Written by Sarah Welstead, co-founder and Managing Partner of Retired Worker, this blog is a forum for up-to-the-minute news and ideas about older workers and the employers who hire them.

Tag Cloud

Entries

October 2008

September 2008
4 entries

August 2008
3 entries

July 2008
4 entries

June 2008
1 entries

May 2008
4 entries

April 2008
1 entries

March 2008
7 entries

February 2008
2 entries

January 2008
2 entries

December 2007
2 entries

November 2007
4 entries

October 2007
5 entries

September 2007
3 entries

August 2007
4 entries

July 2007
4 entries

June 2007
3 entries

Retired Worker Blog

Who says 'capitalism' and 'community' can't go hand in hand?

With so many communication channels available to us - tv, internet, satellite radio, wireless telephony, etc. - we've become more aware of disadvantaged people, both in our community and around the world.

Study after study shows that Gen Y (today's 20-somethings) in North America, having grown up in this hyper-connected world and typically passionate about causes even in their early teens, rank 'community involvement' high on their list of criteria when deciding which companies to work for.

What's really great is that their passion for giving back is having a real, positive impact in the corporate world.

Today I was shown an RFP (Request for Proposal) from a VERY large Canadian company, and one of the requirements was that the vendor (the company bidding for the contract) must have a community-oriented program in place, whether that was a corporate charity program, providing employees with a day off per month to do volunteer work, etc.

I often hear people complaining about how Gen Y's have a bad work ethic, a sense of entitlement, etc. But it's their awareness of, and commitment to, helping others that is driving businesses to make community giving a priority. So perhaps they aren't quite as bad as us 'older workers' sometimes think...

Tags

Comments