for as long as possible. What many people don’t realize is that this type of employment situation is actually a _________.

Answer 3

historical anomaly

Question 4

As Rick Wartzman, author of The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America, has discussed, the ______ and _____ that corporations provided to employees in the two- to three-decade postwar era are far more the exception than the rule over 150 years of industrialization.

Answer 4

security and loyalty

Question 5

What is problematic for those of us on either side of the employer-employee relationship today is that the “______” became an expectation for Baby Boomers. In regards to having security and loyalty from a job.

Answer 5

“exception”

Question 6

Many Baby Boomers still have this model, that employers will provide security in their consciousness as the ideal, and subsequent generations have absorbed it. But in the current economy, it is considerably _______.

Answer 6

less common

Question 7

why don’t millennials believe in strong loyalty to a company?

Answer 7

because many millennials have witnessed their Baby Boomer parents suffer through the breakdown of the employer-employee loyalty relationship

Question 8

Millennials’ skepticism about employment and loyalty, and their lack of social trust, as described in chapter 1, become ________.

Answer 8

difficult to refute

Question 9

An astonishing 94 percent of the job growth since the Great Recession has come from “___________” such as temporary help agency workers, on-call workers, contract company workers, and independent contractors or freelancers.

Answer 9

“alternative work arrangements”

Question 10

Thirty-six percent of U.S. workers participate in the gig economy through either their primary or secondary jobs.

Answer 10

“gig economy”

Question 11

According to one study, only 1 percent of HR professionals believe Millennials to be loyal to an employer, while _______ of Millennials self-identified as being loyal to their employers.

Answer 11

82 percent.

Question 12

How can there be such a disconnect? My interpretation is that HR professionals are defining “loyalty” as the notion of ________. Millennials are defining “loyalty” by how much they believe in their employer’s mission and are currently contributing to it.

Answer 12

staying with an employer

Question 13

The author, Lindsey Pollak compare the relationship between the employer and millennials to

Answer 13

It’s like entering into a relationship where one person is expecting a commitment for life and the other thinks it is casual dating.

Question 14

YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS HAD SHORTER JOB TENURES. NOW EVERYONE ELSE DOES, TOO. It turns out the stereotype of Millennials as job hoppers has more to do with ____ and _______ than with the era in which they were born. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the median length of time young people work for one employer has been pretty consistent over the last thirty-five years: about 3.2 years in the 1980s compared to 2.9 years for 25- to 34-year-olds now. Millennials in their 20s stay in jobs about as long as Boomers and Xers did in their 20s.

Answer 14

age and life stage

Question 15

The biggest declines in average job tenure over the same thirty-five-year period actually relate to men aged __ to __, who stayed with one employer a median of 12.8 years in 1983 but only 8.4 years in 2017. According to economists, this is due to several factors, including the collapse

Answer 15

45 to 54

Question 16

Reid Hoffman, a founder of PayPal and LinkedIn, along with coauthors Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh, proposed a new approach in the book The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age. The concept is “_______,” defined as incremental employment alliances mutually agreed upon between employer and employee for set periods of time.

Answer 16

“tours of duty”

Question 17

As Hoffman, Casnocha, and ___ describe the benefits of the tour-of-duty model, “The company gets an engaged employee who’s striving to produce tangible achievements for the firm and who can be an important advocate and resource at the end of his tour or tours.

Answer 17

Hoffman, Casnocha, Yeh

Question 18

The employee may not get lifetime employment, but he takes a significant step toward lifetime employability. A tour of duty also establishes a realistic _________. Lifelong employment and loyalty are simply not part of today’s world; pretending that they are decreases trust by forcing both sides to lie.” (A concept of Hoffman)

Answer 18

Zone of trust

Question 19

Will the tour-of-duty model replace the_______ model? We shall see, but I applaud Hoffman and his colleagues for experimenting with a remix.

Answer 19

job-for-life

Question 20

Geography is no longer destiny:

One study found that one-third of freelancers said they were able to move as a result of the flexibility freelancing offered. This increases worker satisfaction by enabling people to live where they want—and, more importantly, where they can afford—while also increasing productivity by reducing _________ and stress.

Answer 20

commuting time

Question 21

GEOGRAPHY IS NO LONGER DESTINY:

To attract Millennials—and top talent of any generation—what’s happening inside your walls is far more important than where those walls are ______.

Answer 21

located

Question 22

GEOGRAPHY IS NO LONGER DESTINY.

The legislature in _______, currently the fastest-aging state in the U.S., passed a bill to pay people $10,000 to move there and work remotely.

Answer 22

Vermont

Question 23

CAREER MOBILITY MATTERS:

While the career ladder may no longer exist, employees of all generations do want to feel that they are on a _________. This is particularly important to younger employees.

Answer 23

Growth trajectory

Question 24

CAREER MOBILITY MATTERS:

_________ is a former business school admissions director and currently an MBA prep coach with Management Leadership for Tomorrow. He told me that his biggest advice to organizations that want to attract a wide range of young leaders is to demonstrate that you want to partner with employees to create a “road map” for their careers. Even if you offer a job in one division or functional role, Millennials and Gen Zs want to know that multiple paths are possible—even paths that might lead away from your organization. Older generations appreciate this, too.

Answer 24

James Frick

Question 25

CAREER MOBILITY MATTERS:

Pfizer is acknowledging the power she feels over her career and offering a win-win platform for her to get what she wants while the company achieves its business goals and gets work done.

Answer 25

Pfizer offers a good example of Millennials wanting to have the option of multiple career paths.

Question 26

Challenging Recruiting Traditions:

What can you do as an individual leader to adapt to the ongoing disruptions and varying generational perceptions around employment? You must become very clear on your ________ and adopt some flexibility in other areas.

Answer 26

non-negotiable

Question 27

Challenging Recruiting Traditions:

One organization provides an unexpected model. Encore.org is a nonprofit organization founded in 1998 by author and social entrepreneur Marc Freedman (still CEO and president), who felt that our growing aging population was being abandoned as a resource. Encore is an innovation hub tapping the talent of the ______ population as a force for good.

Answer 27

50-plus

Question 28

Challenging Recruiting Traditions:

Recruiting habits and _____ occur on an individual level as well, and offer a personal opportunity for remixing.

Answer 28

Biases

Question 29

Challenging Recruiting Traditions:

Baby Boomer Donna Kalajian Lagani, chief revenue officer and publishing director of _______, has been in the business of selling advertising for decades. “What never changes about who I look for,” she told me, “is someone persistent, persistent, and more persistent.

Answer 29

Cosmopolitan magazine

Question 30

(What if you consider it a “root” of your organization to dress in more formal business attire and you don’t want to relax your policy? You can maintain a traditional dress code and still attract younger workers as long as you explain the reason behind your rules.

You’ll need to communicate that the policy exists, not because it is the default way people have always dressed in your office, but because, for example, professionalism is a core value of your company and team members reflect that in their dress. When people understand the “___” of a policy, they are more likely to accept it.)

Answer 30

“why”

Question 31

Meaning over Money?

________ would answer, “I took the job that paid the most money and that’s how I ended up in this career.” I don’t hear that answer as much anymore.

Answer 31

Baby boomer

Question 32

Meaning over Money?

But when I ask Millennials in particular about how important money is to their career decisions, the answer is often—but certainly not always—that money is important but other factors, like career opportunities, _______, and a sense of purpose, are more important.

Answer 32

flexibility

Question 33

Meaning over Money?

It is often said in the media that Millennials will be the first American generation to be “________” than their parents’ generation.

Answer 33

less well off

Question 34

Meaning over Money?

Multiple cross-generational studies today show a marginal relationship between compensation level and job satisfaction. You’ve probably come across the 2010 ______ University study that found well-being rises only with an income up to $75,000 ($86,000 in today’s dollars).

Answer 34

Princeton

Question 35

Meaning over Money?

I have worked with professionals making tens of millions of dollars a year and they often complain about the same workplace challenges as those making much less: lack of communication from leadership, bad bosses, __________, and unclear career paths.

Answer 35

difficult colleagues

Question 36

Meaning over Money?

One study found that 80 percent of American workers across generations would rather have a boss who cared about them finding _______ and success in work than receive a 20 percent pay increase.

Answer 36

meaning

Question 37

Meaning over Money?

Keep in mind that different generations and different individuals may define “meaning” quite differently, of course, and leaders need to _____ that. For example, a meaningful job to a midcareer Gen Xer might be one that allows him independence and more time to spend with his family.

Answer 37

honor

Question 38

Meaning over Money:

Back in 1974, Studs Terkel wrote in his oral history Working that the “happy few” people who truly enjoyed their jobs had “a ______ to their work over and beyond the reward of the paycheck.”

Answer 38

meaning

Question 39

Industry Issues:

Several companies in the manufacturing industry—another realm of aging talent—came to a similar realization as those in the insurance industry. Although, as we have discussed, many older generations find it distasteful when parents “______” over their Millennial children, manufacturing companies are so eager for young talent that they are willing to take advantage of the closeness between Millennials and their parents to attract young people.

Answer 39

“helicopter”

Question 40

Industry Issues:

Toyota Motor Corp.’s manufacturing plant in Indiana, for example, holds “Parents’ Night Out” events to encourage parents to learn more about the benefits of a manufacturing career for their children

Answer 40

Some industries are adapting to generational charges.

Question 41

Parents should only interact with a child’s employer when _____ ____.

Answer 41

explicitly invited

Question 42

IN THE MIX: TAKE YOUR PARENTS TO WORK:

It is not uncommon for audiences to laugh when I talk about this concept in my speeches. Inviting your parents to the office would have been absolutely unthinkable a few decades ago. But when you stop to think about it strategically, the concept is brilliant

Answer 42

speaking on how things change throughout time. “First of all we have established that today’s young people are closer than ever with their parents”.

Question 43

IN THE MIX: TAKE YOUR PARENTS TO WORK:

1) First of all, we have already established that today’s young people are closer than ever with their parents. Many still live at home into their early 30s. So, if one of your goals is to retain Millennial and Gen Z employees, parents can be your allies on the home front.
2) Second, if your company markets to Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, your young employees’ parents are potential customers, clients, referrers, or net promoters of your organization.
3) And finally, as the workforce becomes older and organizations look to source more Baby Boomer and Gen X talent, parents can be another opportunity for ______, as they themselves might be future prospects or referrers of talent.

Answer 43

recruiting

Question 44

Attracting Age-Diverse Talent: Remix Your Talent Toolkit:

When you begin to remix the talent you aim to recruit, you necessarily need to remix the tools, methods, attitudes, and people you use to accomplish your recruiting goals. In other words, if you want to recruit different people, you will have to ________.

Answer 44

recruit differently

Question 45

Attracting Age-Diverse Talent: Remix Your Talent Toolkit:

“We are constantly trying to think about which voices we are not bringing to the table. That is a fundamental part of building our business, because we are a better company when we represent and empower all of us, not just those of us who know to google that a Generation Z consulting firm even could or does exist.”

Answer 45

Ziad Ahmed, cofounder and CEO of the Gen Z firm JÜV Consulting

Question 46

The two types of recruiting:

The human element of recruiting cannot be lost. I have split the below suggestions into two categories— 1) technology-enabled and 2) ______—because every recruiting strategy needs a mix of both.

Answer 46

human

Question 47

Technology-Enabled Recruiting Remixes:

Citi is one organization using data to _______ the talent they recruit. Among the discoveries was a higher success rate among engineering majors, whereas in the past they had primarily recruited business and economics majors.

Answer 47

rethink

Question 48

Technology-Enabled Recruiting Remixes:

Construction materials maker USG Corporation now accepts applications by ________ to increase its appeal to younger workers and those without access to computers. In the first quarter of this recruiting change, applications jumped 26 percent.

Answer 48

mobile phone

Question 49

Technology-Enabled Recruiting Remixes:

Employers continually look for new outlets to post open positions to a broader range of online job boards, ranging from a wider variety of campus career centers, to diversity job boards

Answer 49

more technology-enabled recruiting remixes.

Question 50

Technology-Enabled Recruiting Remixes:

According to Stephen Kennedy, this was the exact goal of featuring real employees [in their adds]. “Great talent should come from anywhere, not just target schools. We have to make it easy for students of any background to access the great opportunities we have.”

Research has shown that Black and Hispanic job applicants are more likely to apply for a job when they see Black or Hispanic people in company ________.

Answer 50

recruitment material

Question 51

Technology-Enabled Recruiting Remixes:

Similarly, Intel implemented a “no comment left behind” policy several years ago on social media to ensure that every comment, post, complaint, and question about employment receives a personal response from a recruiter or other company representative.

Answer 51

A few negative or unanswered comments could turn away potential talent of all generations.

Question 52

Human-Enabled Recruiting Remixes:

A consumer packaged-goods company reports that their recruiting “_______” involves bringing its CEO and other VIPs to campus recruiting events and job fairs.

Answer 52

“secret sauce”

Question 53

Human-Enabled Recruiting Remixes:

What really stands out to job candidates of all generations is having a ______ recruiting experience that makes them feel special.

Answer 53

personal

Question 54

On the other end of the career spectrum, Texas Capital Bank is one of many organizations embracing the concept of “___________”—actively recruiting employees who had previously left the organization for another job, entrepreneurship, personal needs, or any other reason.

Answer 54

employee boomeranging

Question 55

CHAPTER 3: KEY TAKEAWAYS:

The talent remix requires leaders to rethink our expectations of whom we recruit, how we find those people, and what the relationship between _______ and ______ will be over time.

Answer 55

employer and employee

Question 56

CHAPTER 3: KEY TAKEAWAYS

“Employers”—as a concept—are no longer perceived as ____, and the very definition of “loyalty” has become subject to interpretation. Remember that your definition may not necessarily align with those of your employees or colleagues.

Answer 56

loyal

Question 57

CHAPTER 3: KEY TAKEAWAYS:

_______ is not destiny. To attract talent of any generation, what’s happening inside your walls is more important than where those walls are located.

Answer 57

Geography

Question 58

CHAPTER 3: KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Challenge your recruiting “musts” by rethinking the characteristics and ________ of talent you have historically recruited for certain positions.

Answer 58

qualifications

Question 59

CHAPTER 3: KEY TAKEAWAYS:

It is important for the salaries you offer to align with industry norms, but most employees would rather have a boss who cares about them finding ______ and ______ in work than receive a pay increase.

Answer 59

meaning and success

Question 60

CHAPTER 3: KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Parents can be your _____ in recruiting, engaging, and retaining Millennial and Gen Z talent. Consider hosting informational events for parents or inviting employees to bring their parents to see them on the job.

Answer 60

allies

Question 61

CHAPTER 3: KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Keep in mind that job candidates consider the vetting process to go two ways today, thanks to _______ and employee review websites like Glassdoor. Deem it a recruiting strategy to respond to online comments, posts, complaints, and questions.

Answer 61

social media

Question 62

CHAPTER 3: KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Consider former employees and retirees as potential _______ for your organization and create alumni communities to keep in touch with them. Why discount talent that both knows your business from the inside and can offer an outside perspective?

Answer 62

future talent