How are employers responding to Gen Y and Web 2.0?

A new survey from the UK Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) asks how organisations are responding to Gen Y employees and Web 2.0 technologies. According to the report, "both CIPD members and London Business School alumni in senior positions were contacted by email to complete the online survey. A total of 488 responses were received, of which over half worked in private services, 20% worked in public services, 18% worked in manufacturing and production, and 6% worked in voluntary, community and not-for-profit organisations."

Unfortunately, you have to be a CIPD member to download the report, but the following extracts from the summary pretty well wrap it up:

"Forty-six per cent of the respondents in our survey felt that many of the attributes of Generation Y employees were significantly or radically different from those of previous generations, but most had taken very few steps to respond to these different demands."

"Respondents saw Web 2.0 technologies as a significant change: 61% felt that its attributes were significantly or radically different to uni-directional Internet services. While some of the organisations we spoke to had engaged in experimentation around Web 2.0 technologies, most were content to read up on the subject, benchmark others and wait to see how these technologies would evolve."

So, managers seem to find the subject interesting and recognise its importance, but either have no intention of doing anything differently or don't know where to begin. This is good news for those selling books or running conferences on these subjects, but not for employees of UK organisations, who may have to wait a long time for conservative employers, run in the main by baby boomers, to adapt to the changes occurring around them.

As Jack Welch once commented, "when the rate of change outside exceeds the rate of change inside, the end is in sight." Exactly.