As you may be aware, many managers today are realizing that there is something unique and distinctive about the generation that has been labeled the “millennial” generation. These employees, the children of the Baby Boomers, present managers with new and different problems—but new and different strengths as well. This report will endeavor to examine the strengths of this particular generation, focusing on the ways that the strengths of the millennial generation can be mobilized for effective and innovative solutions at Yahoo. There are, of course, individual variations between Millennials; not all of the information contained in this report will be pertinent to every potential employee. However, the overarching trends will be established, and the best ways to maximize strengths and minimize weaknesses will be discussed in some depth. This report will also expand on the distinctive traits of the “gen Y” or “millennial” generation, and recommend ways to recruit, manage, and retain them within the context of the organization’s current goals.
Understanding Millennials, Generation Y, and the “Me” Generation
Millennials are an interesting subsection of the working population in the United States today. Born out of the Baby Boomers’ generation, they were born into an era of unprecedented technological growth—and this technological growth has led many companies to focus on technological strategies for attracting and retaining these individuals (Ferri-Reed 12). Baby Boomers have been studied extensively, and their psychology is well known by management; many of the current best practices for human resource management structures are built on the psychological understanding of the Baby Boomers’ generation (Caprino). It is no surprise that the children of the Baby Boomers, however, have different desires, wants, and needs from their employer; they grew up in an entirely different situation with a different understanding of the world.
Generation Y individuals are sometimes lambasted for being the “me” generation; Caprino writes, “Complaining about Millennials is in vogue and business leaders are supposedly struggling to ‘engage’ Generation Y and make them productive. Corporate recruiters and business leaders claim that 20-somethings are unprepared and difficult to manage. Again and again, commentators say they’re just too narcissistic, solipsistic and entitled for the working world” (Caprino). However, much of the working world is still structured by and for the Baby Boomer generation; companies that have proven to be extraordinarily successful in this new market, like Google, have developed a human resource management structure that supports the needs and wants of Millennials rather than brushing these potential employees off as too narcissistic or self-centered (Sweeny 92).
The technological changes that occurred in the 1990s and early 2000s have fundamentally changed the working world, and many companies have done an excellent job engaging consumers and customers with new technologies, but many have retained the same organizational structures of the past. Millennials are not fundamentally different from Baby Boomers, but they do understand technology and efficiency much differently than their parent’s generation. The lack of evolution in many companies is why some of these companies are struggling to maintain good and effective internal structures that are supportive to older employees as well as attractive to younger employees (Sweeny 102). Companies that have been successful in the new marketplace are organizations that are capable of evolution.
Strategies for Retaining Millennials
Millennials are different from their parents, but they are not mysterious; they tend to have similar goals and values to each other, which makes attracting and retaining these individuals less difficult than many organizations seem to believe (Caprino). Most Millennials note that enjoyment and happiness are important when considering employment; Baby Boomers tend to view success as a function of economic status, while Millennials value upward mobility, enjoyment, and room for innovation within their position and company (Sweeny 107). The current economic climate is still far from ideal, and many Millennials graduated from university right at the lowest point of the economic crisis; the competition for jobs has been fierce for many years, and many Millennials see employment as something that should be enjoyed rather than something that they should have to slog through on a daily basis (Sweeny 107). A company that can engage the creative mind of Millennials in their employ is a company that will be able to more effectively maintain millennial employees; when these individuals feel as though they have no room to grow intellectually, they have a tendency to hop from job to job without staying in a single place for very long.
One of the most important strategies for retaining Millennials is to set goals and guidelines for these workers, and allow them intellectual freedom and the opportunity for creativity in their position. Millennials do not respond well to strict micromanagement; they have been educated to think critically and develop solutions in a team environment, and some of the more traditional workplaces have a tendency to stymie this kind of intellectual exploration, considering it to be outside the traditional hierarchical structures of the organization (Ferri-Reed 14).
The vertical hierarchy that has long been considered the traditional mainstay of organizational structure does not need to be abandoned in the face of the millennial workforce; instead, it is important to understand that Millennials are jaded and cynical regarding employers and companies in very specific ways. Millennials trust employers who share reasoning and explanations regarding decisions; when a company lacks transparency, Millennials tend to distrust the organization inherently. While the Baby Boomer generation might consider it the obligation and role of management to make unilateral decisions, Millennials tend to veer towards organizations that allow for common input and transparency in the decision-making process (Ferri-Reed 14). In the digital age, this preference for transparency is understandable: information is cheap, and anything that is hidden by management might be revealed at any given time, and no one likes to feel as though they have been duped by those they have trusted. Millennials have been continuously exposed to information-based scandals of all levels of severity; thus, transparency in management has become a significant concern for the generation (Ferri-Reed 14-15).
In a similar vein, hierarchical structures must be relaxed to appeal to Millennial workers. This does not mean that the hierarchical structure must be abandoned entirely—however, as a generation, Millennials have been taught that their input and their ideas are worthwhile—so they expect and desire a workplace that values their input. Bosses that were the most effective with Millennial employees were bosses that fostered an environment in which these individuals felt as though they were valued and their input was similarly valued (Sweeny 111-112).
Millennials possess unique skills, particularly insofar as technology literacy is concerned—and many individuals in management do not have this same technological literacy. Millennials speak a language fluently from childhood that many upper-level individuals in management learned as adults; the fluency of Millennial employees is likely to be better than that of the upper-level management. Management that is able to use this ability—rather than acting in a technophobic manner—is management that will be able to attract Millennial employees. Of course, as a technology company, all members of Yahoo’s staff will be experienced with technology. However, Millennials may have a different understanding of how to more effectively integrate different types of technologies; management should listen and establish open lines of communications with these employees, demonstrating that the ideas and the input of these employees are valued within the organization.
Interestingly, many employers characterize the Millennial generation as self-centered and narcissistic, but perhaps the issue is less with the Millennials and more with the cultural clash between two generations; Millennials experienced a technological shift that is still occurring, so it will be increasingly interesting to track changes in management strategies as the overall demographic makeup of the workplace around the world changes. One interesting feature of this new generation of workers is their perception of work: many are happy to be assigned tasks and given the freedom to complete these tasks as needed, rather than sitting in an office all day. Flexibility and creativity seem to be the most important features of a workplace that appeals to the Millennial generation; without these two features, it is almost impossible for an organization to retain Millennial generation employees.
Works Cited
Caprino, Kathy. " Quit Trying To 'Engage' Millennials ". N. p., 2016. Web. 7 Jan. 2016. http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2014/05/01/quit-trying-to-engage-Millennials/
Ferri-Reed, Jan. "The keys to engaging Millennials." The Journal for Quality and Participation 33.1 (2010): 31.
Sweeney, Richard. "Millennial behaviors and demographics." Newark: New Jersey Institute of Technology. Accessed on 12.3 (2006): 10.
