What Are Millennials Looking For in a Career?
Ahhhh, millennials. The technology and social media-obsessed, “all about me” generation that somehow managed to finagle LOL and OMG into the dictionary. They’re literally taking over. In fact, Pew Research notes that more than one in three American workers are between the ages of 18-34 and surpassed Gen X as the largest share of the workforce in 2015. What are these wacky 20 and early 30-somethings looking for in a career anyway? Of course, if they’re not running their own business, that is…
They Want Their Work to Mean Something
Millennials want to spend their time doing what’s enjoyable. If they are to invest their precious time working, it better be something that encourages both personal and professional growth. Millennials are often deemed more selfish than older generations, which means that in order to keep them interested, they need to see the benefit for them.
If a job or task isn’t utilizing their strengths and allowing them to flourish, they won’t stick around for long. So if you want to keep your millennial workforce intact, make sure you can offer them the opportunity to do meaningful work and allow them to see how their efforts make a significant impact on your business.
They Want to Lead
Millennials want to rise through the ranks and become leaders within your company. They aren’t satisfied with working in one position for long. They’re restless and eager. They may have ideas and concepts for various improvements within the workplace and want their chance to shine.
In order to keep millennials interested in sticking it out with your company, offer them opportunities for growth, where they can continue developing skills needed to be successful in life and the workplace.
They Want Their Personal Values Respected
Millennials value a collaborative work environment and thrive in work relationships that value teamwork as well. In a boss or supervisor, they want to feel like they have a mentor and someone who they can both look up to and who teaches and develops them rather than someone who simply barks orders. In a boss, millennials want someone who can empower his or her employees both personally and professionally, so approach your Millennial employees with this in mind.
They Want to Make a Difference
As noted earlier, millennials want their work to mean something. They want to have an impact and be able to consistently work toward this vision within the workplace. Just as importantly, they want the company or institution they work for the both respect and encourage this expression of values. Millennials value values. Surprisingly, money is not the prime motivator within the millennial generation, but instead making a difference and a focus on making the world a better place is. What an empathetic bunch!
They Want Flexible Schedules and Work/Life Balance
Millennials are very concerned with the success of their personal and familial relationships. While they aspire to be successful in their careers, they want to be equally as successful in their relationships and value a flexible schedule that allows for the balance of these priorities.
Millennial’s attitudes toward work flexibility also have to do with the beliefs that the effort and results of their work should be measured over the actual hours put in at the office. Millennials are concerned with the fact that as long as the work gets done, their schedule should be flexible and left up to them to determine what the actual hours look like.
Create a list of performance objectives and other necessary duties, and allow them the freedom to determine their scheduled hours (if this is practical for your business, of course). The opportunity will be appreciated!
Owning a Business or Being Their Own Boss
Because this group learned during the recession that nothing is guaranteed, not even that dream job they envisioned when finishing college, the idea of owning their own business is appealing. Of course, it also pretty much means they can have and do all of the above whenever and however they please.
Soooooo, What Do We Do With Them?
Millennials are viewed by some as self-centered and difficult to work with. Maybe it’s because they’re so independent and find it difficult to follow the rules. Maybe it’s because they want to create their own rules and can’t be tamed. Either way, the well-educated and iron-willed millennial generation is changing the workforce as we know it and companies would be wise to tailor their recruiting and talent acquisition efforts toward appealing to these candidates if they want to maintain a solid company.
