Today's employees

I work for Ten Group: a young (born in 1998), dynamic, fast growing business of about 300 staff and  it's interesting to see the kind of people we attract.  They tend to be emotionally intelligent, ambitious, socially conscious (we are raising tons of money for Kids Company, for example), upbeat types.  They join the company and expect to develop.  Each manager is tasked with ensuring that each member of their team has a professional development plan - the fruit of a discussion where individuals talk about their passions, ambitions, dreams - and the manager talks about the growing needs of the business.  Then a bit of matchmaking takes place - and (easier in a fast growing company because new opportunities keep emerging) hopefully both company and individual thrive.

And it's clear that people need to do something meaningful.  Daniel Pink ('Drive') is bang on when he says that today's new entrant to our sort of company (let's say it's part of the knowledge industry) is searching for mastery (feeling they can be on top of their game), autonomy (feeling they can make decisions as to how they work) and purpose (feeling it's all worth while).  It's no wonder how much time we take up just talking to each other - let alone our clients and members (what we call our customers) in order to address these drives.  Today's new starters arrive knowing what they want - and ready to pursue that agenda.

So different from when I started work in 1986, when I was deferential to the bosses, and hugely grateful when I got handed crumbs of responsibility.

Unless my memory is failing me, of course.