Employers have been urged to find ways of getting young people born after 1980 to think more about work commitment and quality of effort and less about everything else.

A survey by the Department of Management at City University of Hong Kong has shown members of the so-called post-80s generation are the most confident about their job prospects and the least committed to their work. In other words, for many of them, work does not rank among the most important things in their lives.

The survey questioned 522 full-time employees by telephone in March and April of 2010. Among the total, 122 were born in 1980 or later.

Among all age groups, the post-80s employees had the highest score in "employee confidence index" with a mean score of 6.25 (10 is the highest). The same age group showed a mean score of 5.3 concerning optimism about the job prospects. The post-80s group was lowest on the scale for organization commitment (3.11) and occupational commitment (3.21).

Experts suggest management reform to try to head off on-the-job disappointment among younger employees.

Olivia Ip King-ming, associate professor in the Department of Management, called for more training, and more specific steps and stages marking career progress or development. "We understand there are difficulties (in management reform) because all corporations nowadays are facing a lot of volatility caused by restructuring and also changes of policies," she said.

Ip said the post-80s employees are multi-task oriented and perhaps it is possible to allow them to have more freedom in designing work hours, for example.

Andrew Morris, director of recruitment firm Robert Half, Hong Kong, thinks that if employers were more innovative, the post-80s employees would be more energetic on their job.

"Companies that hope to retain employees of the post-80s age group must remain innovative and show their employees that they are on a constructive, positive career path," Morris said. "Companies should aim to keep things fun and exciting and prevent roles becoming stale and static. Keeping energy and excitement in job roles will help to ensure post-80s generation employees remain in their roles."

China Daily

(HK Edition 05/06/2010 page1)