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Gen Y & Performance Management: Lessons from the History of Supply Chain Management
Written by Buddy Hobart on September 30th, 2009
While the world was preparing to meet in Pittsburgh for the G20 last week, the “world of supply chain management” was meeting in Las Vegas. Over 20 countries were assembled for an International Summit of Supply Chain Professionals. I had the good fortune of speaking to this group about Gen Y Now.
The opening address to all of the members discussed the history, the present and the future of supply chain management. I found it to be a fascinating talk and was struck by the discussion of the history/evolution of supply chain management. The speaker talked about the advances made in the 80’s and 90’s and how strategies developed over time. The biggest hurdle to implementation, it seems, was the resistance to change. Things that today are taken for granted and are viewed as the normal course of business were revolutionary ideas in the mid 80’s. Many business leaders hesitated to embrace these new ideas and were slow to adapt. In fact, the speaker told the audience it was the purchasing people who were championing change. He said it took a full 6-8 years to get most organizations to accept these “revolutionary” new practices. These practices today are simply “business as usual”.
I was struck by the similarity of the supply chain challenge in the 80’s with the current challenge to attract and retain Gen Y. I had an opportunity to ask a Senior Executive of an international organization what happened in the early 80’s to the early adopters of these “radical” ideas. He told me “these are the folks who today are leading their industries. In fact, many folks never made the change and they are either struggling mightily today, or in some cases, they are out of business”.
In 1980 it was a radical idea to combine purchasing categories in order to bid them in total to suppliers. Before that everything was dealt with as a separate purchase. Today, this is a common practice to combine categories for bid. Similarly, many business leaders think providing REAL TIME feedback to employees is a radical departure from their current performance management system. Giving ONE SIDED feedback once a year has been the cornerstone of most systems and is now the sacred “annual performance appraisal”. Many business folks do not see the need to adapt this system and, in fact, are so resistant to change they are FIGHTING AGAINST any improvements to the current systems.
I believe it is critical for business leaders to address this issue because TRADITIONAL PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT is dead. Gen Y wants real time feedback. Waiting for weeks or even months for feedback and course corrections will not be acceptable to Gen Y. They do not want to waste weeks and then find out they are off course or that there is a better way to complete the task. Gen Y wants to contribute and tackle meaningful and interesting work. They want their efforts to matter.
We have found that traditional performance management is not well received from Gen X and Baby Boomers, as well. Neither of these generations holds the performance appraisal system in high regard. The difference is these generations have “grown up on” this type of system and are willing to tolerate its’ shortcomings. Gen Y has grown up on more real time feedback and input. Gen Y will not be willing to tolerate an antiquated system. A new system, for a new generation (which ALL generations will appreciate) in a new century is what is required to attract and retain the best talent.
To many business leaders this sounds like radical change. I truly believe in 5 years the highest performing organizations in the world will have developed a performance management system that provides feedback in a faster and more meaningful way. What seems radical today will soon be common place. The companies who get out ahead of the pack will have the competitive edge for talent acquisition and retention. Those who don’t will have a mighty hill to climb to catch up.
Gen Y Now | Consultant’s and Coach’s Corner » Slacker= Innovative: Words Matter on October 21, 2009 at 2:38 pm
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