By Kelsey Saunders, Daniel King, and Usman Khan
Calling all senior leaders and entrepreneurs– this is the voice of the next generation. A voice of a generation that is being underutilized and underemployed. We are recent graduates in Architectural Science and Engineering disciplines and are seeking meaningful employment to apply our knowledge and skills. We are eager to use the skills we learned to help solve time-critical issues faced in today’s disruptive environment. We are also agile in our ability to adapt to change and learn in this fast-paced, technology-driven business market. In collaboration with experienced leaders and experts, we can accelerate our capability readiness for helping your organizations thrive in today’s fast-changing environment!
It’s a Catch-22
Did you know that Millennials are the most highly educated generation ever in Canada? By 2011, over 75% of Canadians under 30 had finished some form of post-secondary education, but are having trouble finding skilled jobs in their fields. A common frustration among the Millennials is the Catch-22 of the job search market. Every available job posting requires some work experience in your field. As aspiring Millennials, we know this first-hand. The question we are left asking ourselves is – how do we obtain work experience without first having had a job to gain experience in the field?
Of course, from a pragmatic perspective it makes perfect sense. Why would a company hire someone with no or little experience, for a job that requires it? The inherent flaw in this line of thinking is in the numbers. Baby boomers are retiring, and with them their wealth of knowledge. To succeed in today’s disruptive era, GenX leaders (born between mid-1960’s and the early 1980’s) are working overtime; often to the point of burnout and exhaustion.
Strengthen your competitive advantage,
powered by talent across the ages.
That’s where we come in. We have currency of skills. The willingness to work hard, to learn and apply best practices for strengthening your competitive advantage, powered by talent across the ages.
Why Now?
By 2020, it is projected that 50% of the workforce will be made up of Millennials based on age and competency of individuals in this generation. In order for a company to ensure capability readiness in this disruptive era, a sustainable business model must bridge the knowledge gaps between the Boomer, GenX and Millennial generations. This transfer of knowledge and competency is critical to maintaining the success of a business.
The current global market is undergoing disruptive trends that are changing the climate of how companies do business.
- Shifting Demographics
- An aging workforce of retiring Boomers.
- Technological innovations changing how businesses interact with their audience,
- Immigration leading to changing demographics.
Millennials have grown up in this environment defined by constant change and as such they have an unprecedented ability to adapt. By hiring Millennials, you are bringing innovators into your company and internalizing risks. With fresh eyes, Millennials are eager to learn new skills quickly in order to compete with agility in fast-paced environments. But in order to do so, they need first the opportunity and commitment from someone willing to mentor them.
How does InterGEN Help?
InterGEN bridges the talent gaps by facilitating inter-generational capability development via mentoring to strengthen an organization people readiness to succeed in an uncertain future – starting today! Everyone benefits: new recruits, existing leaders and teams, and, retiring leaders who may want to stay involved as advisors.
The InterGEN initiative also provides organizations a professional development framework for creating a future-oriented human resource strategy. The aim is to deliver the right people with the right competencies to an organization, at the right time and at the right level of responsibility, in support of the organization’s own corporate strategy.
Mentoring reduces risk of competency and knowledge loss in your industry as more and more of the Boomer generation reach the age of retirement. The mentor/mentee connection is based on skills rather than seniority. It is a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship focused on building both skills and societal currency within your organization.
The mission of InterGEN is to strengthen the future capability readiness of organizations and communities to compete sustainably in a fast paced and disruptive era—with the right fit talent who are willing to work hard, learn, share what they know too and help you succeed!
If you have further questions, contact RSI directly at Communications@Rethinksustainability.ca and www.rethinksustainability.ca
We look forward to seeing you on September 27th!
About the Authors and RSI
RSI is an exchange for engaging and partnering with thought leaders, innovators and organizations to advance the sustainability and resiliency of businesses, institutions and communities to thrive into the future. Our exchange, through formal and informal discussions, action learning accelerators, publications, online and in print, provides access to progressive leaders and actionable insights for Canadians and our global partners. InterGEN speaks to the people capability requirements for delivering value into the future, by investing in developing tomorrow’s leaders and optimizing established brain trusts – starting today! We leverage our intergenerational network of thought leaders at the forefront of change, innovation and sustainability to accelerate future-ready capabilities in a disruptive era.
Kelsey Saunders (@SustainableTO) is an RSI Ambassador and Building Science and Sustainability Coordinator at SUSTAINABLE.TO
Daniel King (@downtowndandy) is an RSI Ambassador and a Masters graduate from McMaster University in Engineering and Public Policy