It’s an exciting time to be in leadership. As a new generation enters the workforce, cubicles, hallways, and remote locations will be dominated before long. Every day at work, I learn something from the Millennial workforce that I mentor and encounter. Enthusiasm lights the doorways of every business, but a new dynamic from the Millennial generation is a reality. Millennials will walk away from a company at a moment’s notice. They also seek affirmation and resume credentials for every task assigned. Organizational vision is no longer an intangible item, Millennials need to see, feel, and understand the vision in practice.
The Millennial generation requires satisfaction of needs immediately. Organizations must ask themselves how they will gain productivity, creativity, and loyalty. Two topics will help you to understand Millennial needs and will help your organization succeed in keeping your company in its prime.
- It’s all about me
Millennials want to be in an organization that meets their personal needs. An organization can respond to individual needs by offering ‘personalization’ to training. Personalization of learning is incredibly easy to access, cost-effective, and can be put into practice with an in-house training program or can be outsourced.
Don’t be surprised if a Millennial requests information about personal development and training with technology during an interview. After all, it is all about them. What personalized learning does your organization offer?
Formal education reimbursement expresses that an organization is willing to invest in educational advancement for employees. This personalized learning advantage will help Millennials to understand their value, purpose, potential, and in turn, will help organizations obtain employee loyalty.
- I like ‘my’ trophy
No, it’s not a myth. Millennials want to be recognized with a rewards. I’ve raised two Millennials and now coach them and other Millennials through work environments daily. Millennials seek rewards-based opportunities because they’ve always been rewarded by their parents for a job well done. Right or wrong, it’s irrelevant. Over time, attitudes and behaviors have been created. Organizations must be creative and find fun rewards for Millennial employees.
Reward systems will rarely keep young Millennials employed at an organization for more than three years. Over the years, recessions and downsized businesses have made them realized that businesses have no employee loyalty.
The solution to this issue is for organizations to create reward systems and update the systems every three to five years. The most exciting incentives and rewards in today’s employee business market include allowing for volunteer days and charitable donations to social projects of their choice. Millennials are a highly educated generation that is motivated to change the world while having an adventure. They are consumers of the future and they control social media. Be the organization that compels them to continue their efforts by investing in them. What fun rewards systems does your organization offer?
Millennial Domination
In the year 2030, Millennials will be 75% of the workforce. Over time, the generational group will have entered mid-life and will experience maturity through aging. By this time, the group will have reached ages between 36 and 53. They will have families, go on vacations, save for retirement, and continue to pursue adult goals. As they grow older, they will notice an increasingly competitive work environment due to 80 million other Millennials in the job market.
In the future, the global economy will add dimensions to the workplace never experienced by any other generation. Technology will add another level of uncertainty for the global workforce. Organizations will be able to create greater profits with fewer full-time employees and a reduced workforce.
Career journeys for 80 million American Millennials will be an adventure for both them and organizations. Hiring, retaining, and promoting this large group of employees will require organizations to develop workforce strategies over the next fifteen years.
Each organization needs to be prepared for 80 million employees that have diverse needs that differ from earlier generations. In the future, successful companies will develop two positions that will specifically manage Millennials: a Chief People Officer and an Organizational Specialist.
I think must be considered some changes that characterize today’s working reality and that inevitably affect the promotion strategies of engagement. Currently the generation of so-called “millennials” research more short-term satisfaction and therefore more related to job content rather than to a career development perspective in the same company. Businesses, therefore, are always more likely to develop retention and promotion policies of engagement that take into account this change in perspective. The technological means constitute a valuable tool to adapt corporate policies to the new perspectives of workers, through the promotion of strategies to better involve in the achievement of organizational goals.
I think technology is moving so fast that by the mid 2020’s organizational goals as you mentioned will be the focus. Employee’s will be a come and go process.
I have two comments. First, maybe they will grow out of it with a little maturity and a few gut punches that come with the reality of life. It isn’t all about them and so long as they believe it is they will have problems. The reality of life is that you don’t always get an immediate reward for doing something right or showing up on time three days in a row.
Second. I question the comment that they are highly educated. Many of them, even with college degrees can’t perform simple math or even make change without an electronic device. Having a degree doesn’t relate to being highly educated. Anyone with average intelligence, access to enough money, and enough time can get a degree. Neither does being tech savvy relate to being highly educated.
I agree 100% with your comment – “Having a degree doesn’t relate to being highly educated:.
When I read the title of this article, I cracked a smile. How would I lead a millennial?
I usually tell them the following –
1. Don’t assume I got your text. Ask if I got it.
2. Our phones are not part of our conversation.
3. Don’t google what we’re talking about while we’re talking about it.
Then again, I groom people for executive positions. So I’m biased.
Your comment “Don’t assume I got your text. Ask if I got it.” I agree. – Talking is becoming an art that many can no longer understand.