""Businesses need to stop focusing on 'paradigm shifts' and 'strategic initiatives' and realize that none of that makes any sense if your front-line employees don't 'give a damn.'"" —Rhoda Olsen, President, Great Clips, Inc.

Transform the Your Bored, Uncaring ""Generation Why"" Young Workforce into a Powerhouse of Performers and Innovators

According to the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs, by 2012 there will be a shortage of more than two million front-line service workers in retail sales, customer service, and food preparation. Only a fraction of the restless Generation Y workers who typically fill these positions stay with their employer longer than a year! Dubbed ""kidployees,"" these 16- to 24-year-olds share an entirely different set of values, expectations, and skills that must be reckoned with if you're among the millions of business owners and managers in America.

In Getting Them to Give a Damn, nationally recognized Generation Y expert Eric Chester shows readers how to hire, train, manage, and motivate a workforce that won't blindly conform to traditional standards and time-honored company policies and standards. Chester reveals the management techniques that leading-edge employers are using to get these quirky, book-smart, and streetwise kidployees to contribute in innovative and entrepreneurial ways.

"Getting them to give a Damn" by Eric Chester is an eye-opening, easy read about the generation in the work force - and those following closely behind. This instant gratification, tell me "why", and I'm doing it my way, employee is changing the way work gets done.

This book gives some insight into communication skills, win-win work examples and how to say it so they'll understand.


Must have for any parent, high school teacher or employee of this age group!

..altho the content is interesting and could be useful. On the other hand, to turn the question round, why should I give a damn if these brats can't make the connection themselves. We're entering a major economic downtown, I can hire people from India or China who come with a built-in work ethic that doesn't need me to pamper and motivate them. Why go to the trouble. If they can't make the connection themselves and shape up, too bad, so sad......

Answers to the, "What's in it for me?" question are relevant to more than just Chester's "Kidployees" - youth who have come of age in the late 90' and beyond; these answers are required for virtually every employee and this book delivers practical, relevant, everyday applicable, ways to answer that question with your employees. Reflecting common sense, as well as a sense of humor, Chester delivers means and methods to address front-line worker's all important needs for purpose, identity, and accountability. From CEO to front-line supervisor, this easy to read, enjoyable book will provide countless ideas for making that all important, bottom-line, performance connection with your staff.

From the section on "How to Attract Them", to "How to Keep Them", to "How to Connect with Them", Chester will hold your interest with his logic, humor, and common sense ideas for respecting, motivating, and holding them accountable. If you are responsible for managing more than one (yourself) employee, give this book a try. I highly recommend it.

Dennis DeWilde, author of
"The Performance Connection"

I was often puzzled by employees in their early 20s. They brought different values, expectations and skills to the workplace. My job was to teach them the service ethic, to keep them long enough to get the benefit of my training efforts and keep them motivated to put in a good day's work.
This book addresses those issues. Any employer today needs to inform themselves on how to deal with this age group.

Eric Chester's Getting Them To Give A Damn: How To Get Your Front Line To Care About Your Bottom Line provides an excellent key to turning uncaring employees into performers and innovators. The latest generation shares a new set of values and won't blindly conform to company policy - but they can be motivated, and 'Generation Y expect' author Eric Chester shows how. From recruiting the best new employees to using different types of training to make them loyal, this is a 'must' for any member of the 'next generation employer'.