Many companies try to set their Human Resources policies around the needs, values and expectations of people according to the generation they were born into. Australia has four generations in its workforce, and each is assumed to have its own characteristics. It would mean that if you were born in 1970, you are a 'Gen X'
But when it comes to corporations retaining staff, it’s not that simple. An entirely different classifications are coming out from Europe a lot more appropriate and useful: explorers, professionals, experts and passionates.

It’s not the year a person was born that we should consider in terms of their work generation, but the year they entered the employment market. There are three important dates: 1946, followed by 30 years of economic boom; 1973, with the oil crisis and the beginning of economic turmoil; and 1996, with the internet revolution and the rise of the new economy. When these dates are considered, baby boomers and generation X are separated by the economic recession, and Xs are separated from Ys by the return of a wealthy economy and the dot-com boom. It means that the boomers had a world to reconstruct, the Xers had to live with the lay-off of their parents and accept any job they could find, and the Nexters only accept well paid jobs where they just have to show up to get promoted.

But this generation classification doesn’t work with job retention because one size does not fit all. The expectations of someone born in 1979 are not necessarily very different from someone born in 1982. On the other hand, they are likely to be very different between a city-based 40-year-old man (born 1965) and a rural 25-year-old woman (born 1980), who are technically from the same generation.

Michael, 49, is CFO of a major non-profit organisation. He is divorced, with no kids. He belongs to the baby boomer generation. He never wears a tie and often says he is always 10 minutes away from dismissal. He spends most evenings on his computer, communicating with people all over the world, and meets some of them when he goes on holiday. His behaviour looks a lot like the Y generation. What could be the best way to fill his expectations? Recognition or a salary rise as a boomer, or flexible time (allowing a few months’ leave) as a generation X or Y?

Alicia, 25, is a talented accountant. As a generation Y, she might have been expected to establish her career before getting married and having kids. But she is raising two children while pursuing her career. Her employer offered her Y-style training, massages and gym fees, but she would have preferred a better life-work balance.
These are typical examples of expectations not being clearly linked to age group.
When it comes to professional expectations, I have found that people talk about four things to differing degrees: their future, career, company and passion. It dawned on me that these were a more relevant and reliable basis for job expectation classifications. After further thought and investigation, I refined these to explorer, professional, expert and passionate.

The explorers don’t know what their professional orientation is and are ready to change jobs even monthly until they find their path. Most of the Y generation are here but, not all of them. There are also the young graduates who always wanted to be a doctor, pilot, fireman and so on since childhood and become exactly what they wanted to be. Or what about the woman who decided to write the biography of her family before opening an art gallery after a successful career in the banking industry?
Retaining explorers is hard, maybe impossible, because the grass is always greener on the other side. Will the next position be more challenging, the next company more attractive?
To engage them, you should use job rotation, interest indicators and talent recognition to help them understand who they are, what they like and what they can do. Maybe they have their dream job in front of them but don’t know it. You have to help them discover if they are going to become a professional or an expert.


The professionals are looking for a career in the same company. You’ll find them in the publishing industry, television companies and airlines. They are ready to accept a role of telemarketer with a business degree, or a receptionist position with a Masters in a foreign language. They accept these positions because it could be a stepping-stone to start a career in the company.


To retain these professional talents, you will have to provide growth and opportunity. You have to know exactly what kind of career someone can have with such interest or education. You also have to recognise them. They could become the most committed and easy to retain, but without respect, reward and recognition, they won’t give the best of themselves. You can use transversal promotion, for example by helping a salesman to join the marketing team or an accountant to join the quality team.



The experts have only one goal: to become the best in their field. They are lawyers, consultants, cooks or telemarketers. They are more committed to their work than to their company.
To engage them, you will have to provide at least two things: a challenging job, giving them the possibility to use all their talents; and a development plan helping them to become more competent in their job. But be careful—they can become mercenary and ready to sell their services to the best offer.
These people will be hard to retain because most of the time, when they think they know their role very well, they will be looking for more responsibilities in or out of your organisation. If you can’t increase their responsibilities, you have to design a new ‘salary scale’ including the level of competency, or take them out of the organisational chart to give them a role of mentor or internal advisor.
You have to take the long-term view with experts rather than the ‘now’ view. Or it’s time to let them leave, but stay in touch so you can offer a new opportunity in the future.


Passionate employees have something in their life much more important to them than their work. It might be young children, a hobby or pastime such as teaching surfing, or a parallel activity such as presiding over a not-for-profit organisation.
To engage them, the most important thing will be work-life balance. They might be interested in working a little more every week to have two months’ leave, or be able to manage their own time so they can fit in some form of non-professional training.
These four categories are not as rigid as the generation classification, where you stay what you were born as for the rest of your life. You might start your career as an explorer (by following business studies because you didn’t know what to do). But you could also start as an expert (by taking cooking or medical classes), or as a professional (because you always fancied working for a certain airline company).
You can start as a professional, then have a passion for a particular job. Or the opposite: be an expert for a while and change your professional orientation and become a parent or an explorer because you need to do ‘something else’.

These classifications are much more adapted to the modern Australian relationship with work.
But never forget that, in the field of job retention, matters of expectation are individual rather than universal. They evolve according to various factors, such as additions to family or the changing job market, so it is always important to keep in close touch with your employees’ expectations.