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The impact of Gen Y women in the corporate sector

Is there a significant difference between Gen X and Gen Y women?

The impact of Gen Y women in the corporate sector

Is there a significant difference between Gen X and Gen Y women? The answer is a definite ?Yes?. Gen Y women are far more career focused, confident of themselves, have clear views on equality of men and women at workplace as well as at home and have demonstrated that with perseverance and commitment, they are able to grow successfully with the organisations and make a significant impact.

A McKinsey report shows that companies with gender-balanced executive committees have a 56% higher operating profit compared to companies with male-only companies. Another study conducted by Catalyst shows a 26% difference in return on invested capital between companies with 19-44% women board directors as compared with those who had no women on their boards. Hence increasingly businesses are working towards hiring and retaining larger percentage of women in their workforce, thereby recognising the value women executives are capable of bringing to their workplace through their unique characteristics that businesses can benefit from namely, multitasking, paying attention to detail, conflict resolution, ability to deal with fuzziness, flexibility and creativity required for problem solving. These are some of the key capabilities in demand today as businesses are redefining the new leadership capabilities required for building and sustaining successful businesses and Gen Y women have a natural advantage in contributing to the new leadership construct.

Another significant factor that makes Gen Y women stand out is the fact that they have embraced digital technology with ease. They are savvy consumers of technology and are certainly more comfortable with gadgets and devices as compared to Gen X women and on par with Gen Y men. Technology has played an important role in liberating Gen Y women from lack of awareness and exposure to the world at large and making them confident of themselves. IT/ITES industry in India has close to 30-35% Gen Y women as part of the workforce competing for prime career opportunities impacting the global corporations with their technology prowess.

As a result of Gen Y women?s keenness to build successful careers, HR managers and corporations have to rethink their management styles and traditional approaches to roles and

career paths assigned for women. For instance, geography and roles are not necessarily inhibiting factors when it comes to Gen Y women who are willing to be mobile and adapt to new roles and environments with ease as compared to Gen X women who were pulled back due to societal and family pressures.

The interesting trend observed with Gen Y women is that they view success as the ability to shape their own futures. Hence they are keen to place career above family and marriage. Even many of those who are married and have families, are prepared to convince their families and are willing to find ways of making sure their career aspirations are not sacrificed. Executives have to be sensitised that staying late in the office is not the only way to accomplish tasks and impress upon their commitment to the organisation.

Most Gen Y women are not only diligent about their productivity during office hours but are able to work additional hours from home thanks to digital technologies and long distance conferencing possibilities. Thus they are able to ensure they are not getting left behind when it comes to stretching themselves to keep pace with work. As a result we see Gen Y women willing to take more risk and trying their hand at various things much more than in the past. Successful careers make them financially independent and they have better lifestyles which Gen Y women value in their priority list. Hence the pressure to succeed is more and they are willing to work harder to achieve their goals.

Networking is often cited as a phenomenon that comes naturally to most men and women are not adept at it. Social networking using digital technologies has radically changed this perception and Gen Y women have been taking good advantage of this medium to stay connected and leverage this network for business needs as well as career advancement. Even those women who take career breaks to give time to their family or children, stay connected using social media and try and get back to active careers with the help of the social networks. Because of access to digital content, Gen Y women also try and utilise the career breaks to upgrade themselves and return to corporate careers with renewed enthusiasm and being better equipped to handle new roles.

With increasing proportion of Gen Y women demonstrating their eagerness to be counted as treated on par with Gen Y men, it is important to sensitise all levels of employees in the organisations to take advantage of this spirit and recognise the quiet but impactful transformation that Gen Y women are making individually and collectively that would change the face of Indian corporations in the next decade. This calls for research in paradigm shifts required in the age old management theories and new approaches to training and development of managers to help Gen Y women become successful as well as help male executives adapt to the new realities at the workplace.

While we find the interesting trend amongst Gen Y women breaking away from the traditional approaches to careers, mentoring, innovative use of technology to provide access to the right information at the right time and peer networks for confidence building will remain crucial for them as well as those who are still trying to find the pathway to their aspirations and to get their immediate communities to support them.

The writer is CEO, Global Talent Track, a corporate training solutions company

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First published on: 13-10-2014 at 02:26 IST
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