The millennial generation is defined as people in the general population who were born between the years of 1981 and 1996. They now form an increasingly sizeable proportion of the working-age population. As of 2022, millennials make up 35% of the total employees in the American workforce.
Millennials were born into an age where the internet and smart technology were already present. As a result, they tend to be extremely tech-savvy people who can work efficiently on multiple tasks that require the use of such technology. Millennials have different values and aspirations to previous generations, which may impact on how they see a career and work in general. In this article three key traits of millennials in the workplace will be explored in detail.
They want their voices to be heard
The millennial generation can be very vocal in the working world. They are often quick to offer their viewpoints to various tasks or issues and can be extremely creative in providing elegant solutions to problems encountered whilst working. As such, an organization that actively listens to their ideas and opinions is one that nurtures and cultivates the innate abilities of the millennial generation. This is both of benefit to them and the company itself, as millennials can be key drivers in the quest for service improvement and more effective ways of working.
One way in which organizations can ensure that they listen and act on the feedback from millennials is to incorporate regular use of the best employee survey platform. This software allows leaders and senior managers to gain valuable insights into the views and perspectives of the millennial workforce (and the workforce in general), which can be used to drive meaningful change and improvements across the organization.
They are open to change
Another key trait of millennials is that they are extremely open to the idea of change in terms of working practices and changes in the industry in general. This is great news for employers as it means that millennials can cope with changes in job roles and responsibilities without missing a beat or feeling overwhelmed by new tasks. It also makes them relish the opportunity for career progression and developing their skills at work.
Employers can harness these traits by giving millennials a broad range of tasks to complete and by offering visible paths to career progression and personal development. This will help to retain this workforce in the long term and may even encourage them to spend their whole careers in the organization, which helps to keep recruitment costs down and retain highly skilled staff for many years.
They have a passion for learning
Most millennials actively subscribe to the philosophy of lifelong learning and have a true passion for absorbing new information. This is another immense bonus for employers as they can rely on this generation to stay abreast of changes in the industry and adopt the learning into their working practices.
Employers who want to retain their crop of talented millennials should look to offer them multiple avenues to broaden their knowledge. It should go far above mandatory training packages and there should be a range of education and training opportunities that promote lifelong learning, specialization, and personal development.
In summary, with over 56 million millennials in the American workforce, any organization looking to progress within their industry needs to take the above-mentioned points into consideration in order to get the best out of their employees.
