Ulysses, CEOs, Recruiters and Siren Chants

How to escape the siren song. A lesson for Odysseus and the CEOs or Recruiters of People

The Odyssey, a legendary work shows us Ulysses receiving advice from the sorceress Circe, to overcome the dangers on the journey back home. When he reached the island of the Sirens, nymphs or sea deities, who enchanted the sailors with their songs, he and his companions already knew what to do to avoid the danger and destruction where the musical vocals, prodigiously attractive and hypnotic, were conducting. Odysseus plugged his companions' ears with wax and had him tied to the ship's mast. When the Sirens sang a beautiful chant and called with persuasive voices to Odysseus, who, in utter ecstasy, tried to untie himself to go to sea, his companions tied him more strongly to the mast of the ship. When the island was left behind, the companions got rid of the wax plugs and freed Odysseus. According to the myth, the mermaids, despised for not being heard, took their lives by throwing themselves into the sea.

Odysseus was lucky, received and listened to timely and prudent advice. What is it to CEOs for human resource recruiters to sing the siren that can lead to destruction? Can they be lucky like Odysseus to save himself from the mortal danger of bad choice?

In companies, employees are divided into groups: young and old; the point at which you move from one group to another is debatable, but in our case, assume that it is 40 years old (before someone at that age had a lot of potential in the company). Replacement should be gradual so that a balance is reached, where the contribution in talent, commitment, achievement and productivity of both groups is equivalent (point E in figure 1). At point A, the talent of young people could be wasted; in the B group the greater number of young people could compensate the departure of experienced workers in the company.

What happens when blinded by the myth around the "super powers" of the millennials, decide to rule out many who have passed the forty and is located at point D ?. It would be a wise decision if all millennials have the talents attributed, if they all assume commitment and loyalty to the company by matching or surpassing what former senior workers brought. At this point, far from balance, a clear gap has been created that is explained both by the need for generational change and by prejudices in favor of young people and at the expense of so-called old people.

Now the danger comes. The lack of prudence (they did not get waxed in their ears or tied to the mast like Odysseus and his companions) gets that enthusiasm to prevent them from seeing a notoriously damaging feature of millennials, lack of loyalty. They only stay in a company to the extent that they meet their personal and selfish needs, very few believe the story that the employee must be unconditional and loyal to the company. They offer their services, their "talent"; if they pay them what they owe, in another case they go to the competition, without any scruples. And if some knowledge, some vital processes are known only by them, they will not give them and will leave in an uncomfortable situation to the organization that they abandon. The volatility of the contribution and commitment in every sense is constant, which is why it shows an undulating line, which indicates that with the same speed with which they are elected and contracted they go to another place.

Deloitte in the 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey found that "millennials generally offer little loyalty to their current employers and many have exit plans in the short term. The "challenge of loyalty" is driven by several factors. Millennals are thought to be underutilized and think they are not developing as leaders "(Deloitte, 2017: 2)

Deloitte's annual survey of Millennials' famous generation showed that companies should adjust how they encourage loyalty, otherwise they risk losing a high percentage of their employees. Being people with many concerns, do not imagine in the same job for a long time, especially if they have no chance of growth. 44% of respondents said they expected to leave their current employer in the next two years; And two-thirds would leave the organization by 2020. Only 10% are seen in the same company within 10 years.

This volatility of the millennial, as well as the contribution of his talent can generate absurd situations such as having in a spreadsheet people perhaps trained in the most modern management techniques (MBA, some with double or triple degree) and without clutch with productivity , and results that are lower than those achieved with the old collaborators and that supposedly have less potential or real capacities (as shown by the dotted green line in Figure 3). An electric bulb of 25 W that contributes 250 lumen of brightness or illumination, that operates continuously is preferable to another one that offers 2000 lumen but sporadically, by sparks.

Loyalty is directly related to opportunities for leadership development, job flexibility, and sense of purpose beyond income. If CEOs are very restrictive with former employees, why do they agree to be very lenient with this new group?

This lack of loyalty is a serious challenge for companies that employ many Millennials, especially in markets such as the United States, where they are now the largest segment of the workforce. When there are problems and solutions are provided by employees or obtained from abroad, they can not be implemented with millenillas, because some will already be gone, others will be with a mind foreign to the interests and needs of the company; while the old employees, the old discarded are no longer. The CEOs or recruiters who made the decision to get rid of the old fell like children in the siren trap.

There is no doubt about a fact: The CEO and / or recruiters who brought the organization into this situation do not have the talent required to choose the best contributors, therefore, they must be as far from the organization as the "despicable old men " of which they were undone. That is, they lack the sense of smell that is needed to choose the best that make a team champion.

Businesses always face problems and solutions can come from internal or external staff (consultancies, for example). In an MIT study conducted over a four-year period by Malhotra, Majchrzak, Kesebi and Looram (2017) to determine how companies use internal forces, including front-line employees, in finding new solutions to the business challenges, interviewed executives who promote the internal search for solutions.

Organizations seek better solutions to their everyday problems, many encourage their employees to use their experiences to develop new ideas and take a more active role in the innovation process. This approach involves better contracting practices, better products or services, better forecasts; Companies like AT & T Inc., Google Inc. and Deutsche Telekom AG now practice internal crowdsourcing, search for ideas and proposals within the organization.

When external crowdsourcing is carried out, which involves asking for ideas from consumers, suppliers and anyone else who wishes to participate, it is because internal crowdsourcing is still not fully understood, which seeks to channel the ideas and experience of the employees themselves. Internally, employees are allowed to interact dynamically with co-workers in other areas, to propose new ideas and suggest changes in management.

Many large companies have a "background" of experience and knowledge scattered in different places; Malhotra et. Al (2017) found that harnessing internal cognitive diversity can open new and rich sources of innovation. Also, internal crowdsourcing is a particularly effective way to engage younger employees and people working front-line.

Companies that resort to external crowdsourcing should solve several problems. The people involved do not know the context and circumstances in which the organization operates, and many suggestions will be unfeasible. Customer input will be good descriptions of critical points and weaknesses, but do not help with ideas to solve problems. In fact, the proposals require strategic assets that companies do not have and can not afford. In addition, the problem of intellectual property may arise, does the person who collaborates or the company own the idea?

The inner groups are not as diverse as the external groups, and can not propose radical ideas because they have a more localized knowledge; but ensures viability and speed. Frontline employees have in-depth knowledge of viable changes, given the circumstances of the company and current assets. It is true that many solutions are patches or alternative solutions that satisfy particular needs, but have a rapid impact on the market; and there is no problem of intellectual property.

One way to encourage creativity, the presentation of proposals is collaborative work, which fosters innovation, empowers and increases morale and commitment.

Malhotra et al. (2017) present in Graph 5 the advantages of internal and external sources of solutions. This graph also suggests the need to act well in the choice and attraction of talents. The dilemma of internal and external solutions is as imprinting as the dilemma of young (millennial) and old (over 40)

Graph 5. Where to look for solutions?

Source: http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/developing-innovative-solutions-through-internal-crowdsourcing

The fate of Odyssey is shared only by a few, guided by prudence, moderation, justice and balance in human relations. When they hire people, for unquestionable reasons regarding the renewal of people and the need to have collaborators who are trained in the new technical and management tools, they do not automatically exclude older people than millennial. In this way, they avoid the loss of talent without being seduced by the siren song that is represented by the blind and obsessive inclination towards the millennial and the almost pathological contempt for the old (over 40).

An irrefutable evidence that they are not mistaken, when they discard the old, is that companies should be immediately in the top positions in their sector, a situation that is not true in the vast majority of cases and is not empirically demonstrable.

If Odysseus lived in our time, the use of GPS, instruments and sophisticated control mechanisms, would prevent it from crashing or encalle. If he does it is out of foolishness or incompetence. Similarly, CEOs and recruiters have access to theories, algorithms, hundreds of books with techniques and advice from renowned experts, master's or doctoral degrees, powerful expert systems and multiple mechanisms so that mistakes in the choice of type of employees and the balance between the different groups (young and old), are not admissible. Like the reckless Odysseus, they should go to the bottom of the sea.

References

Malhotra Arvind,  Majchrzak Ann, Kesebi Lâle, and Looram Sean (2017) Developing Innovative Solutions Through Internal Crowdsourcing

Magazine: Summer 2017 IssueResearch Feature, May 31, 2017

http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/developing-innovative-solutions-through-internal-crowdsourcing/?social_token=260eae3689958e9ace3ccdaa0fc506ac&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sm-direct

Deloitte (2016) The 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey Winning over the next generation of leaders

https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-millenial-survey-2016-exec-summary.pdf

Odiseo y las sirenas, febrero 2014

http://antesdelogos.blogspot.pe/2014/02/odiseo-y-las-sirenas.html

The millennials and dirty old man, a spicy metaphor

Why Millennials leave companies?

Source: www.lapatilla.com

An elderly gentleman with a lot of money, very sure of himself, believes his wealth and power granted the right to seek in youth the attributes that nature has disappeared or gradually deteriorated on his wife, companion of all life. He decides leve her  and find a young companion. For a while everything seems wonders and the gentleman thinks he has rejuvenated. Clearly, money, generous checks and access to luxuries motivated the young to accept the company of someone who could be her grandfather.

Before long,  begin the difficulties and disagreements; Young is happy, dynamic and up scatterbrained, maintains a pace of life that the lucky suitor can no longer hold; the rhythms of life are clearly different.  Without warning, she starts to leave mentally and physically, each absence is longer tin time. Once the old man finds her on the street, showing too much affection for someone who did not seem to office, perhaps a bum, a kept man, someone without a future. But he was young and old companion , showed that loyalty was not a recognizable quality in her.  A dirty old man (DOM) once treated as a disposable object to his faithful wife, now he discovered that it was also a disposable object for the  scatterbrained young girl.

Source: www.loquenosabias.net

How does this story with business? Lot, especially in the field of human resources, when focusing on the obsessive preference  by millennials and contempt from  the CEO or Human resiources recruiters (HRR), indifference or even irritation they feel when presented with a candidate who has more years that they (usually 35 years).

Millennials is conquering the world and making their mark in today's society as did previous generations. Those who arrived at the beginning of adult life around 2000, are known as a hyper group and very familiar with the technology that interact in social media or as the boomerang generation who has returned to live with his parents. For some, the millennials represent protesters middle class Squat movements, new generations of professionals highly indebted or narcissists who made "selfie" the most famous word in recent years (Nava, Karp, Nash, 2014: 1)

In companies presently it preferred young professionals, among which are the millennials, which are believed to have extraordinary abilities and professional skills. For HRR and entrepreneurs or CEOs, millennials have the power of the philosopher's stone that turns everything into gold; ie they can "solve any business problem." The problem is that even though some are bright, many of them not, but all adopt the pose of special people or prima donna of opera. The truth is that they can achieve results if they work in organizations working with older partners, who have the experience, willingness to work regardless of the age of their peers. Millennials may be tech-savvy but do not know the subtleties of critical thinking, accumulated knowledge and even wisdom of older workers, so although they are valuable supplements in the organization, are not absolutely essential (nor are the most age workers).

When millennials decide to resign from the company for various reasons, some are shown in the graph, executives, especially the HRR, despair and lose control without managing to see that the solution lies in people staying in the institution.

A sign that millennials are not indispensable absolutely as believe those that are blinded by the apparent brightness is that when they are removed,  organization  not plummets, because it continues to operate until another millennial appears or problems resolved with staff will not leave. If they were the source of knowledge, the absolute masters of the solutions, visionaries who see the future clearly, innovators who only have winning ideas, fans of them (CEOs, HRR that are decidedly hostile to the elderly) could have reason to despair when some of them leaves the company. The supposed superiority in the use of technology is spurious if they do not add value to the organization. It is a waste to have a millennial access to 50 digital networks and many network resources, but does not know statistical analysis to detect a trend in sales and make appropriate recommendations. It is like putting a "plastic pretty flower" in the CEO's office (unless he has a lot of money and bad taste).

Source. Gananci.com

In fact, the complaint and lamentation by the output of a millennial is justified only rarely (but the HRR is wailing not know by stubbornness, foolishness and sheer ignorance). The complaint would be justified only if the millennium had had an outstanding performance in the company, if it had been do as the light scattered the darkness and lit the way to guide all. If it was just brilliant in their tasks without these transcend the organization, you can not say that was a good idea hiring and assigning them excessive privileges.

So, we believe that there is a parallel between green old of our history and the CEO or HRR weeping over the departure of their "millennials ones." Both overestimated their strength and potential. The DOM believed that with money or power could conquer the curvaceous young forever; but he did not mind the limits of nature or their limited ability to keep up with the young. The HRR or CEO addicted to Millennials thought they could control, coerce and even manipulate; but they find that their managerial powers or smell to recognize and detect potential in atrophied or collaborated fully know the mindset of the millennials.

The following table shows the parallelism between dirty old man (DOM) and the CEO or the HRR. I do not know if in this case it applied the phrase "All resemblance is purely coincidental" ; in any case you judge.

Table 1. Analogy between milennials and young lovers

Situation	Millenials (HRH)	Young (Dirty old man)
Mental state (mental fallacy)	The RRH think being fashionable hiring young, apparently endowed with extraordinary profesional skills; thinks that with them, the company will be competitive	DOM believes that if he has a young lover, and  rejuvenation is achieved
Decision	Ignores "old" (over 35 years) collaborators, fallacy ad hominem (if an "old" is outdated, others too)	Leave aside his faithful wife, who was his engine life and success, who knows his strengths and weaknesses
Assessment of strengths	Believes in management capacity, control capacity, domination and power to  mistreat the millennials. The company is attractive to all	Assumes that has vigor, energy and time needed to live well with the young lover. Money is useful for all
Signs  (beauty)	Some have titles and real powers, some not, but all are digital natives. Only millennials really know what they can do but take advantage of the myth about them	Beauty can be artificial (plastic surgery, silicone or can even be a transsexual). Only the girl knows, but uses his charm to gain the attention of the DOM
Performance or behavior	Millennials can be really competitive, or they can hide weaknesses after prima donna attitudes	Can be loyal, may have frigidity and even prefer people of the same sex, but for the money deceives the DOM
Unexpected effect	They leave the company, can go to the competition or to a smaller company	Leaves DOM, can be paired with vague or maintained without a penny or future (common occurrence)
Control of the situation	They have no idea how to use the potential of millennials, can not handle them or coercing them	Impotence, underperforming and infirmities away him from the girl. The blue pills do not work.
Cause	Thye dont have genuine management capacity, do not speak the language of millennials, do not know their values	HRR does not know his limits, does not speak the language of the young, does not know their values ​​and preferences

Source: Carlos Rivas, oct 2016

The old, to maintain and retain young, besides money and luxuries must live the frantic pace of it,  must understand her tastes and interests, must know her verbal and emotional language, but can not always because nature is relentless and puts limits. With or without money, she will leave. It may not be the "John Charrasqueado" an old Mexican song. (2)

The CEO or RRH, to keep the millennials must also adapt to them, treat them with respect (they not support abuse and are intolerant of abusive or overbearing), speak their language, adopt their values. Nor do so because they do not understand their way of life and can not catch up with them, it will also be out of date and out of focus on what they do or can do. They act as a DOM and believes to be an Olympic athlete (3)

When someone is neglected or underrated by a RRH fan of the millennials, think that acts as a DOM,  who has the money to attempt the seduction of the young, but not what is natural to youth. The RRH believes that for millennials have the power, the ability to create or destroy jobs, assign or remove privileges and therefore will be accepted; but the millennials are disloyal by nature and way of life, and he will put aside by his obsession really valuable people.

Notes

(1)   Since the defection of millennials seems to be a common phenomenon, an investigation should find a sufficient number of cases, if the output of which produces a significant drop in organizations, the sales decline or loss of value the bag. Or, if the arrival of a millennial significantly raised the value and competitiveness of the organization.

(2)  John Charrasqueado is a Mexican song that recounts the adventures of a "peasant don juan" so fickle and conqueror, to the point that all the ladies were seduced by him.

(3)  We say "some" because there are contributors outside the group of millennials who are 40, 50 60 years with a mental activity, creativity, enthusiasm for work, an experience that makes them equal or superior to the best millennials or most from them; also they have a forgotten quality, loyalty. The only gap can be on knowledge and mastery of technology, because while others are digital natives, they are only digital migrants.

Link to listen Juan Charrasqueado

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWaw7bKaVk4

  References

Nava, Marcial;  Karp,  Nathaniel; Nash-Stacey Boyd (2014) La paradoja de la generación del milenio BBVA, 16-12-2016

https://www.bbvaresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/141216_US_BW_BankMillennials_esp.pdf