A recent survey finds 82-percent of employers nationwide are having a hard time finding qualified job candidates as the pool of top performers dwindles. Professor Chris Trank, at the University of Iowa’s business school, says part of the trouble comes as there’s friction between the older generations and those from the Gen-X and Millennial generations. Trank, an expert in organizational change and behavior, says their values are different and there’s not much room for Gen-Xers to establish themselves in the workplace because they’re still dominated by the very large Baby Boom generation. Trank says organizations across the country are exploring ways to keep the talent they have. She says there are about 80-million Boomers, who grew up during the World War Two era, versus only 45-million Gen-Xers, born between 1965 and ’80. Trank says Gen-Xers are up and coming, but facing obstacles. Millennials are those born since 1980, also called Gen-Y. Trank, who’s a 50-year-old Boomer, says she sees similarities between the love bead-wearing, barefoot college student she was and today’s orange-haired, body pierced and tattooed crowd. Trank says he students today have the same sort of “we can change the world” attitude. Trank says the Gen-Yers are incredibly technology-savvy, they have a wonderful outlook, they’re enthusiastic and can multi-task which makes them perfect for today’s organizations. Still, she says recent grads are having more trouble breaking into the workplace than the Gen-Xers. Trank says some things will have to change in corporate America, since many of today’s organizations are set up to make Baby Boomers happy. She says companies that want to retain young talent need to adapt and change their expectations about the way work is designed and the extent to which young people right out of college get opportunities to establish themselves. Trank will be giving a talk in Davenport in October on this subject in a presentation called “Dude, Do I Need To Be There Today?”
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