Generational differences have an impact on Upper Cumberland employers, according to Generation Y Expert Amy Lynch, a featured speaker at the recent National Human Resources Manager's conference in Nashville.

In a standing-room-only presentation, Ms. Lynch described differences between the Veterans/Matures (born prior to 1946), the Baby Boomers (80 million of which were born between 1946 and 1964), Generation X (1964-1980) and Generation Y.

According to Lynch, "Veterans worked hard and asked "What can we build?" while Baby Boomers gave us the 100 hour work week, a love of meetings and collaborative work and asked "what can I do for my company."

Gen X changed things significantly, according to Lynch, with the question "what can the company do for me" and their quest for balance. Raised partly by cell phone and heavy parental interaction, Lynch suggests that Gen Y, today's newest entrants into the workplace, come armed with a load of confidence and the ability to be assertive about their expectations.

"Their whole lives we've given them choices and rapid answers. They expect to continue to be part of the dialogue about what's happening in the workplace. They want high tech, but they also want high touch." says Lynch.

Interestingly, these confident, flip-flop-wearing technologically advanced creatures have a good deal in common with the Veterans, asking again "what can we build?" Lynch reports that the keys to working effectively with Generation Y are a willingness to think in terms of flexibility, pay for productivity and results, offer them high challenge and an opportunity to do something that matters to them, as they are seeking action that improves the world situation in some way.

Equally important, Lynch reports, is the ability for managers to function as coaches in the workplace and offer boundaries, structure, conversation and an opportunity to contribute ideas. This growing segment of the workforce seems to be unique in one other respect: it is something of a global phenomenon. Lynch references pictures from the humorous commercial comparing "the Apple guy and the PC guy" from several cultures, a reflection, she believes, that Gen Y is the first truly global generation.

More information on Generation Y is available at Amy Lynch's website: www.bottomlineconversations.com.