Job perks galore for twentysomethings

Eve Tahmincioglu • Profile • E-mail

Warning: If you are a baby boomer or part of Generation X, you might not want to read this column. I’m telling you, folks, it’s going to make you mad.

Today’s workplace is all about Generation Y when it comes to recruiting. At least that’s how employers see it, and they’re beginning to shower this group with perks unheard of by older workers who battled to get their collective feet in the career door.

Companies from an array of industries, everything from auto to health care, are pulling out all the stops to attract these individuals who are technologically savvy, pros at networking, and often self-indulgent although also socially conscious.

Gen Yers — born roughly between 1980 and 2000 — have hit the jackpot. We’re talking flat-screen televisions and iPods, free food for college kids, paid tuition, travel-abroad programs and a host of opportunities to save the planet.

But be sure to look beyond the smoke and mirrors, warns Ilene Wasserman, founder of ICW Consulting Group. "What any company wants is someone to contribute to the bottom line," she says. "You as an employee have to be willing to work."

The scramble by companies is being driven by an impending labor shortage as the baby boom generation reaches retirement age. Also, firms are hoping to bring in younger, more tech-savvy workers to breathe life into stodgy companies trying to figure out how to sell to Gen Yers — all 70 million of them.

"They are going to such great lengths to hire this generation because they have realized traditional recruitment and retention tactics such as money, a title and a training program are no longer good enough to attract and keep the best and brightest Gen Y employees," says Jason Dorsey, author of "My Reality Check Bounced!"

Some companies are hiring groups of friends because they believe Gen Yers need to stay tight with their social network. Others are going right to where Gen Yers live, posting funky videos and company information on sites such as Facebook and YouTube.

Even the Gen Y's "helicopter parents" are getting some props.

"A manager at a civil engineering firm saw that a new Gen Y hire had listed her mom as a reference. He called the new hire’s mom and invited her to be at the company to welcome the new hire to her first day of work," Dorsey explains.  "As the mom went to leave she turned to her daughter and said, ‘You’re not allowed to quit this job. Real companies are not like this.’"

Indeed, real companies, especially stuffy firms from corporate America, never acted like this.

Would a Gen Yer ever think Deloitte & Touche, one of the Big Four accounting firms, is cool?

Yes, says Eric Caudill, a 22-year-old who was recently an intern in Deloitte’s Richmond, Va.,  office.

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