If you’re reading this article at work, there’s a very good chance you’re a millennial. And if you’re not, the person sitting next to you probably is. Millennials in the workforce represent the largest segment of today’s working population. They are a uniquely influential generation at the center of an ever-growing body of research for at least a decade.
The world’s first digitally-native generation, millennials’ tech-saturated upbringing has made the group distinct from the older generations that preceded them. While some experts view millennials’ behavior as a sign of collective human progress, others characterize them in a severely pessimistic light.
Either way, the generation can be best understood through the lens of the environmental circumstances that shaped them: ubiquitous technology. This article unpacks how millennials’ relationship with technology is inextricable from the qualities that define them. The investigation ultimately reveals that many of the things millennials in the workforce want are also in businesses’ best interests, meaning that the path to progress is closely aligned with millennial ideas.
Who are millennials?
Opinions regarding the birth year cut off for someone to be considered a millennial vary, but the group roughly encompasses anyone born between the early eighties (~1980) and the late nineties (several sources cite 2000 as the last qualifying birth year, and some list 1996 is the cut off). There are 73 million millennials in the United States alone, and they’ve been the most well-represented population in the workforce since 2016. The group has been studied more closely than any generation in history, and the resultant stereotypes that have developed vary dramatically.
Particularly in earlier research, the term “millennial” was almost always accompanied by a tone of exasperation. More negative depictions paint the generation as lazy, overly-sensitive, and entitled. They lament the insatiable need for feedback and self-serving personal development that millennials in the workforce are famous for. Although these portrayals are rooted in at least some empirical fact, their skew is subjective and, in many cases, misleading.
More recent discussions of millennials have begun to shed this unflattering depiction in favor of the idea that maybe the generation isn’t evil — they’re just different. They’re not lazy; they just have very little patience for inefficiency. They’re not sensitive; they’re just socially aware. And they’re not self-serving; they’re remarkably ambitious. They’re also significantly more open minded, educated, and upbeat in comparison to older generations.
Social opinions about millennials are in large part a product of perspective. In truth, there is validity in both the good and the bad components of the reputation any generation has earned. But if there’s one common theme in all this research, it’s that millennials are unique.
What Millennials in the Workforce Want
As a leader supporting millennials in the workforce, it’s especially important to understand the way they differ from other generations in terms of workplace motivation.
Given the unique cultural and technological climate in which millennials were raised, it should come as no surprise that a comparable set of priorities governs their workplace motivation. Fortunately, lots of research circulates about what exactly these priorities are. When it comes to the workplace, that research converges around five major themes, each of which is best understood when considered in light of millennials’ unprecedented digital childhood:
1. Community Impact
In direct rebellion against the self-centered millennial stereotype, this generation consistently cites positive social change as a top-priority initiative. Professionally, millennials are driven to do more than churn a profit. Racial and gender equity; climate change; and immigration and education reform all top the list of social issues millennials care most about. In general, they want to drive progress and crave opportunities to create meaningful change. As a direct result, millennials in the workforce flock to work at organizations with a healthy sense of social responsibility.
How Technology is Responsible
Technology’s rapid growth over the past several decades has opened the most globally connected chapter in human history. Because of the rise of the internet, the typical millennial worldview extends far outside their immediate, local community. The internet has increased transparency about social, economic, and environmental inequality and (at least for millennials) that awareness has incited a drive for action. Millennials are motivated by a desire to make the world a better place, and they bring this desire with them to work. Understanding this priority and where it comes from can help employers help millennials find meaning in their work.
What this Means for Your Workplace
Maybe your organization is a non-profit with an inherently philanthropic mission. If it is, great — you’re already creating positive change in the world, and attracting millennials is a natural added bonus. If it’s not, there are still many ways for your organization to empower employees to make a positive social impact.
A simple place to start is by providing employees opportunities to give back to their local communities. Consider replacing or supplementing the usual employee bonuses with opportunities for charitable giving. Your organization can even make a donation to a charity of an employee’s choosing. Surprisingly, research indicates that people (and especially millennials in the workforce) prefer this kind of employee-directed giving over traditional bonuses.
Another creative way to appeal to the philanthropic millennial spirit is by offering employees VTO — or volunteer time off. Setting aside a few hours for your team to spend giving back to the community is a great way to support their desire to make an impact.
2. Frequent Feedback
Another recurrent theme in millennial motivation is providing clear and frequent feedback. They want to hear exactly how they’re doing, and they want to hear about it often. Millennials in the workforce take no pleasure in guessing when it comes to performance and become easily frustrated in the absence of feedback.
Millennials communicate more often and in more ways than any of their previous generations. They have many platforms for interacting and a (sometimes comedic) tendency to overshare. Millennials are accustomed to having outlets for correspondence at their fingertips all the time. Their communication style is “open and often,” and they bring this expectation with them to work, too.
How Technology is Responsible
Over 90% of millennials own a smartphone and 85% use some form of social media. Younger millennials had cell phones by the time they started high school, if not earlier. They talked, texted, and tweeted their way through adolescence and haven’t stopped when reaching adulthood. Millennials were raised in a world that moves very quickly and they expect communication to be instantaneous. Whereas previous generations have a then-and-now basis for comparison, millennials have never known anything but a world where they can communicate almost any time, almost anywhere.
It’s not hard to gather how growing up in this climate of constant communication might lead millennials to develop an attitude of expectancy when it comes to feedback. In many ways, a world with constant feedback is all they’ve ever known. They’ve adapted accordingly and are best prepared to improve performance in response to real-time reviews of behavior.
What this Means for the Workplace
Antiquated annual reviews are the antithesis of everything millennials in the workforce not only want but need when it comes to workplace feedback. To thrive, they need the kind of feedback that mirrors the world they were raised in: frequent, transparent, and delivered in real-time. Ideally, millennials prefer to hear from their managers a minimum of once a week. They are also twice as likely to be engaged at work when they receive feedback at the desired frequency. Although their expectations are fairly clear, many managers still struggle to deliver.
According to recent research, leaders are collectively failing to meet the expectations for feedback of millennials in the workforce: only two out of every ten employees report being satisfied with the way their supervisors handle performance management. A 20% satisfaction rate is far from ideal.
So, how should employers respond?
If managers are to live up to this new expectation, they need a platform that makes it easy to regularly recognize employees and doesn’t steal effort away from the other roles they must fulfill as managers. Streamlined rewards and recognition programs are the perfect tool for achieving the levels of feedback that will truly keep millennials in the workforce engaged and informed about their performance. Recognition programs enable managers to send simple notes of appreciation to team members with ease, even from a mobile device. Enabled with the right platform, it’s a fairly effortless practice to adopt.
Once recognition becomes a cultural norm at your company, it makes a big difference in building the kind of feedback-forward culture millennials in the workforce crave. Not only will this keep millennial workers engaged — it actually creates a more successful work environment.
Recognition improves performance and distinguishes your company as a more appealing option for prospective candidates.
3. Flexible Office Options
Compared to other generations, millennials prefer to spend the least amount of time in the office. Not to be confused with a desire to spend less time working altogether, millennials simply crave (and in some cases expect) location flexibility. They covet positions at organizations that welcome them to do their jobs at places outside an office, whether it’s their living room or a remote tropical island. This preference is not a subtle one — research indicates that 86% of millennials in the workforce want full-time remote opportunities and 35% would happily leave their current positions in favor of one.
How Technology is Responsible
At a glance, this characteristic millennial preference might look a lot like an expression of entitlement — and maybe for millennials in the workforce who see remote opportunities as a basic right, it is. But in most cases, the preference is largely a product of millennials’ extensive understanding of the readily available technology that enables remote work.
The typical millennial has experienced many events virtually that previous generations — out of necessity — experienced face-to-face. Whereas other generations may have attended a live play for a night of entertainment, millennials watched TV from the living room couch. Dating apps and the countless platforms created for online conversation have replaced in-person courting traditions of generations past. Even menial experiences like shopping and banking now mostly take place in the digital space. The fact is: millennials see opportunities for virtual experiences where other generations may have not. The workplace is no exception, hence their preference for flexible working environments.
What this Means for the Workplace
It’s straightforward: between video conferencing, real-time message platforms, and cloud collaboration, millennials are grounded in their belief that remote work is an increasingly viable option.
Job function permitting, employers should embrace the opportunity to capitalize on these technologies to offer remote positions to millennials in the workforce. Not only are millennials 68% more likely to seek positions at companies with remote opportunities, having remote workers significantly reduces a company’s overhead and contributes to increased productivity. This means you’ll become a more competitive employer with a stronger and more focused team.
Just be sure to take the appropriate measures to keep remote workers as culturally engaged as their in-office counterparts. Best practices like regular one-on-one meetings and a thriving recognition program are especially important when supporting a remote team.
4. Personal Development
Here lie the origins of the self-serving millennial trope. Members of this generation are known for keeping a constant eye on chances for personal development. One Time Magazine article labeled the group “The Me Me Me Generation” and cites their hunger for fame and promotion as evidence of their apparently problematic self-centeredness. However, this same article eventually concludes that perhaps millennials are just a generation misunderstood, not so much selfish as they are idealistic.
It is indeed this characteristic optimism that spurs millennials in their constant pursuit of opportunities for self-improvement. Because millennials in the workforce optimistically believe in a world where they have a real chance at attaining high professional achievements, they seek opportunities that might lead them there. This belief system explains why millennials cite opportunities to learn and grow as a top priority for employment. In contrast, other generations’ might feel less optimistic of the heights their careers might reach.
How Technology is Responsible
Knowledge has never been more freely or instantaneously available than it has been in the millenial’s lifetime. Today, a simple Google search yields millions of results on any subject. Access to information and educational resources has (thankfully) become increasingly democratized. Additionally, online social platforms provide millennials with a unique way to observe how their peers capitalize on that freely available knowledge.
Combine those two factors and you get a generation with access to abundant resources, endless ideas about how to put those resources to use, and a sometimes-unhealthy habit of measuring themselves against the digitally broadcast achievements of their peers. It’s no wonder millennials in the workforce see themselves as constant works in progress.
What this Means for Your Workplace
Some employers fear millennials’ drive for personal development because they’re afraid it will lead to high turnover. It’s true that millennials in the workforce will always jump at the next great opportunity for personal development. The trick to keeping your millennial employees from job-hopping is to make sure your company is the one offering those opportunities.
All millennials in the workforce really want is to continually improve. Companies that give their employees opportunities for growth not only satiate this millennial urge, but they support the development of stronger and more talented teams — a critical asset to any successful business. Provide your employees perks such as discounted online courses. If they express interest in attending professional workshops and seminars, consider contributing to the cost. Keep your people engaged by bringing in leaders to speak on subjects the whole team cares about. Opportunities like these contribute to the growth of the collective as much as the individual. When you invest in building up the team you already have, your company can only improve.
5. Experiences, Not Material Goods
Finally, millennials consistently report a preference for experiences over material goods. Whereas previous generations saw physical possessions — from jewelry to homes to cars — as important markers of success, millennials in the workforce have a different view. Three in four millennials say they would prefer to spend money on an experience over things. By “experiences,” we mean everything from concerts to travel to sporting events. Experiences are a class of activities that hold intrinsic value and, in most cases, don’t yield any physical takeaway — just the memory of doing something enjoyable. For millennials, that memory seems to be more than enough.
How Technology is Responsible
The trend in millennials’ preference for experiences over material goods represents a distinct shift away from the values of generations past. Several theories attempt to explain it. Some sources claim millennials’ preference for experiences is a product of internet-induced skepticism. Others say millennials are still in the throes of post-recession trauma.
One of the most compelling and insightful explanations for millennials’ experiential preference stems from the consideration of an idea discussed several points back: millennials have turned many traditionally real-life experiences virtual. One of the side effects of a dominantly virtual world is the opportunity to be more selective about the experiences that ultimately do unfold in the real world. Because so many things happen behind a screen, millennials see unique value in the things that don’t. This explains, at least in part, their preference for experiential rewards.
What this Means for the Workplace
Gone are the days of employees receiving a gold watch in celebration of a decade (or five) in service to their company. Well-adjusted employers of today offer their employees a variety of rewards to celebrate all types of occasions. The most successful team leaders realize that when it comes to recognizing their employees’ success, different people value different rewards.
Rewards and recognition platforms give employers the opportunity to celebrate employees by awarding them points that can be redeemed for things as well as experiences. Particularly for millennials in the workforce, the option to translate workplace rewards into experiences is a game changer.
Given their strong preference for experiential over physical rewards, it’s important millennials have the opportunity to self-select whether they will redeem their points for something more traditional, like jewelry, or something a little less conventional, like travel accommodations or tickets to a local museum. In most cases, they’ll opt for the experience.
The Cause is the Cure
In most cases, it’s in your company’s best interest to adjust your working environment to be welcoming to millennials in the workforce. Their priorities and expectations are a direct product of the way the world is evolving, so adapting to the kinds of changes millennials incite means progressing in a natural and necessary way.
The strongest companies understand that millennials aren’t going anywhere. Quite the opposite: they are growing into an increasingly influential generation of leaders responsible for shaping the modern workplace.
By listening and responding to millennials’ ideas about what work should look like, you put your company in a position to remain relevant and successful long term. After all, millennials are no longer the future — they’re here now, and it’s time for companies to react accordingly.
Katerina Mery is a Marketing Specialist at Fond with a background in cognitive psychology and a passion for improving the way people live and work. She especially enjoys learning about how to accomplish this through rewards and recognition. In her spare time, you can find Katerina running outside, admiring art, and exploring the latest and greatest local restaurants.
