Young Emerging Professionals (YEP) Initiative

Organizations face major challenges with recruitment, retention, development and management of their Young Emerging Professionals, while navigating four generations in the workplace. These organizations often express the need for cross organizational collaborations and knowledge sharing, while creating a common forum to facilitate this process and prepare these Young Emerging Professionals to advance through the workforce pipeline. The Young Emerging Professionals (YEP) Initiative addresses these challenges, as it focuses on generational workplace issues from the perspective of young professionals. Topics covered by the YEP Initiative include talent management, retention, as well as employee and leadership pipeline development. The Initiative also provides immense value by distributing its sponsored studies to a broad range of organizations and their employees, as well as to a nationwide network of university career centers, college students and alumni associations.

• Gen Y Perceptions Study
  This study captures the self perceptions of young professionals and analyzes the gap between their perceptions and that of older generations of managers regarding young employees. Phase One of the study examines these issues from a quantitatively perspective, and Phase Two of the study will measure qualitatively, via focus groups and interviews, the survey results from Phase One.
• Click here to download a copy of Phase One of the Gen Y Perceptions Study.
• Phase Two of the study will be incorporated in the “Guide to Managing Young Professionals” (see below) available in mid-2009.
• Young Emerging Professionals Council
  The Young Emerging Professionals Council consists of representatives from 20 organizations selected by their executives. These council members are leaders in their organizations who show high potential and have the support of their company executives. The Executive Advisory Board is comprised of executives from multiple organizations, chosen to participate in the initiative based on their willingness to invest in young professionals, to participate in surveys, to share best practices for professional development of young employees and to promote intergenerational discussions.
• The Guide to Developing Young Professionals
  The Council will participate in focus groups which will inform the development of an annual publication, The Guide to Developing Young Professionals. The annual guide will assist organizations and recruiters with approaching, retaining and developing young employees. A corporate sponsor underwrites the production of the Guide each year.
• Young Employee Savvy and Success (YESS) Program
  Concurrent with the study, our partner, Spectrum Knowledge, provides advanced training for young professionals through the Young Employee Savvy and Success (YESS) program. Geared towards preparing this emerging generation of employees for advancement in the workplace, the YESS program addresses both employee and organizational needs. Click here to find out more about the YESS program including schedule, curriculum, and how to enroll.

More Information

Click her to be notified as new YEP publications become available.

For more information on the YEP Initiative please contact Vu Pham, Principal, Spectrum Knowledge at vupham@spectrumknowledge.com.