Why Millenials Matter
Posted on April 15, 2013 by Gina Zappariello MS ACC CPCC, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
The importance of companies shifting their attention from Baby Boomers to Millenials if they want to stay relevant and successful.
I’m a Boomer, Baby Boomer that is. I’m not ashamed to say it – but I will clarify that I am at the VERY end of the Baby Boomer generation. So, I’m ALMOST a Gen Xer, almost! In terms of the way I grew up, learned about business, experienced workplace interactions and my view of the world, I have been a Baby Boomer all the way. That was fine ten years ago, but things are changing, and we better get on board or we will be left standing at the station, watching the Millennial bullet train pass us by.
Driving the train into the future are the Millennials – those born from 1983 through 2001. They are also sometimes called Gen Y, Twenty-Somethings and Generation Next. Millennials have been in the workforce for close to 10 years, and for the past 5 years studies have been conducted on how organizations are impacted by Millennials.
Millennials are the first generation to have grown up entirely in the digital age. They started using computers in the crib! As the Builder (pre-1945) and Baby Boomer generations age and retire out of the workforce, the Millennials are becoming more and more significant in their contributions and also their personal style. And boy, is their style different!
Think about it: this is the generation where everyone got a trophy; toddlers were given choices; people with ages still in single digits were decision-makers; the prime motive in their child-rearing was to make them feel important, smart and happy. Couple that with the lightning fast growth of computer technology during their lifetime, and you have a generation that hasn’t experienced rejection too often and is used to getting everything, every piece of information, every decision, in seconds. Can you picture a Millennial having to dial a phone? Or get a response to an important question by waiting for the mail to be delivered? In a mailbox attached to their house? I think you get the picture.
Another very interesting, and I think admirable, quality of the Millennial generation, is that they are not willing to compromise their values, beliefs, or desires. They would rather have no job than a job they hate. They are delaying the traditional roles of their parents and grandparents: go to college (for some), get a job, move out of your parents home, get married (you can also flip the last two). Millennials aren’t in a rush to do anything! That’s because they are used to having so many options, they don’t worry about missing the boat, because another boat will be coming along.
So why do Millennials matter? Because they are soon going to be the majority of the workforce, and they aren’t going to change – organizations must adapt to stay successful. In the United States today, Millennials make up the majority of the population, slightly edging out the Boomers. But the Boomers are in their 50"s and up, and are dreaming of retirement. There are over 80 million Millennials in the United States today, and slightly under 80 million Boomers. If you combine the Gen Xers and the Millennials – those aged 12 to 50, you have over 120 million people. They matter.
In the workplace, Millennials matter because they present certain risks to an organization, specifically turnover, knowledge drain, leadership scarcity and culture crash. Let’s look at each of these factors:
1. Turnover – Millennials tend to leave jobs faster than other generations and present a revolving door for recruiters.
2. Knowledge Drain – Older employees retire without sharing their knowledge and experience with Millennials. Expertise must be re-learned or lost forever. Think about 20-30 years of expertise (think about the 10,000 hour rule) exiting your organization, being replaced with someone fresh out of B school. Chilling isn’t it?
3. Leadership Scarcity – Baby Boomers are retiring in large numbers, leaving many more management positions open than the much fewer number of Gen Xers can fill.
4. Culture Crash – As some Boomers delay retirement, they often find themselves at odds with the growing work population of Millennials – if you’re a Boomer, think about a 20-something you know at work. Now think about how many times you’ve silently said to yourself: “What a self-centered little so and so. Why aren’t they more respectful to those with more experience/years?”
Millennials matter because realistically, Boomers only have about 7 more years before retirement (Gallup). They have less time to transfer their expertise to a younger peer than they had to become an expert themselves. Organizations who look at this as a problem for the future, say 7 years from now, are heading for disaster. If we use the 10,000 hour rule, that is 4 years, 9 months and 3 weeks of non-stop learning on the job – but most people take 10 years to gain full expertise. Uh oh! If the Boomers are all going to be retired in 7 years, that leaves an expertise gap of 3 years. Who’s going to run the show? Oh yes, the Gen Xers – but there is 50% less of them than there are Boomers. So you see the problem is NOW. Can’t wait. Gotta get the “kids” up to steam to run this train NOW. This is why Millennials matter.
So, how do Boomers do it? And save the organization from a certain death? The first step is to understand Boomer-Manager perceptions and Millennial perceptions, find the delta, and work from there.
Manager perceptions about Millennials are:
“They don’t care about customers.” “If you correct them, they will quit.” “They think there is always an excuse that makes being late OK.” “They want a trophy for just showing up.” “She asked for an extended lunch to go shopping with friends – the third day on the job!” “They assume it’s OK to call me by my first name, like we’re buddies. I’m their boss!” “When I go out of my way to do something nice, they act like I owe it to them. They don’t even say thank you!”Millennial Perceptions:
We are not defined by our job. We should have a say about when we work. We want to control how we do our work. We don’t expect you to be our best friend, but we want you to be friendly when you interact with us (including when you critique us). We want you to give us direction, then get out of our way. We have just as good (or better) ideas than people with more experience and age.Organizations must do the research and develop opportunities to engage Millennials in order not only to survive, but thrive. Consistent, ongoing and creative skill development are crucial for ALL generations in an organization. It’s not just about the older generations understanding the Millennials, opportunities must be there to educate Millennials about older generations.
Here are some things that are great about Millennials and why you want to keep them in your organization for a long time:
1. They are the most well-educated generation in history.
2. They are the most technologically savvy generation.
3. The are socially responsible and are volunteering in record numbers.
4. They are highly innovative – their imagination has been cultivated throughout their lives.
5. They work hard and are fully engaged when they see the meaning in their work.
So, if your organization wants to remain relevant and high-performing, it would be a great idea if it jumped on the Millennial train NOW, before it leaves the station without you!
Special thanks to Red Tree Leadership for their webinar “Milllennials at Work,” which inspired this blog and provided information used in the blog.
