Millennials now comprise a significant portion of the workforce, it has been predicted by 2030 they will make up 75% of the workforce. Organisations and managers need to understand their work styles to bring the best out of the millennial workforce.

Defining a Millennial

Millennials are born between 1980 to 1994/6 and grew up with the advent of the internet and personal computers giving the generation the nickname of “Digital Natives”. A lot of popular cultures have described millennials as self-centred and entitled, however, millennials are open to change and have concerns over environmental issues. Many millennials started their careers after the Great Recession of 2008, which has affected their earning potential and less disposable income to spend on products. Many millennials are weighed down with student debt, as this generation is more likely to get a college/university education than previous generations.  

Understanding a Millennial

There is a lack of understanding of a millennial's behaviour which has been described by Simon Sinek. He defines four areas that have contributed to a millennial’s personality traits; find below my understanding of what was stated.

Parenting

Millennials have been noted as entitled by other generations due to the nature that they deserve everything they want. Simon Sinek describes that millennials have gone through a wrong parenting strategy environment. Growing up millennials received participation medals for participating and were constantly told that they could get whatever they want. When failing academically parents would talk to the teacher regarding the wrong grade. When millennials enter adult life/work-life they experience low self-esteem as their parents can’t help them get the perfect job or get them a promotion. They are left to rely on their skills and motivations but due to their parents’ hand-holding upbringing, they don’t know how to deal with rejection or life pushbacks.

Technology

As stated before millennials are also known as digital natives as they were born during the emergence of technologies such as the internet, smartphones, and social media. Social media has allowed us to connect to friends or people around the world. When individuals get a message or a “Like” they get happy or depressed when they are not getting a response from a message or a post on social media. Lately, mental health has been highlighted a lot with many social media platforms finding ways to help with the cause. For example, Instagram is experimenting with hiding the “Like” count to the public to help reduce the obsession of focusing on the number of “likes”.

Impatience

Social media and technologies have created an environment where millennials get instant gratification. The emergence of Netflix and Amazon has greatly enforced this idea as now we can watch a film straight away or purchase and receive a product the next day. Instant gratification has created a generation that wants everything straight away. For example, a top paying job without going through development and promotions or leaving a job within a couple of months due to lack of job satisfaction. The lack of patience to hold a job long term is not due to the individual but due to enforcement growing up that they can get whatever they want and they are perfect.

Environment

Millennials are becoming a significant portion of the workforce with the lack of direction and growing up with a guided upbringing; instead of finding themselves in a non-developmental or nurturing environment, millennials find themselves in a number-driven environment with a lack of focus on employees’ development and training. As companies may find millennials lack communication skills and self-esteem, they find themselves responsible for developing those skills and helping develop millennials' confidence.

Video: Simon Sinek On Millennials in the Workplace

How to Manage Millennials?

Managing the new generation of the workforce will require different strategies to help with development as well as pushing them to confidence and feel valued. Here are five different things that will help manage a millennial workforce.

Opportunity for Growth

Millennials have gained a reputation of becoming job hoppers but what they need is to feel an organic part of the company. The best way is to create a development plan and assess where they should devote their time and energy and build growth around those areas. Providing ongoing formal and informal feedback during a project is the best way to teach accountability and measure development. Observe risks from far and not man-manage millennials otherwise they will feel you are overtaking their responsibilities. Providing a huge amount of feedback at the end of a project will be too overwhelming and decrease their self-esteem. Millennials will appreciate managers who have their “best interests” at heart, particularly their long-term career and personal growth.

Be a Facilitator, Not a Problem-Solver

Millennials like managers to be empathic and help them with their problems by providing tools to reach their potential. They want moral support and understanding to help them work through the problem themselves. Millennials will not appreciate managers who shower themselves with praise or glory as millennials need reinforcement they are producing work that is contributing to the company’s vision.

Connect Millennials to your Company’s Vision

Millennial workers like to feel connected to the company vision and know what they are doing daily is contributing to the company vision. Unlike other generations that like to punch in, do their work, and punch out. Millennials want their work to have meaning and make a positive impact on the company or customers.

Be Flexible

For millennials, having a work/life balance is important and they are willing to sacrifice pay to achieve it. This means millennials would like to make their work schedule fit their life rather than their life fit their work schedule. Creating a flexible schedule process such as having a standard period where everyone is at work but allowing flexible start and finish time will enable millennials to fit their work schedule with life.

Give the Technology They Need

Millennials are known as digital natives, so they will be comfortable enough to use technology effectively and efficiently. For managers, this means allowing millennials to make changes to existing operations and incorporating new technologies into the workplace. Encourage millennials to be innovative with solutions and discuss whether the solution is suitable for customers via weekly staff meetings or regular touchpoints.

Summary

Managers are experiencing a generational transition in their workforce. Managers will need to adapt their managing style to cater for millennials. Millennials will need some directional guidance to push their development upwards and to bring them confidence in what they do. They will require some empathy and a more personal relationship to best understand them and discover how they work. Managers will need to focus much of their time nurturing millennials by providing constructional feedback that will best build confidence and contribution to their career and personal development.