Transcript The Millennial Generation and Education

The Millennial generation
as employees
Dr. Pete Markiewicz
Indiespace.com & Lifecourse Associates
Art Institute of California, Los Angeles
Topics
• Millennials in your workplace
– Courtship/Hiring
– Day 1, 2, 3
– Management Part 1
– Management Part 2
– Retention
The Employee Challenge
• Your company will need to hire Millennials for their
first or second jobs during the next decade
• You will need to adjust your strategy for
– Hiring
– Day 1,2,3
– Management/Mentoring
– Retention
• Companies that effectively recruit and retain
Millennials will have a competitive advantage
Millennials – Bad press
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Naïve
Mommy/Daddy will fix it
Arrogance
No respect for experience
Belief in personal superiority
Lack basic communication skills
Need constant stroking
Over-complaining
Over-sharing
Can’t read a book
Take any comments as criticism
Reveal company secrets on blog
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Generation Debt
Disloyal
Cheaters
Paying dues = occupy space
Uninterested in adapting
Lack creativity
Passive
Assume automatic promotion
Others responsible for my
mistakes
• “We all deserve promotions”
• “I get Facebook or I walk”
Millennials – the truth
• No generation is “bad”
• “Bad” features of one generation may be the
“good” features of the next
• You can’t change them
• You can exploit their strengths and adjust for their
weaknesses
• You’re going to have to hire them!
Millennials are different
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SPECIAL – given a sense of destiny
SHELTERED – close to parents, naïve
CONFIDENT – “the last winner”
CONVENTIONAL – support social norms
TEAM-PLAYER – rely on social networks
PRESSURED – great expectations
ACHIEVING – hard workers
Bringing Millennials into your
workplace
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Courtship and Hiring – getting real and on time
Day 1, 2, 3 – help them hit the ground running
Management – what you need to teach
Management – what you need to learn
Retention – getting that elusive loyalty
Millennial psychological reality
• Millennials = heroes who will save the world
• Huge pressure to become said heroes
• Their opinions were equally valuable as their parents and
other authority figures
• No losers/failures here – just the “last winner”
• They expect timetables, schedules, planners describing
how to save the world
• They can always fall back on Mom and Dad
I am extraordinary!
Millennial transactional reality
• Helicopter parents made life a series of constant
(re)negotiations
• Always-on, “bursty” media (cellphones, Internet) break
reality into lots of little, discrete transactions
• Constant communication facilitated by technology (social
networks, cellphones)
• Expect small, immediate rewards (“gold stars”), rather than
a chance at the long-term jackpot
• Expect progressive rewards (like levels in a game)
• Uncertain future (political, technology) implies to them that
long-term planning is absurd
I am loyal to the transaction, not the institution
Homo mobilis
• Millennials adapt to information overload
“packet-switching” - communicating in frequent, short bursts
• Constant communication increases re-negotiation, reduces
advance planning, reading
• Need frequent contact (“pinging”), for consensus-building
with their “friends”
• Definition of “friend” loosened to someone you can
communicate with
• Looser definition of “public” versus private information (a
public web page seems “private” to them).
Everything is negotiable
“…Older people use their mobile phones
to "micro-co-ordinate" with partners during
the day in order to run their errands more
efficiently and … younger people, who
have never known paper diaries or an
unconnected world, micro-co-ordinate in
order to avoid committing themselves to
any fixed meeting time, location or person
at all. After all, a better opportunity might
yet present itself…
-The Economist,” Homo Mobilis, April 10, 2008
Millennial customer-centric reality
• Marketing to Millennials reinforced the idea that
they were special
• Retail pitches to Millennials implied that they were
a “must have” customer that would always get
premium service
• Millennials join a company as a customer,
expecting great service from said company
• Work for company = series of transactions (like a
sale) with reciprocal benefit
Poor customer service = reason to leave
Courtship & hiring – the practice
• Employers compete for best talent with aggressive
hiring practices (reinforcing “specialness”)
• Potential employees are “wined and dined”
(reinforcing their “special” customer status)
• The company “value proposition” for employees is
poorly defined, especially in the short term
• Months pass before the hire/first day of work, often
with minimal contact
• New employee reports, bursting with excitement
Gone in 60 seconds…
Courtship – reasons
• Employers make hiring into a sales pitch
– Reinforces “employee as customer” conceit
• Employer discusses vague, long-term potential
– Millennials want to know about tomorrow, next week,
next month…
– Value proposition not broken down to a series of
progressive transactions
• Employer takes too long
– Long gaps between hire and Day 1
– The constant, transactional communication expected by
Millennials is missing
Courtship - solutions
• Don’t treat potential employees as customers
– Tell the truth (realistic job previews, e.g. “shadowing”)
– Show the good, then try to scare them away
– Explain short-term as well as long-term opportunities
• Use trusted sources to find hires
– Employees with children
– Friend networks of existing employees
• Keep in touch
– Send sample work, background material
– Have key people enter their business network before Day 1
• Create your employee brand
– Value proposition for employees
– Short-term, as well as long-term benefits
Day 1,2,3 – the practice
• Employee comes in bursting with ideas
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“Are you ready to give me a good job experience?”
“Why am I not by the window?”
“Why are people ignoring my great idea?”
“Why can’t I talk to the people who count anymore?”
“Why won’t anyone tell me what to do?”
“Why can’t we re-negotiate our meeting time?”
“Why can’t I use Facebook at work?”
• Employee not listened to
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Told to “move arms and legs”
Told to wait until they “learn the ropes”
“You’re too enthusiastic”
Ignored when they present ideas
Gone in a week…
and Mom shows up in supervisor’s office!
Day 1,2,3 - reasons
• Millennials are used to being heard
– Told they were especially clever, creative
– Had their ideas listened to as equals by authority
– Unaware that experience often trumps “insanely great” ideas
– Assume “bursty” on-demand learning (fast Internet lookup) is
better than slow accumulation of experience
• Expect to immediately enter transaction-based reality
– I “consume” your rules, goals and receive benefit
– Looking for the specifics needed to complete a transaction –
not the overlying wisdom of the approach
– Rules, deadlines are observed – but in an async, “packetswitched” fashion
Day 1,2,3 - solutions
• Make sure they hit the ground running
– Meaningful work on day 1
– Work must have a defined success marker
– Let them customize their office space, computer to improve
workflow
• React to “insanely great” ideas
– Ask for more justification
– Have them do the downside analysis
– Put an advisor in the loop
• Break their work into tiny, progressive steps
– Unbundle complex corporate roles (Tulgan’s best point)
– Reassemble into small, progressive, tasks
• Let them use/exploit their technology edge
– Don’t deny their networks
– Allow asychronous execution of job tasks, if deadlines are met
Management 1 – the practice
• Millennial new hire expects “helicopter
management” similar to helicopter parenting
• Manager/Mentor doesn’t want a new family
member…
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Acts like a philosopher
No boundaries set
No negotiations
Expects them to figure it out on their own
Demands obedience without rationale
No praise/rewards
Gone in a two weeks…or Mom
shows up in manager’s office again
Management 1 - reasons
• Manager unwilling to engage in a paternal, yet
professional relationship
– Millennials lack an “inner compass”
– Millennials used to micro-management of their lives
• Hands-off management
– Manager feels that getting specific is unnecessary if big
ideas are understood
– Manager doesn’t provide enough praise/rewards (even
symbolic ones)
– Negotiation interpreted as insubordination
• Manager doesn’t assign responsibility for
– Adjustment/optimization of work environment
– Important projects (may not be possible)
Management 1 - solutions
• “Parental” management style
– Advise rather than mentor (no cosmic discussions with employee
– Set ground rules (repeatedly)
– Constant “pinging” of employee to ascertain their status
– One boss, not many
• Paternal, yet professional
– Know their names, ideas, goals
– Give them “creative” responsibility (e.g. keeping track of their own
performance, “first impression” research)
• Focused management
– Specific assignments with structure
– Explain decisions
– “Lend your power” as needed, with evaluation
• Create structure
– Timelines, timetables, deadlines
– Metric for success (score-keeping)
– Reward strategy (gold stars)
Management 2 – the practice
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New hire advertised as “awesome”
New hire irritates managers, older employees
New hire expects responsibility beyond their years
Management tries to “fix” the employee
Employee responds poorly to help
Confrontation
Employee does something brazen (e.g. looking for
work on company time)
• Employee is fired
Dad tries to sue the company
Management 2 - reasons
• They can’t figure it out alone (like you did?)
– They’re employees, not customers
– Other people know more than they do
– Things take time in the real world
• The new generation will always
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Want a family, not an “army of one”
Expect authority to provide guidance
Expect authority to keep score
Need help digesting criticism
Expect praise for performance
Treat work as a transaction, not a higher calling
Management 2 - solutions
• Hold your nose and praise them
– Accept that they aren’t interested in “big ideas”
– Respect their ideas
– Institute a point reward system, or even literal “gold
stars”
• Make it a transaction
– Buy their work via small rewards (Tulgan)
– Replace traditional compensation model with short-term
payouts (Internet, game, rock star model)
• Encourage respect
– Demonstrate (don’t just tell them) that older and wiser is
just that
– Match their respect (no racists, sexist, any-ist things)
– Encourage self-criticism (have them make a list)
Retention – the challenge
• New hire asks questions about the long-term
repeatedly during courtship
• Upon starting work, new hire is only interested in
the here and now
• Little or no loyalty to company, brand
• Employee questions value of company work
• New hire abruptly leaves without warning during
first 6 months
Extra cost for hiring someone new
Retention – the reasons
• Millennials lack loyalty – except to a good
transaction
• Millennials are very loyal to social/political causes
• During the hire process, Millennials don’t bring up
the short term for fear of missing the job
• Millennials assume they can negotiate to configure
their ideal job
• Millennials are certain there must be greener
pastures for “someone as special as myself”
• If not, Mom has the bedroom ready…
Retention - solutions
• Lead them to the long-term
– Provide numerous, progressive, short-term goals
– Teach them to think strategically
• Study of company history
• Study of past employee experiences
• Define your company as a “cause”
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Create an employee brand
Provide value statements
Define the “good citizen” in the company
Make the company a “cause” rather than a business
Summary
Hiring
– Be honest about the job
– Listen to ideas
– Break work into small, discrete steps
Management
– Paternal, yet professional
– Focused, detail-oriented mentoring
– Praise them, and give out gold stars
– Make work a transaction
Retention
– Lead them to the long-term
– Make your employee brand a worthy cause
Recommended Reading
Not Everyone Geta A Trophy:
How to Manage Generation Y
by Bruce Tulgan (2009, Wiley)
ISBN: 978-0-470-25626-8
Millennials Incorporated
The Big Business of
Recruiting, Managing and
Retaining the the World’s
New Generation of Young
Professionals
by Lisa Orrell (2008, WyattMacKenzie)
ISBN: 978-1-932279-82-5
Millennial Makeover: MySpace,
YouTube & The Future of
American Politics by Morley
Winograd, (2008, Rutgers)
ISBN: 0-8135-4301-0
Millennials and the Pop Culture by
Pete Markiewicz, (2005, Lifecourse)
http://lifecouAlso see this locations for
additional book by Strauss &
Howe/Lifecourse
http://lifecourse.com/store/books.html