The building and construction industry in Sweden is facing a troublesome recruitment problem, due to many retirees in the coming years. One way to increase the general attractiveness within the building and construction industry as a whole, i.e. according to young people’s standards, could be to work more actively with incentives and rewards specifically designed and chosen to motivate and attract young people.

The purpose of this survey study is to examine what rewards Generation Y (people born between 1982-2000) is attracted to when entering the labor market, and finding out if there are any differences within Generation Y. The study is based on a quantitative survey of 323 students of Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH). The survey questions are based on the areas that are identified as more important to Generation Y than other generations according to the reviewed literature.

The results show that Generation Y perceives non-financial rewards more important than financial rewards and that the most effective rewards to implement considering both perceived importance and perceived monetary value are career opportunities, individual skills development, provisions for retirement and extra days of vacation. The study also shows that there are differences within Generation Y concerning age, culture, work experience and gender. There are also differences between generations. Generation X (people born between 1965-1982) values the importance of non-financial rewards higher than Generation Y, but Generation Y values the rewards monetary value higher in general.