Millennials make up for around one-fourth of the world’s population today and one-half of the global workforce as per this statistical source. This implies that any talent pool we dip in, must address this significant segment of our society.

This also means that whatever advantages and challenges are brought on by millennials, those become important to the organization.

There are some challenges espoused by behavioralists about working with millennials. Ironically, one of the guidelines seen frequently is “don’t stereotype”, which is something we will be doing here in this blog.

The intent here, however, is to not stereotype but to understand millennials with more empathy so that organizations can retain and empower them further.

Challenges with millennials

Below, we will look at a few challenges that organizations have to face while dealing with millennials as employees. We will also cover how to deal with the same.

Millennials love to move and shift

This movement is in the context of careers and organizations. The idea of Gen-Z spending a significant amount of time in an organization to slowly climb the corporate ladder, is not something seen in millennials. The idea there is more of treating employments as “gigs” that one learns. After learning, they grow from them and seek other pastures, if the learning and the growth doesn’t happen as expected. A modern business must understand this aspect. And, implement more policies and compensation structures meant to attract millennials specifically.

Millennials want to be involved

Speaking about policies and structures for millennials, you would be likely to see a millennial more motivated to work under a few circumstances. These include understanding of how their piece of work is adding value. Note that, you can state this “value” in terms of overall impact rather than pure numbers. We will cover this in details a little later. This is generally a good strategy anyway for employee involvement. However, it works even better for millennials.

Millennials prefer liquidity over security

Millennials are getting increasingly financially aware. Still, they would think less of an attractive life cover as a part of the compensation than a structure that results in better payouts.

Millennials want you to be more than just money

In a boardroom, you might lose the millennials if all you mention is how the organization raked in great profits and that’s the chief motivation. While that will be the chief motivation for sure, it will always be good to cover what the firm does for CSR. A thing that they also look for is what you do for true social change. This is where you can include the millennials as a part of their extracurricular. This is also where branding comes in. Millennials find it difficult to associate with brands that stand for nothing clear and differentiated. A brand that is in touch with the times (in terms of lingo, cultural sensitivity and being in vogue) is likely to resonate better with millennials.

There are many layers and segments within millennials. They hate being stereotyped- Surely, we are analyzing millennials’ character traits and getting a sneak peak into what would and wouldn’t work for them. But we must understand that there are many millennial sub-cultures, opinions and a vast stratification that is often overlooked to simplify things. Not every millennial is “woke”, not every millennial likes living on the edge (or lives by “YOLO”) and not every millennial believes in the gig economy. There are differences, but the biggest mistake could be to assume someone’s identity based on stats alone. Gender identity is another huge development in the world, which has a lot of implications in the world of millennials.

Millennials need mentorship and some tough love sometimes

Millennials sometimes can exude terrific confidence, which is a great asset to have for firms. But beneath that confident, all-figured-out exterior, there could be swirls of confusion on the right career path. Remember that millennials aren’t obsessed with one career path- they love divergence if the “gig” is good. There is where organizations can invest in a buddy or mentorship program to help millennials voice their concerns and fears openly. This is also where this mentor needs to provide a safe space without which millennials could lose trust.

Conclusion

Millennials will be even more dominant in the workforce going ahead. As, many of them grow to occupy positions of leadership. The modern digital business needs to prep for this change and welcome millennials, with the right rewards, culture and recognition. With that, the formidable force of millennials can truly propel businesses into the future. At EOV, we treat all our employees with utmost respect, keeping in mind their true interests. That is what makes us an excellent place to work at!