Millennial Employees are Often Misunderstood – Here’s Why
Small business owners deal with a lot of challenges. We’re frequently told that the biggest issue our clients face is keeping reliable help. Today’s workforce is tight. It’s a good problem and a challenging problem. Small business owners frequently express the frustrations that they have finding and retaining reliable and consistent help. As more Millennials join the work force and fill leadership gaps, it’s important that small business owners understand and realize this generation’s unique competencies and perspectives.
Understanding Millennial Perspectives
Text and Quit
The term “ghosting” explains the widespread phenomenon of millennials abandoning contract work positions with little or no notice given to the employer. The Vice website reports that serial work ghosting has emerged as a paradigm among specifically millennial males in the thirty and under crowds.
It is not only low standing hourly rate jobs that are afflicted by ghosting—but Fortune 500 and top tier businesses are regularly afflicted by the text-and-quit standard. The question remains of how to cultivate the next generation of talented, young professionals.
Social Agency and Company Culture
Social agency are resounding qualities millennials actively seek out. With social equality and feminism being firmly rooted in millennial culture, it is imperative for employers to promote autonomy. Ghosting and abrupt absences in the work place typically happen when there is a lack of values millennials are invested in. A company does not have to overtly political to inspire millennials—however, attention to social or economic discrepancies will likely inspire solidarity between older and younger generations. Further, keeping a company Facebook page dedicated to community endeavors or social events is a way for the organization of a business to thrive and grow.
There is a stereotype of millennials seeking instant gratification that contains an element of truth, which can be used to an advantage.
Up-and-coming millennial entrepreneurs exist in most work places and their desire for instant gratification can be used to an advantage. Companies must cultivate the action oriented determinism of millennials seeking better work positions and refined skills. Setting challenges can curb the demand for immediacy and integrate them into the company vision. A desire to learn and master new talents and skills attends to the mindset of millennials—so the drive to continuously seek rewards and confidence is not entirely a bad thing! Solidarity among office works, who are both young and old, is vital with creating a healthy work environment as well.
Inspire your personnel to work together to bridge differences.
Generational contention in the workplace—whether from lack of communication or biases—are vital issues that leaders must address for an organization to prosper. There are unique needs for each individual generation—such as older generations needing clarity with technology and software, and young generations requiring goals to situate their scope of learning.
Balancing the collective desires of employees can be a challenging task, but the trick is to inspire your personnel to work together to bridge differences and solve problems. Some stereotypes may exist for a reason, but it is imperative to recognize that each human being is an individual and not strictly confined to generational labels. Millennials are a versatile generation that has an eclectic range of talents, ethnic backgrounds, and personal histories. The best way to understand millennials is to approach stereotypes cautiously and focus on the individual.
Ghosting and other negative millennial behavior may seem puzzling to employers amid a stabilized economy—however, employers must be diligent about crafting goals to find dedicated and ambitious millennial employees.
