Melbourne, Oct 22 : Generation Y or those born between 1980 and 1995 are reluctant to commit to a career and are showing resistance to the traditional appeals that aim to inspire them to take up a career, a new book has claimed.

In her book ‘Inspiring Tomorrow's Leaders Today: Breaking Down Generation Barriers’, Avril Henry a business consultant has claimed that the gen Y is very different and that there is a need to devise non-traditional to attract the generation at a time of national skills shortages.

“We, their baby boomer parents, gave them X-Box, computer games and the home computers," Age.com.au quoted her, as saying.

"Boomers being fairly competitive as parents had them going to after school activities every day of the week and all weekend.

"They don't know how to be still. (The word) why is their favourite question at work and at home.

In the workplace, when they ask why, they want to understand how what they are doing fits into the big picture and how it makes a contribution to the department or the organisation.

“It is often misinterpreted as challenging authority when that is not their intent,” she added.

Henry's analysis of defence recruitment and retention, conducted last year, made found that defence has significantly lifted its recruiting performance.

Henry proposed that for a gap year, young people should be allowed to experience service for a year without committing for almost 6 years.

This strategy has been seen to be successful for 1,000 places that were occupied in weeks time.

"If you let them try before they buy, even if you get a 10-15 per cent takeup, they are still individuals you would not have attracted through the normal recruitment channels," she said.

"They look at the values of the organisation and who is in charge and ask themselves a different question - not can I do the job - but would I fit in here," she said.

"A sense of belonging and a sense of connectedness are what they are looking for among the generation Y.

"They have enough self confidence to have a go at doing the job even if they are not sure they can do it or not. They will have a go." She said. (ANI)