Millennials have five main priorities: flexible work schedules, team work and cooperation, influence and ownership of the project, a business-oriented mission, and adaptation and personalization of work.
We bring new trends and we are changing work environment in three basic way.Because of constant changes in the business world, changes in the area of human resource management are also inevitable and necessary. The biggest challenge for today's employers, both abroad and in Croatia, represents a generation that is likely the most studied generation to date.
Until recently we were called Generation Y and today we are Millenials. Millenials include mostly older teens and people in their early 30s, born roughly between 1980 and 2000, and we are the most educated and the largest generation in the world. Currently one in three employees belongs to the millenial generation and by 2025 we will make more than half of the working age population.
But what are the behavioral characteristics of us Millennials and how are they reflected in our approach to work and business?
Tech – savvy
One of the things that differentiates us from previous generations is that we are the first generation to grow immersed in technology. I remember the good old 286 computer, Walkman, Discman, WHS and audio cassette tapes and the end of their era, cellphone bricks weighing 2 pounds, games like Sokoban, Wolfenstein, Dangerous Dave, Duke Nukem, etc. - I could go on forever. From personal experience, I can say that technology and I grew up together. We are armed with cell phones, laptops and all the other technological achievements. We are the social media generation, we communicate differently than our parents or our parents' parents, we are available 24/7 and that is quite logical to us.
Also, at this year's WinDays15 conference, we had the opportunity to hear the statement of HR Director of EY in the Czech Republic Olga Lamackova that mobile recruitment, as one of the key recruitment trends for 2015, is surely going to rise during the next year and that studies show that 45 percent of candidates apply for a job using a mobile device. With this in mind, over the past few years, social media has become an indispensable medium for recruitment. Social media profiles are the first place that hiring managers check before contacting a candidate, but Millenials are also using it to be more selective of their employers and they are interwiewing their potential bosses as much as they are being interwiewed as well.
Mission over Money – balance over Burnout
On each generation, their value system, attitude towards work and the acquisition of working habits, greatly influences the social and political situation in which they grew up, but also the life and business experiences of parents. Due to unfavorable economic conditions, high unemployment and reduced opportunities for best educated and talented to quickly reach well-paying jobs, Millennials have been naturally forced to re-examine widely accepted opinion on what constitutes success. For us, success is less associated with financial prosperity, than was the case in earlier generations. We are looking for dynamism, rapid progressiveness and flexibility in employment. We want to make a difference and we want to change the world. Millenials are mostly not oriented towards profit. In fact, half of them are associated with non-profit organizations. This means that what is important to us is an idea, a mission, and thus the prize which is not only about the money. Ideal working enviroment for members of the millennial generation is the one where they can create.
Millennials have five main priorities: flexible work schedules, team work and cooperation, influence and ownership of the project, a business-oriented mission, and adaptation and personalization of work. We bring new trends and we are changing work environment in three basic ways. First, we strive for a more relaxed working environment and we are more focused on creating than on the personnel policies. Secondly, we want to be part of the team, we want to feel that we belong to a group that relies on us. Thirdly, not only we do not want to bring work home, we want to create a home at work. We want to fully integrate our lives with our job. When choosing a job, the most important thing to us is the flexibility between work and private life. There is no problem in working for 16 hours if necessary, but on the other hand at 10 o'clock we want to go out for a coffee, to the gym, or simply, for God's sake, just to get some air. Likewise, corporate progressiveness, participation in new projects and contribution to the community are extremly important to us - we might say that we want the job to be fun, going to work does not constitute a problem for us, it's fun and fulfilling, at least we strive for it.
How to keep Millennials in your company?
Of course it is impossible to define with same characteristics so many people, but within each generation there are several contact points conditioned by period in which they grew up. Defining a framework of each generation is essential for understanding the difference between generations within teams and for bridging the workplace generation gap. Corporations want to understand Millennials, but unfortunately, most companies encounter problems when implementing their desires.
If you want to keep Millennials in the company, create a dynamic company culture which they will never want to leave. We strive for challenges and routine kills us. We remain in a company because we are connected with our colleagues and direct supervisor and we are leaving because of the lack of feedback, because we are being underestimated and do not receive recognition for our valuable and hard work. Millenials want to work for a company with managers that develop a deep and personal relationship with their employees.
Millennials are often inaccurately portrayed as disloyal, unmotivated, dependent on technology, childish, demanding employees and are often referred to as the "lost generation". We can not ignore that the epidemic of permissive parenting and supporting the development of self-esteem at all costs combined with a high exposure to the media inevitably affected the specific characteristics, such as narcissism, reduced social skills and insensitivity towards others, of the Y and the latest Z generation, but some studies also deny this claim, or at least suggest changes. In a study from 2013, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, the researchers Heejung Park, Jean M. Twenge and Patricia M. Greenfield looked at surveys that have, each year since the 1970s, tracked the attitudes of hundreds of thousands of 12th graders. What they found is that although concern for others had been decreasing among high school seniors and certain markers of materialism — like valuing expensive products such as cars — had been increasing for nearly four decades, these trends began to reverse after 2008. Whereas older millennials showed a concern for meaning, the younger millennials who came of age during the Great Recession started reporting more concern for others and less interest in material goods. This data also reflects a broader pattern. Between 1976 and 2010, high school seniors expressed more concern for others during times of economic hardship, and less concern for others during times of economic prosperity. During times of hardship, young people more frequently look outward to others and the world at large.
The fact is that a term such as "the lost generation" was often used to describe previous generations also. That is almost always an indicator of the generation gap and lack of understanding. Certainly there are individuals that seem to fit the stereotype, but the important thing is that every employer needs to recognize a unique way to motivate each of his employees, regardless of age. Maybe we really are different from previous generations, and maybe we merely express our needs and desires stronger and louder than our parents did. We are curious and have high expectations, we are looking for new challenges, constantly re-evaluating the authorities, do not tolerate traditional hierarchy, but at the same time we are ready to take risks and we are trying to enjoy working.
Many HR experts say that Millennials are the most ambitious generation so far, but also the most difficult to understand, that it is a great challenge to attract talents of generation Y because they have a completely new priorities compared to previous generations. Goldman and Sachs has put together a tremendous inforgraphic showing how millennials are going to impact and shape the economy in a profound way as they move into their "prime spending years". But will they impact and reshape companies and the way businesses operate in the future, or will it be vice versa, we can only say that now the influence is mutual. Each company eventually will have to adapt to the so-called "Me, Me, Me Generation", because in order to survive, constant adjustment of the company to changes in the world of business is imperative.
Back to top