Millennial is referred to an entire generation born between late 1980s and early 2000s. This generation constitutes a significant part of the current workforce and by 2020, millennials will form 50% of the global workforce (Source: PwC report).
Managing Millennials at the workplace presents a unique set of challenges. They are tech savvy, energetic, smart and specific in their approach towards life and career. Millennials are just more confident about their skills and expertise than the previous generations.
The key factors that drive the performance of Millennials are:
1. Freedom: Millennials love freedom and flexibility, in life and at work. They appreciate freedom to express themselves and minimum interference in their work. They love to experiment, innovate, and to be creative. Businesses need an open, liberal work environment to keep the millennials engaged.
2. Work Life Balance: Millennials emphasize on a good work life balance and seek companies that provide it. They do not welcome official calls/emails after work hours as they give equal preference to their personal lives and rather spend time with their friends, family etc. They strive to maintain a balance between their professional and personal lives.
3. Engagement with peers: Businesses understand the importance of engaged employees at the workplace and with the millennials, employee engagement matters even more. Millennials seek opportunities to interact and bond with their peers, seniors or subordinates to explore and learn as much as possible.
4. Minimum Hierarchy: Millennials prefer simple and direct reporting. They like to approach their supervisors directly, as they feel it reduces complications and speeds up the process.
5. Cross Functional Roles: They seek varied kinds of tasks and projects and lose interest if they have do the same kind of work over a period of time. What excites them is the opportunity to diversify their portfolio and learn new skills by taking up cross functional responsibilities. They observe, provide suggestions and take deeper interest in new areas of expertise.
6. Fun at Work: Work must be fun and so should be the overall experience at the workplace. Having an office party, celebrating little moments of success, taking out time for outdoor, fun and recreational activities are a few things that help keep the millennials driven and motivated.
7. Growth: One of the key drivers for performance for millennials is growth. They are constantly seeking to grow, keen to learn new skills, sharpen their existing skill sets and love to travel extensively, build new experiences. They wish to be a part of a growth enabled and a diverse work culture. If they do not find these opportunities within their organization, they start looking out for better opportunities.
8. Feedback: There’s a common misconception that Millennials are not open to feedback, while they are in fact, more open and welcoming than their previous generations, to any kind of feedback that helps improve their work. They regularly seek real-time feedback, both positive and negative. It drives them to know if they are keeping up with the pace of their organization and where do they stand as per the set expectations.
9. Learning & Development: Learning & Development forms the basis of growth for an employee in an organization. Millennials place great emphasis on learning opportunities, training and development, to stay competitive.
10. Intrapreneurship: Millennials enjoy taking up new challenges. They like leading projects, initiatives and causes, hence creating a larger value for the employer. They are motivated when they get an opportunity to lead, innovate and challenge conventional thinking.
Key Performance Drivers for Millennials
