But, hold on a minute, how much truth is there behind this hysteria? Do Millennials really have little to contribute to the workplace? And is it really fair to make sweeping generalisations about an entire generation anyway? How can we ensure we get the best from our workforce, whatever their age? In our recent webinar entitled Managing Millennials, we set out to find out.
Millennials are generally considered to be those born between 1981 and 1996, so are now in their mid-20s to late-30s. Far from likely to ever reach 75% of the workforce, population trends suggest this may be their peak year. Globally, they make up around 43% of the workforce; in Europe, only around a third.
Aside from looking at their year of birth, how do you know you’re managing a Millennial? For the sake of argument, let’s put aside the thorny issue of whether it’s right or wrong to label an entire generation the same (we’ll come back to that later). What characteristics are generally true of Millennials? My research suggests they:
Sounds like hard work, right? Well, if that’s the bad – what’s the good? Millennials also tend to be:
They also tend to be more concerned with societal issues like mental health, equality and climate change, perhaps because they represent the future they are stepping into – a future for which they are perhaps the rightful decision-makers.
And they want their organisations to walk the walk rather than just talk the talk, to live out their espoused purpose and take meaningful action on putting people and the planet before profit, and to create a better and fairer society. Millennials want to know why their work matters, and how it aligns with their own values and aspirations.
Don’t these good traits sound really good? So, how do we overcome the negatives? Do Millennials need shaking up? Or could it be that their negative behaviours are symptomatic of disillusionment, a lack of self-confidence or a fear of failure? If we could break down the barriers between generations and genuinely collaborate, might we find that Millennials hold the keys to the future, and could teach the rest of us a thing or two?
The 2019 Deloitte global annual survey on Millennials found 43% wanted to leave their current employer in the next two years, up from 38% in 2017. Of those, 25% had already left an employer in the past two years so this was no idle threat. Among their reasons for wanting to leave, respondents cited: a lack of opportunities to advance; a lack of learning and development; a poor work-life balance; not feeling appreciated; and being bored or insufficiently challenged.
All these reasons point to a failure in leadership: they are not difficult for managers to address.
Things to stop:
Things to try:
Consider setting up a shadow board as a training ground.
Now is the time to act. Living with a global pandemic and facing the real possibility of a long-lasting recession, we are entering a very different commercial world than we left a few months ago. We know that we need to do things differently in order to face the challenges ahead. Leaders create leaders. So, maybe now is the time to stop thinking of Millennials as our problem child and start shaping them for their destiny: the leaders of the future.
About the Author
Dr Jacquie Drake is a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield School of Management where, until the close of the 2007 academic year, she was Executive Director of The Praxis Centre and also co-founder. She has been a faculty member at Cranfield for 25 years in the field of Organisational Behaviour. She is Programme Director of our Developing Leadership Practice open programme. View full profile.