In 2015, Millennials comprised 35 percent of the workforceânearly 54 million workers.2 Within the next decade, Millennials will be all in! By 2020, one in three adults will be a Millennial, and when the clock clicks 2025, three of four workers will be from the Millennial generation.3 Successful managers will be the ones who understand, appreciate, and learn to work with the differences in values, work-life priorities, and expectations they bring.
The Millennial flood has become front-page newsâvirtually every form of media is talking about it, from the Saturday Night Live' sketch âThe Millennialsâ to newspapers to niche magazines and journals. USA Today had this to say on the topic: âBusinesses are struggling to keep pace with a new generation of young people entering the workforce who have starkly different attitudes and desires than employees over the past few decades.â Human Resource Executive says, âMillennials, people primarily in their twenties, are entering the workforce bringing with them new promises and challenges for HR, not to mention a whole new way of working.â Clearly, something has changed from previous generations to this newest generation of twentysomethings, and management is worried that the change is not all good.
Let us say that you run a corporationâwho is going to take over for you when you're gone? Do you think the next generation is ready to take over? Or perhaps you run a family businessâdo you think your kids are ready to step into that role? Guess whatâtoday is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. It is here. Now.
The new generation of twentysomethings has seen the help-wanted signs in our windows. They know we really need themâand guess what? They need us just as much as we need them. So the thing to do is to reach out and get to know them. What motivates them? What do they think? How do they learn? What do they expect? Why reach out? Because we each have what the other really wants and needs, and because our successâand the success of our organizationsâdepends on it.
The Generations at Work
But aren't all youth the same? The answer to that is yes and no. There are some common characteristics of all youth, whether they were born a hundred years ago or just a decade ago. Before we address whether all youth are the same, let's briefly outline the four generations currently in the workplace.
In our training sessions, we do an exercise where we break into groups and have the participants talk about the clothing they wore, the music they listened to, the sociopolitical events they remember, and the technology they used in their adolescence and young adulthood. You can imagine how quickly people start to compare their experiences. In one of our sessions, a Builder, a person born from 1925 through the end of World War II to 1945, told of how her family shared a telephone with other families in the area. Few people today remember that sharing a phone line was referred to as a âparty line.â A Millennial pulled a smartphone out of his pocket and said, âThis is my party line. I can connect to five people at once.â
The Builders
There were 56 million Builders. The Great Depression, Roosevelt's New Deal, the Korean War, World War II, the GI Billâall left an indelible stamp on the members of this generation. As a result of the GI Bill, 49 percent of those admitted into college in 1947 were veterans. By 1956, nearly 8 million World War II veterans had taken advantage of the opportunity to further their education.4 Authority was important as was hard work, honor, and delayed gratification. People were willing to work 30 years or more before they got their gold watch and could retire. It was not uncommon to spend one's entire career at one company.
The Baby Boomers
Then along came the next generationâthe Baby Boomersâborn from 1946 to 1964, numbering 80 million or so men and women. Vietnam, the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Liberation Movement, television, and rock and roll all made an indelible impression on this generation. The Baby Boomers protested in favor of equality for everybody, and they discovered the charms of credit cards (which drove their Builder parents crazyâBuilders learned from the Depression not to buy on credit). The Kennedy and King assassinations robbed them of their innocence, while the moon landing showed the world they could do anything they set their minds to. For the Baby Boomers, values such as professional identity, health and wellness, and material wealth are all very important. Boomers are forever youngârun fast, jump long, and throw hard. They wanted free drugs in the 1960s and now they want free drugs again, this time from Medicare. Because they find much of their identity in their work, it is no surprise that Baby Boomers have added one month per year to the workweek. When it comes to technology, they use it to do more workânot less.
Generation X
Then along came another groupâGeneration Xâborn from 1965 to 1979, which numbers 61 million.5 Gen X(ers) were influenced by more recent events, such as the Persian Gulf War, the Challenger explosion, AIDS, corporate downsizing, a tripling of the divorce rate, both parents working (latchkey kids), video games, MTV, computersâall made their mark on this generation. They were suspicious of their parents. They say, âWait a minute. You mean you can land a man on the moon, and yet you can't even get a rocket off the launch pad?â They witnessed environmental disasters such as Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. Gen X was coming of age during the Watergate scandal that led to the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon.
Some of the values that emerged from their experience include mobility and autonomy. They need to be independent. Their greatest value is to have balance in their lives. Technology came of age, and the members of this generation use it for work-life balance. They don't perceive a need to be in the officeâthey could sit on the beach and do their work.
The Millennials
Today, there's a new generation known as Millennials (aka Gen Y). Demographers place their birth years between 1980 and 2000. There are 92 million Millennials.6 They have been shaped by 9/11 and terrorism, Columbine (which took the King and Kennedy assassinations to a new and more personal level), environmentalism, cell phones, text messaging, technology-based social networking, and a strong emphasis on social responsibility.
Technology isn't a tool to just do more work or to achieve work-life blendingâit is an integral part of the members of this group, and working with it has become second nature. The members of this new generation want and need constant feedback. Why? Because they were raised in democratic and praise-based families that proudly displayed âMy kid made the honor rollâ bumper stickers. They grew up in an era where the focus of parenting was nurturing. They have grown up working on teams in school and on academic projects. When they get into the workforce, they expect to work in teams. Diversity is important to them. If they walk ...