Publication Date: 2008
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Further Information:

• Full Report

• Generation F - Summary of Key Findings

• ATTRACT the best talent to your organisation

• ENGAGE committed and motivated employees

• RETAIN the skills and experience of Generation F

• Case Studies

Tips for employers
The Generation F report includes advice and examples of how organisations can harness the skills, commitment and ambitions of Generation F to benefit their workplace. These have been formatted into fact sheets.

Report Overview
Generation F: Attract, Engage, Retain, has uncovered a new generation of workers that will rival Generation Y as the solution to the nation’s skills shortage. Women aged between 16 and 65 - Generation F- remain significantly overlooked, under utilised and untapped.

Despite record education levels and rising numbers of women entering the labour market, the EOWA research shows that employers are failing to provide workplaces that enable women to fully participate and fuel the growth in the Australian economy.

Two of the five most common reasons for women to leave their previous jobs were a difficulty in progressing (17%) and lack of clear career development (15%), which they rated as extremely important when choosing a workplace. A quarter of women surveyed do not feel that their current employers provide them with a career path and 16% do not believe they are afforded sufficient learning and development opportunities. The research also debunks the myth that women are not as ambitious as men with the majority of both men and women indicating they aspire to a job involving more responsibility.

Despite a shift in focus away from careers and towards families and work life balance by men and women across all income, education and lifestyle groups - workplaces are still not providing the level of flexibility required. 83% of women consider organisational support of work/life balance to be important yet 45% believe their organisations does not genuinely support work/life balance and 42% feel that they do not have access to flexible work conditions. 12% of women were motivated to resign from their previous job in search of greater work/life balance.

Interestingly, while men report being almost as family focussed, this has not translated into an increased demand for family friendly conditions or resulted in men spending additional time on household or caring duties. In fact, more than half of Generation F say their partners do less of the unpaid domestic and caring work than they do and a third state that if they received more help they would be more likely to increase their hours in paid employment.

7% of women left their last job because of an unfair distribution of pay among employees in the same role and 8% left their job because of bullying and harassment.

 “There is a clear discrepancy in what women want and expect from a role and a workplace and what they are experiencing in reality.”