Get Paid to Share Your Expertise
Help shape the future of business through market research studies.
See Research StudiesMillennials often get a bad rap, characterized as entitled, lazy and high-maintenance.
They are the “trophy generation”—the kids that went home with an award simply for participating. That may be the perception on the part of older generations but it’s not necessarily true.
Although these are still the youngest workers in the workforce, they aren’t all 20-year-olds anymore—they represent the 54 million adults between 19 and 35 this year and they are about one-third of the workforce. They are grown and growing up, starting families and thinking about their career progression in a world where Boomers are delaying retirement and GenX is waiting in the wings for their jobs.
So what’s the best way to manage those young workers so that both of you can succeed?
6 Tips to Manage Millennials in the Workforce:
-
Give Meaningful, Frequent Feedback.
A report from SuccessFactors and Oxford Economics, “Workforce 2020: A Millennial Misunderstanding” notes that younger workers feel better and do better on the job with more feedback and not just annual reviews, but feedback on a weekly or even daily basis. Experienced workers don’t necessarily need a lot of feedback (although a pat on the back is always a nice thing). Let your young reports know how they are doing in real time, making sure to point out improvements that need to be made along with highlighting what they did well.
-
Give Them Choices and Flexibility.
Millennials want flexibility in where they work and when they work—more than just the usual work-life balance, they want a work/life blend. That means to let them work in a way that optimizes their talents and abilities requires giving them the freedom to work in the way that’s best suited to their needs. If you provide clear instructions, defined objectives and a deadline, let your Millennials figure out where and how they will complete that work. If the finished product is up to snuff and delivered on time, it doesn’t matter where or when they did it.
-
Then Provide Structure.
Yes, they want freedom and choices. But they also need structure, like project due dates, the hours you expect them to work and the meetings they must attend each week. Being a goal-oriented generation (think of all those trophies….) they also need to understand the rungs of the professional ladder they are climbing. Take the time to get to know the personal and professional goals of your younger employees and enable them to blossom. Give them checklists, offer help reward the for innovating and taking appropriate risks, provide them with mentors who will help them set goals
-
Keep Them Challenged.
Millennials do best when then given a variety of challenging assignments –as a group they want to work on new and tough problems that require creative solutions. They have grown up in an era where nearly any questions can be answer by a Google or Wikipedia search, so they are used to be resourceful and finding answers. Challenging work—like asking them to make a presentation before a large group– allows them to learn and illustrate their professional capabilities to others on their team and in the company.
-
Let Them Work in Teams.
Millennials have grown up in an environment that fosters teamwork, and most Millennials are comfortable with and like working in teams. They prefer a sense of unity and collaboration over individual competition. Unlike earlier generations, Millennials believe that teams can usually achieve more than individuals. And even though Millennials may be less seasoned in the business world they are usually tech-savvier and can add a valuable perspective to a project.
-
Promote and Engage Them.
A survey by Time Magazine found that 40% of Millennials say they expect a promotion every two years, regardless of performance at work. This notion though, is a bit unrealistic, as you can’t just accelerate the promotion timeline for Millennials and not any other group. Instead though, keep younger employees engaged and committed by pairing a Gen Y employee up with a seasoned employee in a leadership position and encourage the pair to mentor each other—what’s known as cross mentoring. The millennial employee could teach the Boomer employee about trends in technology while the more seasoned employee could talk about the lessons they’ve learned over the years. Conversations like these can be empowering for young employees and give them the ability to see a plan for success.