The Importance Of Millennials In The Workplace

Every generation is influenced by its period 's economic, political and social events. From the Great Depression to the civil rights and women 's movements to the advent of television and advanced computer technologies. Thus generational background/situation may also affect the way they work. The key is to be able to effectively address and take advantage of the differences in values and expectations of each generation in the workplace. The current work place consists of four different generations; The Baby Boomers (1946-1964) who are slowly retiring and existing the workforce, The Generation X (1965-1976), The Generation Y or millennia (1977-1997), and the Generation Z who are about to or are just entering the work force. Although these different generations tend to want similar things in a workplace their environment/background has shaped their character, values, and expectations (Hahn 2011).

Baby Boomers constructed America in the 1960s, and soon the Millennials will get their chance. Baby boomers are currently the largest generation of active workers. Research has shown that boomers identify their strengths as organizational memory, optimism, and their willingness to work long hours. Many earned, many still earn high incomes. The millennial generation, born between 1980 and 2000, are starting to enter businesses in large numbers. However, they do not have the same views and values when working compared to the Boomers. This Boomers grew up in organizations with large corporate hierarchies, and Millennials grew up with management structures and teamwork based job roles. By 2025, millennials will make up the 75% of the workforce replacing the Boomer generation. But, are they ready for the workforce and is the workforce ready for them? I think they would be ready if businesses are able to change and adapt towards them.

There is a significant value gap between degrees held and jobs worked by Generation Y. Without available positions in their fields, Millennials must take unskilled jobs, while waiting for their elders to give turn. Millennials who are not educated and working toward a professional career are the hardest hit by situation, creating a new echelon of poor Americans. Economists think that Millennials should accept this current economic climate as the "new normal." (Kotkin 3).

Currently the Millennial generation comprises between an estimated 10-17% of the Controller’s Office, when defining a millennial as someone between the ages of 18 to 34 (Pynes, 2004, p. 28). In the chart below (Figure 1), you can see the breakdown of the office’s age groups. As the 60-65 year olds leave the workforce it will be important to recruit individuals within the younger generations to develop a visionary workplace

As generation Y, the first group to come of age in the new millennium, grows and matures, they have entered the workforce at an increasingly high rate, making them the fastest growing segment of the United States workforce (Dorsey, 2010, pg. 15). These “youngsters” are typically in their early 20’s to early 30’s, still in the early and formative stages of their careers (Wain, 2013, pg. 308). Joining these Millennials in the workforce are those known as Generation X, consisting of the middle generation born from around 1965-1984 (Wain, 2013, pg. 308). At the far end of the age-workforce spectrum sit the Baby Boomers – those born between the years of 1946 and 1964 (Kaifi, Nafei, Khanfar & Kaifi, 2012, pg. 89). And finally, the oldest generation still trying to eke out their last paychecks before retirement is the Traditionalists, born between the years of 1937 and 1945 (American Medical Writers, 2012).

In a work environment everybody wants to climb the totem pole. For Millennials, they want to rise to leadership without working too hard for it. They are trying to reach the leadership positions as fast as they can and at times they are unprepared for the position they enter because they have not experienced enough along the way. Where Millennials are too fast to rise to leadership, people considered to be Generation X, who are known for their hard work ethic and experience are often complacent in the workplace. Though they gained their experience (unlike Millennials) by working their way up the chain of command and gradually paying their dues and though they also do not expect to be handed a higher position, like Millennials who feel entitled to higher positions in the workplace, they are also not as motivated as Millennials. (Bresman)

As indicated by Forbes, the normal work environment now accommodates four generational eras in one place, including Veterans (born in or before 1946), Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1979), and Millennials (1980-2000). Today, the old dog and the young pup need to work congruously to reach their end goals. These diverse generational and work perspectives can be advantageous. However, as you can imagine, such perspectives can be slightly hard to explore.

Millennials are just as hard working, if not more so, than generations before them. The Millennial generation is actually larger than the baby boomers; CNN reports that there are 87 million Millennials in America today compared to 76 million baby boomers . Millennials acutely understand that competition in the workplace is a real issue, and strive for exceptionalism as a result in order to make themselves more viable in the marketplace. Furthermore, this assumption speaks to a larger issue about the evolving nature of work. Over 90% of Americans rely on their computers today in their current role at their place of employment; as Millennials, this area is our forte. Mastering technology is not a concern for the generation that grew up on the Internet. It should be expected that the concept of “hard work” means something completely different to us. Instead of worrying that Millennials disapprove of Executive Management or want to usurp established leadership, department heads would do well to extend an invitation to closer working relationships with their junior staff. Ultimately, Millennials don’t want to be made CEO immediately; they do, however, want to develop a bond with their CEO as soon as possible, to know that their presence matters and that their work is valued. Millennials have an overwhelming desire to feel connected with their work and a mentorship relationship in the workplace could shift the needle from good to

Millennials tend to be technologically advanced and eager to learn. They also value social responsibility and team-work. They are often seen as impatient and quick to express opinions without having all of the data. Millennials are quick to jump-ship if they do not feel if they are progressing fast enough, often at speeds that might be seen as unreasonable. Dayan (2005) says that about 5.6 million Millennials are about to enter the employment market. Millennials are said to be the most challenging generation for employers.

Millennials bring different yet positive characteristics to the working environment, regardless of their stereotypes. They have positive attributes that allow them to overcome their labels, which includes their keen technical skills. As Pummer, Chris (2014) also stated in his article, “Employers may expect that leaning heavily on Millennials tech fluency will translate into an even fast workplace with appreciable bottom-line benefits.”  Many employers actually expect that their technological dependency will create a fast paced environment, however their dependency leads to more than just it being fast paced. It leads to other benefits for themselves, employers, employees, and multiple generations.

Generation Y hold many core values when entering the workforce today. Some of those values include but are not limited to confident, optimistic, realism and highly tolerant (DeVaney, 2015, p. 11). Generation Y’s also enjoy the aspect of working in teams and are individualistic but also group oriented. Generation Y’s are innovative and think outside of the box and well as focus on change in the workplace using technology. Generation Y’s believe because of technology they can have more flexibly. Generation Y workers do not believe in working the long

Many changes are happening in the workforce today. Our labor environment consists of multiple generations, which creates fundamentally differing approaches to everything from work ethics, business management, and co-worker cooperation. The most recent generation, commonly known as “Generation Y” or the “Millennial” generation, is slowly taking over the workforce. Because they bring with them a radically new mindset and opinion of labor, the global business infrastructure should be modified to not only accommodate “Millennials,” but also to remain sympathetic to the business practices characteristic of previous generations. Doing so will provide more harmony and productivity among co-workers of different generational backgrounds.

In an interview of 2016, Simon Sinek analyses and discusses the topic of Millennials within the workplace. Throughout Sinek’s speech in his interview, he explains the disadvantages which Millennials have faced while growing up in their generation. Now, Sinek claims that the reason why Millennials have been dealt such a “bad hand” in life, is a result of failed parenting strategies, and an imbalance of technology along with social media (which has advanced like never before within the adolescence of Millennials). Therefore, the imbalance of the internet and real-life interaction results in millennials being unable to form deep and meaningful relationships, in order to carry out happy and meaningful live in comparison to previous

The upcoming generation, millennials, are a new type of generation. They have proven to be the most educated generation, despite the hard times in the economy. Yet they still face criticism from their elders on their work ethic. Although they seem to all be lazy and not interested in working, not all millennials are like that. They just have different values in life, and balance work life with free time. Millennials have faced a lot of criticism on their work ethic, which has many questioning do millennials have a strong work ethic. They are said to be lazy narcissistic tech addicts, who don’t take any job seriously and slack off. What most don’t know is that the economy hasn’t been in the greatest of shape, this makes work ethic hard to

When it comes to Millennials, there is nothing that screams “business as usual.” Consequently, savvy leaders who want to remain successful in the global business arena, must concede their current method of attracting, engaging, developing and retaining Millennials as future global leaders is ineffective. Therefore, today’s leaders must develop a more compelling strategy to entice Millennials into leadership. Failure to use strategic foresight to recognize trends regarding future organizational trends and take timely actions to change their tried and true, old school philosophy regarding developing and retaining talented employees will result in losing the competitive edge, which is driven by technology-laden Millennial’s who are poised to innovation.