What Do They Want?

They want flexibility, opportunity, responsibility and good salaries. They want their ideas considered and space to find themselves. Those were a few of the answers that emerged when Business NH Magazine sat down with nine young professionals in June and asked, What do the state and companies need to do to attract, and retain, the next generation of the workforce?

The roundtable discussion participants, ranging in age from 25 to 38, include business owners, middle managers and employees. Their generations, X and Y, are the future of NH as more baby boomers retire. Between 2002 and 2007, NH had an estimated 3.3 percent drop in 25- to 34-year-olds, generating concerns that NH is not keeping enough young workers to meet the needs of businesses. At the same time, there was a 29.1 percent gain in 55- to 64-year-olds, according to the NH Office of Energy and Planning. So, businesses want to know, What do these 20- and 30-somethings want?

Job Expectations
To begin with, younger workers expect a lot more than money from their jobs and they are not afraid to ask for it. That's why Nick Soggu, 33, president of SilverTech Inc., a Web design and development firm in Manchester, stresses both monetary and professional opportunities for advancement with his new hires. I think that stressing the growth opportunities for a young audience is important, Soggu says. Advancing not just from a pay perspective, but from a responsibility perspective.

For 26-year-old Matt Romano of Ocean Bank, that means being challenged and having his ideas heard. I think a lot of the younger generation has something to say, says Romano, an officer and market manager in the bank's Stratham office. I think it is important for employers to listen, whether it's right or wrong, and manage accordingly.

Employers who take time to listen will learn that some of the things young employees are looking for don't necessarily come at a high cost. Flexibility in work schedules, volunteer days that connect employees to the community and employee appreciation events are but some of the qualities roundtable participants say they look for in companies.
I think companies have a responsibility to meet somewhere in the middle, Gray Chynoweth, 29, legal counsel for Dynamic Network Services in Manchester, says of appealing to younger workers. If you say shirts and ties starched, show up at nine and leave at five,' you are going to miss out on a lot because young people won't work there.

Digital Prospectors Corp. in Manchester is proof the flexibility model works, at least in the field of IT staffing and consulting. As a sales-oriented business, employees are compensated for high performance, and trust is central to its policies. Employees can wear jeans to work, they can work from home when needed and they have unlimited sick days. You start off at a level of, we trust you,' says Jessica Catino, 37, managing director. Until you break that trust, you have it. The result: In its nine-year history, only three employees have left the company.

And then there are things young employees want that do come with a price tag. Rebekah Briggs is a project engineer at Parsons Brinckerhoff, an engineering firm in Manchester. She says she appreciates that her employer is willing to invest in new technologies. Briggs, 25, worked extensively with various computer programs in college and graduate school and Parsons Brinckerhoff invested in some of those programs to make the workflow at the company more efficient.

Briggs also says it is important for employers to invest in technology as Generation X and Y grew up surrounded by it. She says younger workers want to work on several projects so they can multitask and stay motivated. Our generation can play Play Station, talk on the phone and eat at the same time, she says. And we get to work and have one thing to do and we're bored.

Marketing NH
There is a perception among many young people coming out of college and outside NH that the Granite State isn't cool and doesn't offer the job opportunities they are seeking. At a recent job fair Briggs attended for her company, students told her they were going to go somewhere else because they didn't think they could find a job here. However, young professionals who live here say the reality is quite different.

That is the reason for the state's multifaceted efforts focused on young workers, from the University System of NH's 55 Percent Initiative (to retain 55 percent of NH's graduates) to the recently created task force on the retention and recruitment of young workers. Chynoweth says these efforts are vital because the link between businesses and schools is not strong enough in NH and more needs to be done to communicate the state's opportunities to people entering the workforce.

Celia Phillips moved to NH knowing nothing about the state and is still here seven years later. She likes the accessibility to Boston, Portsmouth and the mountains, as well as the quality of life that exists in NH-a sentiment shared by many roundtable participants. Phillips, 30, works as the programs and communications manager for the NH Lodging and Restaurant Association in Concord, and says NH needs a marketing campaign focused on young professionals. I think people are brainwashed that we are a state of old people, says Phillips. I think we should provide [such a campaign] to colleges and universities.

Deepak Gursahaney, 38, principal and chief technology officer at ActiveEdge in Nashua, agrees that the Granite State has an image problem. He says hiring is challenging because there is a perception, which he says is untrue, that NH lacks opportunities. Soggu says he has the most success recruiting younger workers who grew up and went to school in NH because it's an easy connect.

Ken Noel, 34, who works in commercial markets and information technology for Liberty Mutual in the Seacoast, recruits in Boston, and says it is difficult to persuade people to leave the social structure they have there. Instead, Noel says he does much better recruiting in Burlington, Vt., and places more similar to NH. I think if you go after the people who like a place like Burlington or small towns in Connecticut, you might get them, but if you go after people from Boston, it'll be much harder.

Sarah Walker, 31, is the marketing director for MacMillin, a Keene construction company. Walker grew up in Keene, went to college in Connecticut and then lived in both Boston and San Francisco. Walker moved back to Keene because it's home and close to her family, and because there were job opportunities.

State officials know they have a difficult task ahead. The state is graying, recently going from the seventh oldest state in the nation to the fifth, according to U.S. Census data. That's one reason Gov. John Lynch created a task force in March to help retain and recruit NH's young workers. The task force is charged with identifying barriers to retaining young people in the state and coming up with a strategic plan by
March 2009.

Chynoweth, co-chair of the task force and a board director for the Manchester Young Professionals Network, says one thing NH officials could do to entice more young people is to put jobs in different cities in perspective. He decided to move to NH rather than to Boston after law school because, while salaries were lower, those dollars took him just as far, if not farther. Also, in NH he saw more chances to stand out.

Briggs lives in Exeter and says she likes being close to her family in Southern Maine and not having to deal with the hassle and traffic of commuting to Boston.

Young professionals themselves are being proactive about creating opportunities for themselves in the Granite State.
In recent years, about a half dozen young professional network groups have formed in the state, drawing hundreds of young professionals to monthly networking events.

Their success has businesses and other business groups scrambling to partner with them as these groups are now seen as playing a key role in recruiting and retaining young workers.

Soggu says he found chamber events stodgy. Young professional [groups] make us feel like we were part of a group, says Soggu, who serves on the board of the Manchester Young Professionals Network. The biggest thing the young professional groups bring is this networking opportunity in a comfortable space.

Still, Soggu says young professionals groups need to work with traditional chamber groups so the two are better connected and colleges need to work more closely with business.

Romano of Ocean Bank and a member of Catapult, the young professionals group in the Seacoast, doesn't see a problem with those groups being their own private entities and functioning separately. He says Catapult is strong enough on its own, and if other groups want to get involved, they can.

Battling a Bad Rep
While young professionals are in demand, many employers also shake their heads when talking about the challenges they bring. It is not unusual for employers to talk about workers straight out of college as having a sense of entitlement, both in terms of responsibility and higher salaries. They might not know exactly what they want career wise or know when they need to ask for help.

When you hire a 22-year-old, you're not sure what you're getting and I think that's why they sometimes get a bad rap, says Gursahaney of ActiveEdge. People perceive it as a work ethic issue, but I think it's just they haven't found themselves.

At Liberty Mutual, Noel recruits young workers by showing them the opportunities they have to grow at the company. Here, you can find yourself, Noel says of his approach. You can try a little of this, you can try a little of that. Noel can also offer something that small companies can't necessarily do: A network of like-minded and similar aged people. Liberty Mutual will bring in new college graduates in groups of 30, not one or two. For the new workers, that provides a social network as the group receives job training together and attends work functions where they can socialize.

Business leaders are facing another challenge from the next generation in the workforce-demands for higher wages. Roundtable participants point out that today's workers come with heavy student loan debt and can face high housing and rental costs in some areas of the state. Romano of Ocean Bank says if people have to accrue more debt to receive the education they need to land a job, businesses need to be prepared to pay more. Soggu says he struggles to be fair to all employees when it comes to providing perks. For that reason, he looks to things like a relaxed dress code and flex time that apply to all.

Today's workers also want more independence at their job and flexibility. Providing those can come with pitfalls. Romano says new young employees don't always know how to ask for help. That's where mentoring comes in as an important component of a company's culture. He credits two mentors with influencing his career. Chynoweth says mentoring is most effective when it is informal. But Walker says younger workers also need to take responsibility for their learning and seek out opportunities within tHeir companies.

Roundtable participants also point out that today's workers respect companies that are up front with them, as they have seen the fall out of the Enron scandal and the dot com bust. For that reason, Catino says, they have some skepticism about long-term commitments to a single company.

A 20-something is not going to have the same value set as a 50-something, says Briggs of Parsons Brinckerhoff.
So how can NH ensure its economic prosperity? Walker has a simple solution: I think in New Hampshire, business is personal and that is our big advantage, she says. Keeping it personal so everyone can grow and succeed.

-Business NH Magazine 2008