The Millennial generation is already years into making its mark on the corporate world. Members of this youngest generation of employees are showing off their tech savvy, demanding their workplaces be ethical and responsible, and changing the way companies offer feedback and career development programs. Make no mistake — the corporate world isn’t changing Millennials; Millennials are changing the workplace.
Here are five recent articles highlighting these changes. Read on and make sure your business is on track to stay competitive.
- Millennials Are Defining the Workplace. The Huffington Post: “To motivate and engage, the patterns of the past must change. Millennials eschew tradition, including hierarchical behavior. And senior management at today’s companies — a mix of Gen X and Baby Boomers — must be willing to step back, give up some authority, use digital techniques and invest time to better explore how Millennials can help the company as they gain something for themselves.”
- An Ode to Millennials in the Workplace. Switch and Shift: “The real motivator behind wanting to be recognized for excellence is simply a desire for one’s work to have real meaning — to the business, to the team, to something — and for that meaning to be acknowledged and communicated. This desire is by no means specific only to Millennials. The need for recognition and acknowledgement can be seen across today’s business climate, from internal associates to your customers engaging with you through support or social channels. Businesses are increasingly tapping their users and customers to be brand advocates, simultaneously recognizing that a particularly loyal or savvy customer can greatly amplify their brand awareness.”
- How Corporate America Should Adapt to Millennials. Fortune: “…the workplace has to change. Using technology as a tool and not a tether, for example. We’ve done a great job making technology a tether to the workplace. ‘Hey, you can take that BlackBerry to the soccer game! Just don’t look at any of the plays, so I know that you’re doing work!’ That’s part of the whole lack of flexibility.”
- A Millennial’s Take on Workplace Loyalty. SAP: “Less than a tenth of Millennials surveyed by Oxford Economics say they have experienced most of their professional development through networking. At our young age, we have not developed a wide network of contacts yet, meaning we rely more on formal training and mentoring to develop our skills. Millennials do not just randomly decide to leave a position for no reason. We are looking to take care of ourselves — short-term and long-term. We want feedback, we value mentoring, and we demand career development if we are going to stick around.”
- ‘Millennials’ are Here to Stay, and We Need Them. The Telegraph: “…by adapting to the needs of this group now, you will be shoring up your business for the future because many of the changes they demand will make it leaner, fitter, and better able to compete. Customers are drawn to firms that are ethical, innovative, and transparent and if yours can stay one step ahead, so much the better.”
If you want to learn more about how Millennials are changing the modern workplace and what your organization can do to adapt, download my new white paper:
