Posted September 19, 2008 to | Section Home | Print

Gen Y Job Satisfaction at Low levels: Researchers Explore Ways to Bridge Workplace Communication Gap

The Center for Management Communication at USC's Marshall School of Business is leading the way to solve intergenerational gaps in workplace perspectives and expectations. Communication solutions play a fundamental role in bridging the growing disparities between Gen Y workers and their older managers and corporate leaders.

Across all major fields and industries, job satisfaction levels for new Gen Y professionals are plummeting. A 2007 study by the Conference Board found that job satisfaction for workers under the age of twenty-five are at record lows with less than 4 out of 10 reporting that they are satisfied with their current jobs.

According to Marshall faculty member Kirk Snyder, who has just completed a three-year research project focusing on communication and connection in the workplace, "the economic toll associated with these increasingly lower levels of job satisfaction among Gen Y is significant, immeasurable and preventable."

Studies by the Society for Human Resources Management are consistent with Snyder's findings - hand-in-hand with lower levels of job satisfaction are decreased employee commitment, productivity and retention. These are three organizational conditions that companies in today's tightening economy simply cannot afford.

Creating proactive solutions to bridge generational communication is the focus of USC's groundbreaking event on September 26, 2008. At this conference, Marshall's Center for Management Communication will bring together undergraduate business students with organizational leaders across Southern California.

This first-ever event will focus on how to increase generational communication in three areas that greatly impact job satisfaction: relationship-building, employee engagement and employee productivity. The goal of this event is to bridge these workplace gaps through improved communication. According to Snyder, "our hope is that through conferences like this one, we can maximize the potential of this newest generation of young professionals."