Who are the Millennials?

The Millennials are often also named the Google or Net generation because of their comfort with all things technological. They grew up using technology and they expect employers to provide them with the same tools used in their personal life to collaborate, create, brainstorm, and network. They are hyper-connected through all types of media—physically and socially. News is sourced online and then shared across a wide range of social media networks. They love to learn and they know that there will always be new things to learn because of our dependency on technology. When they learn, they want the content to be engaging and inspiring, with an element of fun thrown in for good measure.

In his book Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World, Don Tapscott established a summary of the norms and characteristics critical to understanding the needs of this generation.

The Millennials can be defined as follows:

• Want freedom in everything they do, from freedom of choice to freedom of expression

• Love to customize and personalize their experiences

• Are the "new" scrutinizers; they make up their mind swiftly and expect their opinions to count

• Look for corporate integrity and openness when deciding what to buy and where to work

• Want to find entertainment in their work, education, and social lives

• Are focused on collaboration and relationship building

• Have a need for speed—and not just in video games

• Are innovators and are constantly looking for different ways to collaborate, entertain themselves, learn, and work

As an employer, accommodating or even just being cognizant of these traits is often a challenge. For a lot of organizations, it will mean that they need to rethink how work needs to be carried out, how teams work together, and how much is shared for the purpose of creativity and innovation.

In your organization:

• Can employees access the Internet?

• Can employees access social media?

• Can employees interact through online collaboration tools?

Millennials believe this as essential for their productivity. If you don't make the tools available, you would need a good reason for why it isn't for their use during working hours.

If I think about some of the employment terms and conditions I have seen in organizations, there may well be a cry for a massive overhaul in the coming years in order to retain the best talent. I know companies that block Facebook and chat functions or even disable the whole Internet on workstations in order to keep workers focused on the job at hand, not to mention the very restrictive clauses often found in codes of conduct or employment contracts. Obviously, at some point in time these served a purpose or were added to avoid a particular situation, but they may now be the exact reason why the new generation of workers may turn down an otherwise good offer.

When it comes to the use of social media, I have seen clauses in contracts that prohibit its use, and employers have even looked for login details for employees' personal accounts on social media, which thankfully is now deemed unethical. With blogging and microblogging through Twitter as a favorite pastime for many graduates, once again companies are trying to control what is said and not said about the inside world of work. When openness and transparency prevails, very protective and restrictive clauses may cause the Millennials to refuse offers or move on when they sense their freedom of expression is completely controlled.

Note

Tip

Top tip: Ensure your contracts of employment, code of conduct, and internal policies also appeal to the needs of Millennials.

Millennials at work

The Chartered Management Institute in the United Kingdom commissioned a global survey entitled "Generation Y: Unlocking the talent of young managers". Through their research, Generation Y emerges as ambitious, demanding and hyper-connected, and firm believers of the thought that they can change the world. Specifically, this generation wants to:

• Work for an organization that does something they believe in

• Be self-disciplined when it comes to their learning and personal development, with 68 percent saying they want to initiate most of their own learning and development

• Work for organizations that are supportive, empowering, and inspiring

• Blend their home-life and their work-life in a fashion that allows them to work when, how, and where they want

• Develop new skills and good career prospects with their employer

This group of new workers is in a hurry for success. They have been using mobile phones, laptops, tablet devices, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn since their teens. Their way of finding answers is to Google search for an instant return. My own research confirms the findings of these two studies.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study of new college graduates found that after salary, the most important benefit in selecting a first role was training and development. When asked what kind of learning they preferred on the job, they chose as follows:

• 98 percent strong coaches and mentors

• 94 percent formal classroom-based training

• 91 percent support for further academic training

• 85 percent rotational assignments

• 62 percent e-learning

While generalizing is always a little dangerous regardless of which generation we refer to, generalizing helps to better understand future candidates, and it also helps creating an environment that they most likely want to work in, which the companies featured on the "Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For" list have managed to achieve. Considering just one generation is slightly limiting our perspective and it doesn't necessarily give a full understanding of how similar or different we inevitably are. Presently, we have potentially three to four generations coming together in the workplace. It is important to understand all vantage points as well as differences, and you should create a strategy for the future with focus on the younger groups of workers, as they will be the driving force of any business going forward.

What is clear is that change has been with us for some time, and the speed of innovation, thanks to technology, has increased and seems to continually increase. The current generation of IT graduates grew up with diversity and very likely shared classrooms with multiple nationalities and cultures, which makes them comfortable in new cultures.

Note

Tip

Top tip: Introduce mutual mentoring from older to younger generations and vice versa at work to help both sides understand each other's working habits and learn to accept diversity.

In a study carried out by Deloitte Consulting and the International Association of Business Communication (IABC), a comparison was made regarding communication styles and preferences for each generation. In the context of understanding how the different generations may interact in the work place, it is a good idea to have a look at a summary of some of these comparisons. In most cases, those of you in charge of recruitment will potentially be from a different generation, so it is important to consider that part of attracting and understanding future generations is understanding how they communicate and how that may differ from our own preferred style, thus allowing you to tweak your career-related materials accordingly.

Here are the large categories looked at for this study. While age is a factor, preference and attitude prevails, so you can identify which category of communicators you feel most confident with. Each generation is currently represented in the work place, so it is good to compare and contrast:

• Traditionalists: People born before 1955

• Baby boomers: People born between 1956 and 1965

• Generation X: People born between 1966 and 1976

• Millennials (also known as Generation Y): People born between 1977 and 1997

The following table shows the communication preferences for each generation as noted by Deloitte Consulting and the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC):

	Traditionalists	Baby boomers	Generation X	Millennials
Style	Formal	Semiformal	Not so serious: irreverent	Eye-catching; fun
Content	Detail; prose-style writing	Chunk it down but give me everything	Get to the point—what do I need to know	If and when I need it, I will find it online
Context	Relevance to my security; historical perspective	Relevance to the bottom line and my rewards	Relevance to what matters to me	Relevance to now, today, and my role
Attitude	Accepting and trusting of authority and hierarchy	Accept the "rules" as created by the Traditionalists	Openly question authority; often branded as cynics and skeptics	OK with authority that earns their respect
Tactics	Print; conventional, mail; face-to-face dialog or by phone; some online information/interaction	Print; conventional mail; face-to-face dialog; online tools and resources	Online; some face-to-face meetings (if really needed); games; technological interaction	Online; wired; seamlessly connected through technology
Speed	Attainable within reasonable time frame	Available; handy	Immediate; when I need it	Five minutes ago
Frequency	In digestible amounts	As needed	Whenever	Constant

With recruiters often from different generations to the IT graduates they're looking to hire, it is good to be aware of some of the current generation's key drivers as well as their communication styles.

Note

Tip

Top tip: Write job adverts and your career information in a language and format that is appealing to current IT students