Ahoy brands! Here’s what the Zuckerberg generation really want from employers

By , 1 June 2015 at 13:21
Ahoy brands! Here’s what the Zuckerberg generation really want from employers
Insights

Ahoy brands! Here’s what the Zuckerberg generation really want from employers

By , 1 June 2015 at 13:21

Over the last couple of years, the term Generation Y (18-34 year olds) has been phased out by the more popular ‘Millennials’.

I’ve never really liked the term let alone being lumped in with it, although, born in 1983, I certainly am one. I’ve just always had older friends and my husband who qualify as Gen X, so I thought I identified more with that group. But when I look at my generation’s way of doing business, boy is that assumption wrong.

Be prepared for us to spend a lot of the interview process asking you questions about the prospective team and your business!

We are certainly a new breed of workers. That’s why I thought it apt to offer up a few insights for brands on how to manage millennials.

Get used to it: Millennials can be demanding

Most of the Generation Formerly Known as Y entered the workforce during time of economic crisis. The most educated generation in history, many of us started out with the least amount of job prospects. But if you think that’d make us good little yes-men scrambling to hold onto our jobs, you are way wrong.

Our unique understanding of social media can make us your company’s best advocate or worst enemy.

According to Forbes magazine, the average worker stays at his or her job for 4.4 years, while 91% of millennials only intend to stay at the same job for less than three years.

Truth is, some of us only view the crisis as a reason to be on the lookout for greener pastures and more fulfilling jobs in the quest to diversify our resume, C.V., or LinkedIn profile. We’re not always looking to change to raise our income, but, with we relish change and opportunities to keep learning.

We crave autonomy and affirmation!

Sometimes referred to as Management 3.0, we crave autonomy and recognition both from our managers and our peers. We won’t just work as a cog but look for project credits for the work we’ve completed.

We’ve been raised with an entrepreneurial spirit, so if we choose to join a company, we’re hoping to join a close-knit team that enjoys collaborating. We look for brands with a strong corporate culture, ethical mindset and values that reflect our own.

For that matter, you also need to sell us your company in as much as we will sell ourselves. We tend to be rather confident in our ability to perform a role. Be prepared for us to spend a lot of the interview process asking you questions about the prospective team and your business!

If you want to attract and retain millennials, you need to be sure they have a voice and feel relaxed to air their opinions, and that they have a clear path to grow with your business. The right company will enable us to take great courses, be mentored and guided steadily on how to learn to be the best at our job so we can climb to the next rung more quickly.

We’ll still deliver the results but we want to work where we want and how we want

Outside medicine, construction and hospitality, there are now less and less jobs that require us to stay in one place. As the first generation that was raised online, we type faster than we handwrite, we text, email or WhatsApp much more often than we call, and we know there are epic communication apps and other business software that can allow us to work just as productively from anywhere.

While not all of us want to work remotely, we desire flexible work schedules that allow us to come in to work past the standard 9/9.30 am. And with the front-end of the generation starting to have kids, we want the freedom to work from home when necessary.

We’re also more likely to choose an organization with an open office plan, not those segregating cubicle boxes. Blame it on Google, but we prefer to join a company that thinks about the different ways we can interact with our colleagues, offering break rooms and comfortable meeting areas that inspire brainstorming and collaboration!

You could also dub millennials as the BYOD generation. We know what tools we like to work on and prefer our own phones, tablets and Macbooks. This bring-your-own-device culture can save you ample hardware costs, so long as you use single sign-on tools like LastPass to secure your credentials when they leave the office.

Millennials are everywhere online

The Zuckerberg generation lives out its life online for the world to see. Our unique understanding of social media can make us your company’s best advocate or worst enemy. Companies that restrict employees’ social media access and usage are simply outdated. Don’t tell your colleagues what they can and cannot do online, but feel free to guide them by promoting a uniquely branded company culture.

And we’ve gone from RateMyProfessors.com to sites like Glassdoor, so if we love or hate a company, we are happy to provide our anonymous two cents. And you can be sure we’ll be scoping out your public recommendations before we even consider signing that contract!

Millennials put happiness first. All in all, we want to be happy at work and we expect you to be a part of making that happen. If you do that, we’ll be happy to give you our all.

So, if this was an accurate definition of millennials, am I one of them? Oh yes, yes I am.

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