There has been a lot written about Gen Y, but much of it has been mere opinion and observation. There have been very few qualitative or quantitative research projects to back up opinion with fact - until now. The latest white paper from McCrindle Research, titled New Generations at Work, provides a valuable insight into attracting and retaining Gen Y at work. The white paper is the result of a survey of 3,000 Australians which aimed to benchmark the findings of Gen Y against older generations. This survey was then followed up by a series of in-depth focus groups of Gen Ys, which were moderated by Mark McCrindle, director of McCrindle Research. As one of Australia's foremost social researchers and a leading authority on our changing generations, McCrindle gives HC a snapshot view of the report's findings.

HC: You mention in the forward to your white paper that the issues of an ageing population and a new attitude to work have been emerging for a generation - yet many organisations have been slow to realise this. How do you think they are now placed to handle these changes?

Mark McCrindle: I think the way business works is very reactionary, and everyone's so busy dealing with right now that planning for the future, demographically speaking and economically speaking, is left to the last minute. So suddenly this ageing population situation is hitting business because there's a skills shortage and suddenly they find they can't get the staff they need or they're getting staff and they can't keep them. Suddenly retention is the key issue and it's mainly the young people who they can't retain. They ask, "What's wrong with these young people? Why don't they stick around like my old staff used to?"

I think now that these demographic and generational changes are starting to be seen here and now, business leaders are saying. "OK, this exists, now I need information on it, I need some insight into it".

HC: How important do you think it is for managers, and HR in particular, to understand this generational shift?

MM: It's vital. HR now has its feet at the executive level because one of the key constraints in business in this day and age is on the HR side. Suddenly people are seeing they need strategies at a senior level to deal with the staffing side of the business. Smart HR managers see that generational differences really do permeate all areas. Not only are there issues around recruitment, but also around management and leadership styles and around training and communication styles.

HC: Gen Y gets a lot of media attention but is it really any different from what has gone before? Generations come and go, don't they?

MM: In a sense it's always been around because there's always a number of generations in the workforce - that's just biological. And there's always been generation gaps because everyone grows up at different times, but what we have today is a combination of some key factors. You've got an economy in its 15th straight year of growth, so demand is high for labour. At the same time supply is smaller because we've got a smaller generation relative to the population, as well as an internationally competitive global workforce. Just checking the latest ABS data, there are 20,000 fewer 30-something males than females, yet there's roughly the same number of both sexes born. Why is this? The reason is because they are overseas working. With all of these factors, it's harder to find and keep this generation.
That wasn't the case in the early 1990s when there was a recession, when people were downsizing rather than hiring. Now everyone's spending money trying to market their careers, their positions, their brand, their EVP [Employee Value Proposition]. We're at a whole new level because of the demographic shift.

HC: It's a balancing act, isn't it - finding ways to please Gen Y but not forgetting the needs of what is essentially an ageing workforce?

MM: Exactly, it's a balance, and that is a point that gets overlooked when we're so Gen Y obsessed. Actually the growth has been with older workers - the trend is to work longer, the workplace has more generations and more older people than ever, and as far as the stability and the tenure, you're going to get that more from the older workers than the younger workers. So that means changes at an OH&S level for an older worker, it means changing scheduling rules for them. You may have older workers who have grandkids, and the family balance really matters to them too - it's not just a younger person's desire to have work/life balance. It's about having a whole of workplace approach, and setting up an inter-generational workplace is a key factor.

HC: An interesting outcome of your white paper was how Gen Y relates to other generations in the workforce. How well does Gen Y mix with other workers?

MM: This is another encouraging point for existing leaders - it's not all about stacking the workplace with all the young people. What I discovered in my research was that Gen Y appreciate an older worker or a leader who has greater experience than themselves who can act as a mentor. It's not as though Gen Y only want to work with their peer group. When we got the results from the 3,000 that we surveyed, when we asked who their ideal leader was, and what age group they ideally like to have in the workplace, the majority said that age doesn't matter - it's irrelevant.

HC: What are some of the characteristics of Gen Y and how do these impact on the workplace?

MM: They are very self-aware. They know where they sit, they're aware of what people think of their generation, they're aware of the skills shortage, they're aware that they are in demand. They know that they can choose multiple jobs, they know they can leave, and they don't need the security in the job because they know it's a workforce with low unemployment. They are empowered, and this means that they're not afraid to move on if their needs aren't met. They are in a hurry to try different things, to move up the ranks or to divert their careers in a different direction if necessary.

Ultimately what this means is employers have to work harder to position what they are offering. They need to offer a broader job description, to provide them with leadership opportunities, to give them reward and recognition strategies beyond just remuneration.

HC: There was an interesting comment in one of your forums where one participant said that when it comes to work/life balance they would always choose life. This is a significant shift in thinking from previous generations, isn't it?

MM: Absolutely. For previous generations it was about being financially responsible and there was a certain duty to be a loyal employee. That has changed and the etiquette has changed. The loyalty factor has changed - people are looking after themselves a bit more. With the new IR laws there no more guarantees, and a lot less security, so you need to take charge of your future. Gen Y are simply playing to the new rules of the game.

HC: So what are the most effective methods for recruiting Gen Y? Are online job boards the way of the future?

MM: If you think about banking, you don't go into a branch all that much these days - online banking has taken over. In this sort of world younger people are not opening the classifieds section of the paper to look for a job - they look online. They also have no problems using the experts, so the recruitment agencies are on their lists. We also found in our research a missed opportunity for bigger companies that didn't have much of an online recruitment strategy, or had one but you had to go through 15 pages to find it.
When it came to job interviews and the whole recruitment process, people in our forums had strong feelings about that. Again, because the power is with the candidate, not so much the employer, they were not keen on going through the hoops of multiple interviews, especially when they are unsure if they even want the job at the end of it. Panel interviews were also not popular at all.

HC: How do you retain Gen Y? Is salary still important? Interest, variety and fun in the workplace seem to be high on the agenda.

MM: It's about the right workplace vibe, the feel of the place, whether they can connect and enjoy it. The practicalities of where the workplace is, the management style and whether management is respecting them and involving them are also important factors. They also care about broader job descriptions, clear career pathways and having management re-engage with them throughout their employment, not just at the start.

HC: Your research indicates the triple bottom line is also important. What can organisations do to move this from hollow sentiment to something tangible?

MM: It needs to move from something that is just espoused to something that becomes part of the culture. The easiest way is for managers to push it back to the younger people - they're the ones charged up about corporate social responsibility, so give them the power, time and a little budget as well, to take charge of this. Get them to choose a charity or to set up what they think is a good environmental policy, or to work out what socio-economic concerns are key for them. Then they are empowered, they own it, so they'll make sure they follow through with it, and they can ensure it flows through the organisation beyond the mission statement.

A DICTIONARY to help adults decipher the grunts and mutterings of modern teenagers - or Generation Y as researchers insist on calling them - is the latest attempt to bridge the generation gap.

The cynical might wonder why children growing up in East Killara use language they hear on TV from the streets of South Central, in Los Angeles, but the sentimental will be glad that they still recognise some slang.

It is apparently still cool to say cool, but only if you don't pronounce the "l". Coo'. By now "sick", "mad" and "ill" are totally "old school", perhaps soon to be superseded by more "phatt" terms of benediction, such as "the lick" or even "puff".

The dictionary's author, Mark McCrindle, notes that in the lexicon of Generation Y (he defines the group as anyone born between 1980 and 1994) there are many terms for hanging around with friends - such as "pez out" - but "none have yet been found which mean 'to work with great diligence and commitment'." He compiled the dictionary in part to help employers, who he believes are finding themselves out of touch with young staff, a contributing factor to high turnover.

Some of the language is funny, such as "munter", an ugly person. Some is well worth knowing, such as "Regulate. verb, to take an action of enforcement. To punish or hurt. 'Man, if you don't stop buggin I'm gonna regulate!"'

Some words appear plain old-fashioned - so old-fashioned that perhaps the kids who use them do not realise that grandad did, too. "Spent", for example, is defined as meaning tired. One of the definitions the musty old Macquarie Dictionary offers is "exhausted".

Some of the terms are straight out of the lyrics of gangsta rap, such as "Jigga. noun, a gigolo; someone who has a way with the ladies. 'Yo, whussup jigga."' Others have a satisfying Australian ring to them, such as "'Y'mum. A comeback used in general conversation. Often used in a comical, rather than an offensive way. Baz: 'You're the one who got us lost", Shaz: "Y'mum!"'

According to Mr McCrindle, who compiled the dictionary after collecting the words from research that included lurking in online chatrooms, only about 10 per cent of the terms are uniquely Australian.

"It's a truly global language; Gen Y is a global generation," he said. While older people in Australia might struggle to understand many of the terms, he added, members of Gen Y would easily understand, whether they were in Sydney, Tokyo or Amsterdam.

While most modern slang comes from North America, due to its dominance of pop culture, a growing amount is now emerging from Asia.

But while it might be fun and certainly educational for older people to learn youth language, do not fall into the trap of trying to imitate it.

That, according to Mr McCrindle, would just be embarrassing.

The younger generations have crafted their own technology conversant language, seemingly devoid of wit, but, Steve Dow asks, who's having the last laugh?

DO GENERATIONS Y and Z -- those born since 1980 and 1995, respectively -- have a firm grasp of irony?

Proof can be applied to prejudice that the rest of us, the builders (pre- 1946), the baby boomers (1946- 1964) and generation X (1965- 1979), speak a different tongue and possess a different sensibility to young Australians.

There's increasing evidence that young Australians have their own language, as fast and coded as their texting thumbs and hyperlinked minds will allow, and one that older Australians are probably too slow to comprehend. At first we may see only marketing and image in those aged 26 and under. Recently, I sat at a pub with a group of twentysomethings. On the table, I placed my five-year-old, utilitarian silver Nokia, which is in perfect working order, near their stylish mobile phones equipped with in-built cameras, Bluetooth and MP3 compatibility.

My phone doesn't send images or stream video. When it conked out recently, I just replaced the battery, rather than buy a new one. The youngest of our group, his hair swept in product, looked at my mobile and me like we'd just slithered out of the proverbial primordial.

"I have to look down at you for having that," he sniffs, without blinking. This generation Y-er still lived at home with his baby-boomer parents. Me, an X-er born in the late 1960s, a birth cohort said to be steeped in irony, wondered if healthy scepticism had skipped my young acquaintance's generation. Sydney freelance writer Rebecca Huntley, a generation X-er also looking over her shoulder at the next lot, confirmed my prejudice with her recent book, The World According to Y: Inside the New Adult Generation, drawing on the studies of academics and social researchers, and her extensive interviews with 50 18 to 25-year-olds.

At some point for young Australians, a portable telephone became an object of narcissistic worship. Daniel, a 19-year-old student majoring in journalism, proves he'd be more suited to marketing when he tells Huntley, straight-faced: "Your phone says a lot about you. You contain your personality in your phone."

Jackie, "an ambitious 23-year-old in PR", says her mobile is "like my right arm". Presumably, those are ring tones on her fingers. Huntley clears the air and illuminates, however, when she explains that the mobile phone is the "icon for this generation". "In the Y world, a mobile phone is not merely a phone. It's a device for work and play, fl irtation and sex, friendship and family. Your mobile phone symbolises you." In short, the mobile phone is generation Y's social lifeline, now that the critical mass owns one.

Having an ugly model, it seems, is as on the nose as failing to shower. Now, however, social researcher Mark McCrindle has exploded the myth that young Australians are irony-deficient. He's created a dictionary of their slang, a lexicon of generation X and Y terms that commonly don't always mean what they first appear to say. The dictionary is part fun, part serious -- given high employment rates and a young, worldwide webweary generation picking and choosing job options, it seems the onus is on employers to learn how to communicate with them, rather than the other way around.

For instance, if you're a "winner", a "hero" or a "legend", that's no longer good. But, if you are "sick", "ill", a "freak" or a "dog", that's now good. Much has to do with meaning the opposite of what you say. The fact that probably only 10 per cent of the words in the Y-Z lexicon seem to have originated in Australia and much more from urban African-American culture seems a logical product of globalised communication.

Australians aged 26 and under "think in hyperlinks, multi-task, value speed over accuracy and absorb information from multiple sources", says McCrindle. Forget books and think Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia edited by anyone who cares to dip in, as well as DVDs, emails and text messages from friends.

The result is sometimes that the structured written word and grammar have, to put it politely, become relaxed. "We had trouble getting generation Y respondents to write some words down," says McCrindle. "They may regularly ask 'Whassup?', but it's not intended to be written. And the answer 's'righ' looks clumsy when written." Young Aussies are "logged on and linked up", and haven't time for old-school syntactical and grammatical etiquette. They're creating their own. Mobile phone texting and chat rooms have evolved a new language of abbreviations.

There's LTM, or laugh to myself, LOL for laugh out loud, and even ROFLUTS -- roll on the floor laughing, unable to speak. McCrindle makes the point that Australians aged 26 and under are not fools; in fact, they're the most educated generation in our history, with year 12 retention rates exceeding 80 per cent, and more continuing to tertiary education than ever.

Huntley concedes that young Australians seem prone to swallowing the tactics of marketeers with the mobile phone phenomenon and the like. But, she explains, time and space have sped up for them -- once your tribe is net-savvy and mobile-dependent, you must keep up, or face social ostracism.

Likewise, jealousy may play a part in older Australians looking askance at younger Australians speaking their strange, coded language and texting at the dinner table. It's easy for a generation X-er to be suspicious and judgemental of a generation Y-er, who all seem to be the apple of their babyboomer grandparents' eyes. "We felt abandoned, whereas they've felt treasured and protected," says Huntley.

Young Australians, however, have used their wired, hyperlinked and SMSed world for good. Generation Y, as presumably generation Z will do after them, place a greater emphasis on friendships than older Australians -- a sound insurance policy against the high failure rate of intimate partnerships. The buoyancy of generation Y, Huntley notes, is all the more remarkable given the future they face: no guarantee of career longevity, lifelong marriage or home ownership.

Perhaps the ultimate irony, though, is the continued demarcation between generations X, Y and Z. When Canadian author Douglas Coupland coined the term generation X for his book of the same name in 1991, it was in the services of satire, a quick tag for a generation disheartened and cynical about their baby-boomer forebears.

So if Coupland was kidding, it follows that the notion of generations Y and Z simply continues a running joke. Maybe the generation after Z -- those to be born from 2010 onwards -- will once again defi ne themselves by irony. After all, discovering that there are no letters left after Z to name them should make for a fi ne sense of black humour.

THE Y-Z LEXICON

ab: (adjective) Weird, strange -- as in abnormal. "My olds have gone totally ab on me."

ax: (verb) "Let me ax you somtin!"

bananas: (adjective) Hot, cute, adorable. "That guy is bananas!"

bitchin': (adjective) Totally awesome, unbelievable or exciting. "The surf is really bitchin'."

chat: (adjective) Disgusting, wrong, not very nice. "That sandwich looks chat."

dog: (noun) A friend. "Hey dog -- good to see you!" Can also mean to leave someone behind. (verb) "We dogged him."

hussy: (noun) Also a mate and friend. "My hussy and I are chillin'."

ill: (verb) Cool, in style. "Dazza is lookin' ill tonight -- totally sick!"

messed up: (adjective) Awesome, good, cool. "That is some messed up (great) party."

regulate: (verb) To punish or hurt. "Man, if you don't stop it I'm gonna regulate."

sick: (adjective) An extremely good trick in extreme sport.

who's your daddy!: An exclamation of victory or retort, nothing to do with paternity.

Copyright © 2006. The Age Company Ltd.

For busy mothers, a quick coffee with friends after school drop-off satisfies a genuine social need, writes Susan Guthrie IT'S 9am Wednesday on the Gold Coast and Gloria Jeans in Burleigh is already busy.

Tables of mums, having just dropped their children at the local school, are catching up before their busy day continues.

Burleigh mothers, Camilla Gallagher, 34, Amanda Bowie, 39, and Donna Davidson, 36, catch up for coffee at least twice a week. Mondays and Fridays are the busiest days at the coffee shop, they say. "Going for coffee is a great way to start the day before you have to go home and do the dishes and the floors," Bowie says. "We pretty much go home and do housework, look after the little ones."

Gallagher adds: "Then you're ready for after school when your other kids have extra activities you have to take them to and homework."

According to Mark McCrindle of McCrindle Research, many mums are meeting for coffee as their one chance to maintain relationships before going home to be alone with their baby or toddlers for the rest of the day.

"Obviously one of the key drivers in life is social connection," McCrindle says. "It's one of the most basic needs after survival and security." Recent trends reveal it is less common for people to know their neighbours, McCrindle says, so our social need is not being met by traditional means.

People are moving more frequently and are not spending time getting to know those who live nearby. This is particularly evident with the increase in medium to high-density housing where people have greater anonymity. Young people are connecting through new technology such as MySpace, instant messaging and text messaging, but the generation of mums with school age children might not be in that technology age group. "Many are also not in the workplace where the majority of people get their social needs met," McCrindle says. "Then, the traditional environment of knowing your neighbours, waving to people in the street, walking to shops and schools also doesn't happen much any more.

"People are in their boxes or their cars, yet we still have this timeless need, so catching up for a coffee is critical." It's also a quick activity often in a convenient location. "Coffee is probably the main thing that we do," Davidson says, "and then every so often we get together and have dinner."

Mums get a hit out of coffee

"Coffee is generally quicker and you don't have all the children with you, nor have to worry about a babysitter," Gallagher says. Bowie adds: "It's easy to come after dropping the kids at school and we really have to come down anyway to go to the shops." Meeting for coffee gives mothers a legitimate excuse to set a time limit.If you invite someone into your home it might feel impolite to ask them to leave before they are ready to go. "That's the changing of the social etiquette," McCrindle says. "It was once more polite to open your homes, but now there is a whole generation X who grew up in a more mobile society where they meet in the restaurants and cafes.

"They're not into the traditional baby boomers' etiquette of inviting people over.

"There has been a change in the privacy value of the home. It has become a place where people cocoon, so even to close friends, opening that environment up is less done and seen as unnecessary. "Meeting for coffee can also be more relaxed and mothers can take charge of the time. "When they've had their coffee, off they go. Plus, there is no need to prepare and tidy the house."

Bowie works several hours a day from home. Davidson works outside the home. "I don't think that mothers are more isolated, just busier," Davidson says. "People who work have an outlet outside the home but other mothers may keep in contact over coffee." Bowie agrees: "Adding to all our other work, I think our children do so many more activities than we did when we were kids. This makes us so much busier."

Gallagher adds: "I also think our husbands are busier now, so we have to do everything ourselves." Both parents working, or the main earner working longer hours, has contributed to the stronger financial situation of generation X. Economically, things are better and couples are having children almost a decade later than their parents. Families are smaller, so there's more disposable income despite increased mortgages and petrol costs. "There is basically the possibility of having coffee with friends once a week which might not have been an option with previous generations," McCrindle says.

You've devised a brilliant business idea and you're certain it's going to work. The big question is: are you prepared to sacrifice a steady salary to go it alone? Increasingly, today's younger employees respond with a resounding "Yes".

Social researcher Mark McCrindle says this generation, born between 1978 and 1994, are greater risk-takers than older generations, for numerous reasons. "We're dealing with a generation that has grown up in an employment world where they are more empowered -- there has been more leadership training," McCrindle says. "We also have technology that has matched their training, to the point where you can set up your own business in Year Nine -- from your bedroom -- on Ebay or MySpace.

"We're also dealing with a far more adaptable parenting style. They not only support more risky entrepreneurial endeavours, they encourage it. Setting up a business has also changed. The website has become the shopfront, so they don't need to buy real estate, and emails mean they don't even need a post box."

Roxy Jacenko, 26, took the plunge three years ago. She left a job as a public relations representative to set up her own fashion PR business, Sweaty Betty. She had no prior experience owning or running a business, but had the strong support of her parents, who run a clothing manufacturing business.

"My parents have been amazing," she says. "My dad started his own business when he was 21, so they have so much experience." Jacenko considered the idea of going out on her own for some time before committing to the decision. "Then one day I just thought, `bugger it', I might as well try it, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work," she says.

The business grew quickly -- in her first week she was approached to represent 10 clients and now has 63. For the first six months Jacenko worked alone, but now has 12 staff and is looking to take on three more. Dan Joyce, 27, took a similar risk when he opened Red Room DVD, a 24-hour self-service DVD rental store, with friend Nic Di Venuto in May 2005. The concept, popular in Europe, did not exist in Australia and Joyce and Di Venuto saw it as an irresistible opportunity.

But the business plan was two years in the making, and Joyce left his job in finance to realise their dream. "I consider myself a risk taker, but a calculated risk taker," he says. Joyce and Di Venuto relied on the support of family, friends and business mentors to get their company up and running. Joyce says it involved countless hours of research, funding pitches, planning and budgeting.

"It became very stressful at times," he says. While Joyce enjoyed working in finance, he always had a vision of starting his own business. "I knew I'd end up running my own business. This happened a lot sooner than I expected, but running a business is something that really excites me," he says. Enterprise Network for Young Australians executive director Daniel Clarke, 27, started his first business when he was 15 and now runs four telecommunications and internet companies. He founded ENYA with Federal Government support in 2002 with a number of other young entrepreneurs.

The organisation provides online learning for people aged 15 to 30 who want to start a business, offering legal and accounting advice, as well as a business mentoring program and a national online database of enterprise programs. He says more young people are turning to entrepreneurial ventures for the flexibility they offer. "That flexibility and freedom is one of the main reasons Gen Y are moving towards their own businesses," he says. "It is not so much about the monetary returns, it is about the skill set they acquire through owning their own business and the freedom to be working for themselves."

Ernst and Young entrepreneurial growth markets national leader Bill Delves says he has seen an increase in the number of Photo Table Gen Ys starting their own businesses since the company started its Entrepreneur of the Year awards in Australia in 2001. He says Gen Ys are not afraid of taking a risk and believes established businesses such as Ernst and Young can learn from their approach.

"They have a confidence about the world -- most of them have done a lot of travel and they've developed a certain confidence that means they're willing to try new things. They're not scared of taking a risk," he says. "We see our job as helping to foster these people who will be our future leaders." Entrepreneurial spirits

Why do Gen Y want to do it their way? Analyst Mark McCrindle lists several factors:

Technology -- this has minimised the risk. The internet means young people don't necessarily have to invest in commercial property to start a business.

* Parenting style -- mums and dads of Gen Ys tend to be encouraging and supportive of entrepreneurial endeavours.

* Education -- they've been taught leadership skills at school and university that empower them to go out on their own.

* Lifestyle -- flexibility in their workplace is a priority.

* Portfolio careers -- they're changing their career path every four to five years and starting a business is seen as a way to do that on their own terms.

Indepth Generation Y

Generation Y may not be a lucrative market for financial planners quite yet, but taking a long-term approach and developing relationships with them now will bring rewards later, Zoë Fielding reports.

It's only natural that advisers want baby boomer clients. Boomers are the ones with the money; they make up about 30 per cent of the workforce; and with even the youngest in their 40s, the approach of retirement is on their minds.

Generation X, generally those born between 1965 and 1979, is becoming another fertile market for advisers. Representing almost half of the workforce, many of these people are climbing the corporate ranks, establishing careers and considering their financial positions. However, Generation Y - the under-25s - are largely overlooked by advisers, even though they are the clients of tomorrow.

Planners who ignore this market could be missing a huge opportunity. IBISWorld chairman Phil Ruthven is one of the many demographers predicting that Generation Y will become the wealthiest generation in history. Ruthven says Generation Y's financial profile will be different from previous generations', characterised by compulsory superannuation and low levels of home ownership due to high residential property costs. He says they are "a hard-driving, savvy group" who become financially literate earlier in life than their predecessors, and these factors combined auger well for Generation Y being wealth accumulators. Despite their financial literacy, Generation Y will still need financial advice and Ruthven expects them to be demanding of their planners. "They're going to really test the financial planners in terms of how good they are," he says. Ruthven says Generation Y tends to be "communicative" and "tribal", which should help advisers in attracting them as clients. "It doesn't take many of them to say it's a great idea to go to a financial planner to find that they club together and all agree," he says.

Financial planners are set to benefit. They may get a "free kick" when the younger generations see their baby boomer parents and grandparents retiring, in many cases with insufficient savings. And the fear of ending up in the same position as their parents may drive Generation Y to seek advice and start thinking about retirement savings earlier, Ruthven says. Social researcher Mark McCrindle says Generation Y attitudes are different from those of previous generations because of the times in which they grew up. "It's a world of credit for them," McCrindle says. "It's a world of constantly turning over products and delaying the traditional financial life stages, such as delaying the purchase of the family home. They're more transient around career and the geography of where they live."

Constant change leads Generation Y to demand flexibility from the products and services they are offered, and it also means they lack brand loyalty. "If you look at the Gen Y lifestyle, long term they show loyalty to friends, to people. They just don't show it to the brand," McCrindle says.

For financial planners this means building relationships with individuals in Generation Y, rather than relying on brand strength. Relationships are even more important than they are with older generations. However, Virgin Money marketing manager for credit cards and superannuation Nathan Wilson says brand should not be discounted as a means of attracting Generation Y. "The brand is the hook but the product needs to align with the brand as well. As long as the product fits and there are no hidden catches, it's simple, straightforward and easy to understand - you've got a bit of a winner," he says.

Wilson expects a lot of companies to start tailoring products for Generation Y but he says this approach may be too "manufactured". "Gen Y can see through a marketing ploy. They can see that companies are directly targeting them because they know that companies want them."

Wilson says word of mouth will be the most powerful channel for attracting this market and companies will have to look at new methods of communication, such as text messaging and instant messenger alerts. Virgin does not specifically target Generation Y with its products and marketing, but people in that demographic have been attracted by the company's offerings. Two in five of Virgin Super's 10,000 members are aged under 30, and 30 per cent of those people are accessing superannuation for the first time. Similarly, Virgin credit cards were aimed at 35 to 54-year-olds but the product has proved popular with 18 to 25-year-olds. Wilson attributes this to the core product's appeal, along with additional features such as "mates' rates", discounts and different card colours.

Securitor head of advice business solutions Sean West says the financial planning services that appeal to Generation Y clients will also be different from those that appeal to other demographic groups. "Generation Y is a generation that tends to want things now," he says. "So for financial planners to deal with that generation, they need a different service package."

Current priorities for Generation Y typically include cash flow management and financial education but West says as yet, few have considered seeing a financial planner. He says campaigns like the Financial Planning Association's Value of Advice are needed to raise the profile of advice generally, which will carry across to young people. Building relationships with the families of older clients can also create long-term opportunities for advisers by helping them access younger generations. "The baby boomers might be the primary clients today but there might be two other generations in that family group," West says.

Fabian Ross, state manager at HBOS-owned dealer St Andrews, says bank-related advisers will have an advantage in accessing Generation Y clients because the banks have ready-made relationships with young people through their day-to- day banking. "We can take the journey with them now rather than waiting until they're older," he says.

Ross agrees that education and information will be in demand and says there is certainly a market for seminars targeting issues that will interest Generation Y. He says initiatives such as the government co-contribution scheme can be useful in encouraging young people to save through superannuation, while wealth protection may also be attractive as the earlier people get wealth protection in place, the easier and cheaper it is to obtain.

Craig Coates, financial planner and director of Integrated Planning Service, says his Newcastle-based practice writes some income protection for young people. "They realise that they're at risk, especially if they're on a good income and quite active sport-wise," he says.

Coates has a background as a triathlete and an A-grade soccer player, which has given the practice some referrals. "Newcastle's a small place and we've been around for 18 years ... People get to know who you are through word of mouth," he says. But many young people still do not know where to turn even if they realise they need assistance with their finances.

Coates says many young people need help with budgeting, and if they are interested in saving it tends to be for short-term goals rather than for retirement. "It's not about accumulating money at all. It's about finding what they want to do with it at the end, so they can be a bit more committed to it, whatever that goal is, even if it's just that they want to save for a year so they can spend three months in Europe next year."

Coates says that it is difficult to charge a fee to people who are starting out even though a lot of time and effort goes into providing them with direction and options and developing a savings mechanism. "With the small group that we have in that younger bracket, we almost refer to it as pro bono work. We set a base fee of $440, which doesn't even cover our documentation to put the plans together. But we work on the concept that they become clients and if you can hold them then they end up becoming long-term clients."

Baby boomers are a cultural and economic phenomenon, Gillian Bullock reports

THE demographic group known as the baby boomers has had a huge impact on our culture and spending habits.

Almost one in four Australians grew up to the sounds of Elvis, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and while they may well think they are still in their teens, many are hitting retirement.

But they don't call it retirement. Baby boomers have redefined this period of life.

Bernard Salt, a partner with KPMG, says that baby boomers are reinventing life between age 55 and 75, in light of their having been "gifted" 20 extra healthy years. As a result, they have thrown away the old model of a cardigan and slippers in their 60s and replaced it with a portfolio lifestyle.

"A portfolio lifestyle is where you might have commercial interests two days a week, then on the other days you might divide it between mentoring, charity work, something physical like a round of golf with your friends and investing in your relationship with your partner," Salt says. "Baby boomers are not hanging on to work. But there are plenty looking for company

directorships demanding a meeting a month and with a nice income to kick them into their 60s."

The exact definition of a "baby boomer" differs. The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines it as the generation born between 1946 and 1964 and they currently number 5.3 million.

Salt's definition is those born between 1946 and 1960, with the golden era for that generation being the years between 1968 and 1973 when a cultural, social and political revolution took place.

Epitomising this revolution was the switch from drinking tea to drinking coffee and people throwing out the term "bloke" in favour of "guy". But social commentator Phil Ruthven, chairman of Ibis World, prefers the US definition, which is those born between 1943

and 1960. He estimates this group numbers 4.67 million. "It's a fallacy to say baby boomers began after World War II," says Ruthven. "People who couldn't afford to get married because of the Depression were doing so by 1943."

Whichever period you choose, the baby boomers are a powerful force in society -- making up some 25 per cent of the total Australian population. This generation witnessed a lot of firsts -- the first generation to experience divorce on a larger scale; the advent of television;

the creation of the shopping centre; the liberation of sex; the participation of women in the workforce (only 9 per cent of married women worked in 1965 but today that figure is over 50 per cent).

But baby boomers are not a homogeneous group. Indeed, while Elvis, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones may be the pop stars of this generation, older baby boomers would

plump for Elvis, the middle group would have been Beatles and Stones fans. The "baby" baby boomers would veer more towards the Bee Gees and Abba. According to social commentator Mark McCrindle of McCrindle Research, baby boomers cover a whole range of lifestyles from empty nesters to those with young children.

Photo Table

In addition, there are those with adult children at home, those embarking on a new business venture and those who have, or are about to, retire. By 2013, the baby boomers will start to leave the workforce in force and this will see the start of a labour shortage. Indeed,

it's estimated that only 125,000 people will enter the workforce in the whole of the 2020s decade compared with 170,000 in one single year in 2004. A research study conducted by Neilsen Media Research for home loans group Wizard investigated the baby boomer subset that they refer to as the busted boomers. These are the people whose adult children are still living at home.

The study estimated that about half a million Australians aged over 55 still had children living at home and only 39 per cent of those actually charged board. As a result, it is gauged that these busted boomers have a disposable income that is half that of their cohorts who are empty nesters.

McCrindle sums up what defines the baby boomers sociologically. In terms of technology, the baby boomers saw the introduction of the TV in 1956, the audio cassette in 1962 and the colour TV in 1975. Contrast this with Generation X (born 1965 to 1979) and their VCR (1976), Walkman (1979) and IBM PC (1981). And what about Generation Y, born between 1980 and 1994? Their technology is the internet, email, SMSs, DVDs and Playstations.

Salt says the baby boomers are known for their tree and sea changes -- where they have moved from suburbia to the bush or the coast. It's what he has dubbed the Sigrid Effect after Sigrid Thornton, who starred in two Australian dramas -- All the Rivers Run, based in Echuca, and Sea Change at Barwon Heads. Both these locations proved property hot spots as the

baby boomers moved there. And he also refers to the tee change, where boomers move in pursuit of golf clubs; the me change, where they don't move but merely reinvent themselves; and the e change, where they move their office down the coast and work electronically from there.

Whatever change boomers choose to make, changing into somebody who is old is not for them.

BABY BOOM INFLUENCES

Baby boomers born 1946-1964 aged 40's and 50's

Prime Ministers ............................ William McMahon, Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser

Iconic .......................................... TV 1956, Audio Cassette 1962, Colour TV 1975

Music .......................................... Elvis, Beatles, Rolling Stones

TV & Movies ................................. Easy Rider, The Graduate, Jaws

Popular Culture ............................. Flare Jeans, Mini Skirts, Barbie, Frisbee 1959

Social Markers/Landmark Events ... Decimal currency 1966, Neil Armstrong 1969, Vietnam War 1965-1973, Cyclone Tracy

1974, Advance Australia Fair '74

Learning format ............................. Formal, Structured

Learning environment .................... Classroom style, Quiet atmosphere

Sales & Marketing ........................ Mass/ traditional media, above the Line

Purchase influences ...................... Brand-loyal, Authorities

Financial values ............................ Long-term needs, Cash and credit

TALKING ABOUT MY GENERATION

Description ...... Born .............. Age ............ Pop'n (mill) ... (% of Pop'n)

Builders .......... Before 1946 .... 61+ .......... 3.5m ............... 17%

Boomers ......... 1946-1964 ...... 42 - 60 ...... 5.3m ............... 26%

Generation X .... 1965-1979 ..... 27 - 41 ...... 4.4m ............... 21.50%

Generation Y ... 1980-1994 ...... Dec-26 ..... 4.2m ............... 20.50%

Generation Z .... 1995 - 2009 ... Under 12 ... 3.1m ............... 15%

Source: ABS/McCrindle Research