Millennials (born in 198 – 1996) are adults between the ages of 22 and 38 who entered the workforce over the last twenty years. Besides, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, they will make 75% of the US workforce by 2030. As the millennials are coming of age, it is high time for managers, business owners, and HR teams to develop the approach of what to expect and what to offer to these candidates.
This article is about who millennials are and how they will impact your workforce.
Millennials are data-driven and goal-oriented
Being the first generation of tech-savvy adults, millennials tend to trust nothing but data. Therefore, in their attitude to work, they are also precise, strict, and critical. In general, this generation wants to know its goals, its path, and how much they can make in your business, preferably in numbers.
This statement may be proved by the fact that over 90% of millennial professionals think career progression is a top priority and a decisive factor when choosing a new job. Luckily, some top world-famous companies regard career growth as a key motivating factor for their employees, like OMNI Systems, Progressive Insurance, Wawa, T-Mobile, HP, Ahold Delhaize, etc.
What to offer
Headhunting for a millennial, create a job description that offers a five-year-long career path and salary scale. Create a bigger picture of what your business is and what their role is in it. Do your best to set the goals from the very beginning. Thus, you will find an employee engaged and motivated to contribute to your business goals.
Millennials highlight salaries
In a recent study by ManPower Group on Millennial Careers, 92% of millennials listed money as their top priority when choosing an employer. Besides, honesty is also one of the major characteristic features of a millennial employee. Even though money is a powerful magnet to attract millennial employees, it is not enough to retain them.
In 2019 the top of the highest paying companies included Palo Alto Networks, Nvidia, Twitter, Gilead Sciences, Google.
What to offer
Always offer more. In this case, more means something in addition to a good salary. You will not be competitive if you do not provide something connected to work-life balance, overcoming stress, burn-out control, and care. Investing in extra care for your millennial employees will much benefit you moving forward.
Millennials are digital natives
Millennials have grown up with technologies. Thus they will not get scared of any innovations or tech advancements. Knowing tech inside and out allows being productive and updated 24/7, as 83% admit to sleeping with their smartphones. Millennials understand the benefits of the daily usage of the technologies. Thus, job seekers are looking for companies like HubSpot, DocuSign, MathWorks, Compass, and Salesforce with healthy tech strategies.
What to offer
Digitalize. Initiate digitalization on your own and follow the tendencies and novelties introduced or suggested by your employees. Implement any application or software that can improve the digital employee experience. Get on well with digitized communication and remote working tools, and you will not regret it.
Millennials work as a team
For millennials, work is impossible without networking and a team. They know the value of teamwork and the appreciation of joint efforts, as their parents raised them that way. According to IBM’s study of Millennial workers, over 50% of millennials being interviewed said they made better business decisions working in groups.
Millennial employees are used to sharing knowledge, support, and collaboration since school. They love to interact and want to be heard. Therefore, they tend to choose companies that favor teamwork the most, like Baggu, Pagelines, DinnerLab, Disqus, and Classy.org, Udacity.
What to offer
Let your employees have choices and the freedom to speak. Keep all the conversations open for feedback and encourage participation in the discussions. Rather than saving feedback for annual performance reviews, provide it immediately, and you will see an immediate result. This generation likes active debating, brainstorming, and self-improvement.
Millennials are hungry for education and upskilling
According to Pew Research Center, roughly 39% of millennials have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 19% of the Silent Generation and one-quarter of Baby Boomers. Thus, millennials are more educated than generations before them. They love to learn and acquire new skills. The matter is that millennials see a direct interdependence between learning new skills and career progression.
Amazon, PwC, IBM, AT&T, and JPMorgan proved to be the top companies investing vast sums of money into education and upskilling of the employees.
What to offer
According to Gallup, 87% of millennials say professional growth and development opportunities are their top priorities. Encourage employees’ development and upskilling. Invest in teaching them and developing top in-demand skills for your business. However, do not forget that millennials place a high value on mentoring. Try to become an excellent, inspiring mentor for your employees or find one.
Millennials want the freedom to be creative
Compared to previous generations, millennials are more likely to think out of the box. These people tend to think more independently. Therefore, their views and understanding of some things may seem somewhat extravagant and relaxed. Space for creativity is everything for them. Therefore, these guys get serious when it comes to freedom and flexibility.
For instance, according to a Deloitte Millennial Survey, 71% of millennials have considered leaving a job because it did not offer flexible work arrangements. Fortunately, there exist companies where freedom and creativity are appreciated more than anything else. Here belong Ideosity, First Look Media, Amplify, Kaleidoscope, Dropbox, etc.
What to offer
Sometimes such freedom and creativity cause misunderstanding and disobeying — however, the value of new ideas is worth much. Try to loosen up your policy a bit, as millennial employees do not like tiptoeing around outdated rules and restrictions.
The generation on the rise usually works for someone who belongs to the previous. Therefore, there is nothing strange in a misunderstanding in this respect. Now, when you know more about what to expect and what to offer the millennials, you can develop precise steps and approaches. To attract and retain millennials employees, you need to adjust to their needs, making your business even better.