Summary: Recently, millennials have dominated the workforce in terms of their numbers and capabilities. In addition, the modern workplace prefers employees who are innovative and resourceful. Millennials’ knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) are strongly desired by the current state of the workplace. However, millennials’ work philosophy and attitudes are quite unique, and the lack of the understanding of millennials has created numerous issues for firms in the process of recruiting and retaining them. The article explains the distinctiveness of millennials’ characteristics including their social context, values, and working philosophy that shape their behaviors at workplace. The article suggests that firms should factor in some issues such as work-life balance, work flexibility, training & development, and the meaningfulness of work when developing any HR strategies aiming to recruit and retain millennials.
Millennials are becoming the largest proportion of the workforce in the United States (U.S.). Other countries should have experienced the same phenomenon in the current state of their labors. Indeed, more than 5 out of 10 current employees are millennials. HR literature believes that generational differences affect employees’ education, technical capabilities, as well as their values, attitudes, and lifestyles. These differences certainly influence the employees’ working philosophy and behaviors in the workplace. Therefore, it is an omission if firms apply the same HR practices to employees across generations. Job compensation may create huge incentives for the older generations to be a part of an organization, but it maybe not an utmost necessity for millennials. Instead, millennials value personal and professional development opportunities. General speaking, a lofty compensation does not ensure millennials to stay and commit to their firms. To recruit and retain millennials, firms should pay attention to other factors such as training & development, career advancement opportunities, and job flexibility if they would like millennial employees to stay and contribute to the organizations.
Through this short article, I want to achieve three objectives. First, I explain millennials’ uniqueness in their social context, education, values, attitudes, and lifestyles. Second, I justify how these characteristics affect their philosophy and attitudes about work and life. Third, I make some suggestions for HR managers so that they can design more effective HR strategies and policies that can help firms recruit and retain millennials. This is the second article in a series discussing the linkages among HR strategies, innovation, and firms’ competitive advantage. Reading the first article, Strategic Human Resource Management: A Key Determinant of Firms’ Competitive Advantage, may give you a good grasp of knowledge related to some management concepts used in this article.
Millennials and Their Generational Characteristics
Even though there are slight variations among researchers in the time periods when millennials were born, most studies agree that millennials are people who were born in the period between 1975 and 1995. Different from baby boomers and gen X, millennials were born and raised by pretty affluent and educated parents. Their parents tend to have fewer children so they had received more parenting compared to their predecessors. In addition, the U.S. economy accumulated much wealth in this period, so millennials had opportunities to enjoy a good education, good parenting, and secured social security. This trend also happened in many countries during this time span. As a result, millennials inherit a strong foundation for being successful in their lives professionally. Being affected by their upbringings, millennials are likely to be more impatient and individualistic compared to the older generations and prone to be entitled.
In addition, millennials grew up in the dot.com period. The introduction of internet and other technological advancements make them not only informative but also very attuned to technologies. They are proficient in computers and other high-tech devices. Their knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) make them more effective and efficient at the workplace. Especially, today’s economy is driven by innovation, and technological developments underpin every aspect of life. As a result, millennials’ KSAs are profoundly necessary for the modern workplace.
Millennials and Their Working Philosophy
As I discussed above, millennials’ upbringings and social context affect their values, beliefs, attitudes, and worldviews. These values and beliefs in turn affect millennials’ working philosophy that then shapes their work attitudes and behaviors. Indeed, millennials are likely to believe that working should be an opportunity for their personal and professional growth. The quality of work is not only measured by tangible benefits such as salaries or an amount of stocks, but it is also reflected by a working environment that is supportive and the employees’ voices are listened by supervisors. Also, the jobs should be flexible, giving them more time so that they can live their lives. In other words, work-life balance is also a critical matter to millennials. They also care about the congruence between their core values and their jobs. Jobs are considered an extension of themselves and reflect who they are.
Millennials’ KSAs are proved to be vital for the modern workplace. Their proactive behaviors and technical competences are motors for innovation that is desperately needed by any organizations. These skills have become more important than ever during the pandemic that disrupts every corner of our lives. Millennials have been helping their older coworkers by showing them how to use Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other technical devices. However, millennials are likely to put high pressures on their employers. They expect that their employers to provide them with opportunities for career advancements. Millennials are deemed to be impatient compared to the older generations, so they are inclined to speak out what they like and dislike. They expect that their managers and supervisors respect and listen to their voices. If they think that their opinions are not respected, they may quit jobs. Consequently, millennials change jobs more often than the older counterparts do. Hence, they are dubbed as job-hoppers and disloyal. This issue may also come from the fact that millennials tend to be more risk-taking and love to experience new things, so they switch employers when they get bored with the current jobs.
Millennials prefer flexible jobs that allow them to achieve work-life balance. This work-related aspect heavily affects their possibility of staying on or quitting the firms. They appreciate the employers who allow them to leave a bit early to pick up their kids and compensate the missing work in the next day. Millennials also would like to have more time with their families, so working long hours should be the least thing they enjoy. Therefore, millennials are deemed to be overdemanding and entitled. Besides work-life balance, the meaning of work is what millennials pay attention to. Their jobs should be an extension of themselves and reflect who they are. If millennials deem their jobs and their workplace allow them to actualize who they are, the employers would win over their hearts and minds. There is a belief that millennials are more individualistic, but there is also an opposite belief that young people are likely to celebrate diversity and care about social causes such as the environment, inequality, climate changes, and so on. If firms also care about these social causes, millennials are like to join these organizations.
Millennials Recruitment and Retention
Millennials’ upbringings have affected their working philosophy and attitudes as well as their education. Their KSAs are crucial for the modern workplace that focuses on innovation and value creation. In addition, millennials outnumber baby boomers and gen X, constituting the biggest proportion of the labor force in today’s workplace. These quantitative and qualitative aspects make millennials a crucial determinant of any firms’ successes. As a result, millennial recruitment and retention become the very first important step in any HR strategies, but the current HR practices have not very successful at attracting and retaining millennials. These pitfalls may come from the fact that HR managers have not fully understood millennials’ working philosophy that determines their working attitudes and behaviors, or firms may pay less attention to millennials’ working philosophy in the process of recruiting and retaining these employees. To promote the effectiveness of any HR strategies that attempt to attract and keep employees who are millennials, firms should develop the HR strategies that focus on the following issues.
First, firms and HR managers should understand that millennials’ work philosophy is different from their older generations. If baby boomers and gen X prefer job security and stability, millennials often switch jobs. They are likely to seek for employers whose values are congruent with theirs. The asymmetry of the set of values between firms and millennials will discourage them to be a part of the firms. A majority of organizations display their vision, mission, and value statements to tell people who they are. It is a wise practice if HR managers can clearly communicate their firms’ core values to millennials when attempting to recruit them. This strategy may help attract millennials whose values match with the firms’.
Second, firms should balance between tangible and intangible work benefits if they want to recruit and retain millennials. The tangible benefits include compensation, different types of insurances, and other financial incentives. The intangible benefits are longer vacation and career advancement opportunities just to name a few. There is a belief that millennials are entitled and needy compared to the previous generations because they want more from their employers. If their expectations are not excessive, a decent response to their wants is likely to boost their possibility of staying on their jobs.
Third, millennials’ general work attitudes are more about “work to live” and not “live to work”. As many researchers and HR practitioners point out that work-life balance and job flexibility are the two most popular issues millennials are concerning about. To facilitate employees to achieve work-life balance, job components should be flexibly designed. Specifically, firms may allow employees to leave early if there are urgent things popping up and catch up the left part on the next day. If work can be done remotely, firms may allow employees to partially work from home. Allowing employees to work from home may counter productivity, but the current pandemic has proved that this notion may be wrong. The pandemic has forced many firms to switch to remote work, and the productivity has not been compromised. Some firms have announced that they will be continuing let their employees work from home even it is safe to be back offices now. As a result, work-life balance and job flexibility should be factored into HR strategies if firms want to recruit and retain millennials.
Fourth, training & development program at the workplace also influences millennials’ decision to be a part of an organization because they want their experience and skills to be enriched from their current jobs. Some firms have experimented some practices called job enrichments and job rotation by adding new elements to a current job or allowing employees to work in other departments for a period. Some employers may worry that training & development program may become a launchpad for employees to seek for better jobs. However, firms should ask the question that what would happen to the firms if their current employees are short in skills, or whether the employees would leave if they are not provided with any career development programs.
Fifth, millennials are proactive and entrepreneurial. Numerous millennials have chosen to become entrepreneurs and some of them are well-known founders. Due to these characteristics, some millennials quit their current jobs to become entrepreneurs to satisfy their curiosity and the willingness to try the new things. When developing HR strategies to recruit and retain millennials, firms should allow them to participate in “cool” and fun projects. Firms also encourage them to come up with new ideas, and millennials should be appreciative if their managers and supervisors listen to their new ideas and value their initiatives.
Conclusion
Millennials have become the biggest proportion of workforce, and their KSAs are also vital to the modern workplace. As a result, recruiting and retaining millennials are the crucial task of any organizations. This short article points out some notable issues that firms should be aware of if they attempt to develop any HR strategies to recruit and keep these young people. HR managers should understand millennials’ working philosophy and attitudes that in turn determine their behaviors at the workplace. Firms should factor in the role of intangible benefits, work-life balance, job flexibility, and training & development programs when developing any HR strategies in order to recruit and keep millennials.
