When it comes to jobs, Millennial generation (or Generation Y, as some may call) want to do what they really like. They are not satisfied with any job, many times will choose the risk of having their own business instead of dealing with a big company, along with the human resources department and its rules. But big corporations need these young people with new ideas, even if it’s not easy attracting them and making them stay. So, how should one deal with this?
It is important that the HR from big companies understand how the mind of the Millennial generation works. A workshop organized by AHRA (Alexandria Human Resources Association) and hosted at Tolip in Alexandria, had two sessions on important topics, not only for HR managers, but also for the employees.
In the first session, “HR for Millennials”, with Mahmoud Mansi, was pointed the importance of the HR studies update, considering that many books used in universities don’t match with the reality, the HR strategies and the problems this field faces nowadays. Beyond that, the workshop discussed the need to gather generations inside of a company and the stereotypes related to the HR that need to be let go. As a practice, the audience was supposed to think about new ways of making a job interview, besides the common questions such as “tell more about you”, “what are your weaknesses?”, “what are you good at?”, etc. In addition to that Mahmoud discussed his new HR model “Shared Development” along with new models he is including in his new book “HR for Millennials”.
During the second session “Re-Engineering the public relation between HR and PR”, the speaker Alaa Hasaballa pointed out the way the name of the company is seen, the communication and the marketing. To him, “HR and PR departments are very close, because both are concerned with human beings. The role of HR is to develop people and the role of PR is to make these people fit to the job”. He adds the importance of the new generation’s participation in events like this, because only with college education is not enough to be prepared to the market and global economy.
The event brought together professional from many generations. To Farah Mikhail, HR Outsourcing Operative at Target Recruitment, who has started in the field within few months, the workshop helped to break some misconceptions she had about the profession: “I changed my perspectives in many ways today. From the PR department, for instance, to let someone else defend you. I’ve never thought about it before. You should build relationships with other organizations so they back you up, you don’t work alone. That’s something I learned today.” To the Business Administration Lecturer, Laila Delawar, the event is really important because “hearing from a specialist in the field adds a lot of experience and makes you understand the concept not from the academic point of view only, which you can find in any book or studying in a college. Hearing from a person who is really practicing the job itself on the real ground and understanding the challenges that he faces, gives you real perspective from what’s really happening.”, as she told to the magazine.
As a person who has already worked in a big corporation and has already realized how the dynamics between the HR department and the other departments can be complicated, I believe that this topic is extremely important. Knowing how each side works, trying to settle the relationships and breaking stereotypes makes the work easy. Events like this should be motivated so that each generation, Millennial or not, can feel prepared to deal with the adversities inside of the business world.
Written By: Gabriela Neves & Juliana Batosto
