Literature Review
Literature review
Theoretical Concepts of the Topic
Definition of millennial
Before digging into the details of the topic, first, it is essential to understand the idea of a millennial. According to the definition of Smola and Sutton (2002), people who born between 1979 and 1994 are considered as millennial generation. These are the people that are self absorbed and overly self-confident; hence, they are considered as “look at me generation”. Millennial are continued to enter at the workplace in a larger amount (Smola and Sutton, 2002). The generation has an immense ability to develop organizational performance and to build functional relations with older workers (Smola and Sutton, 2002). The behaviors of the generation, their predisposition, skills, and their communication orientation have a significant effect on other organizational members; therefore, it has become pivotal to retain them (Smola and Sutton, 2002).
Importance of millennial in the workplace
The business arena has changed drastically, and the need for holding talent has increased than ever before (Deal, Altman, & Rogelberg, 2010). Millennial generation is essential for the workplace as they just not affect the organizational performance but the abilities of other workers as well (Deal, Altman, & Rogelberg, 2010). According to the report by PwC (2011), it has been determined that by the year of 2020, the generation will make 50 percent of the global working population. They have excellent abilities to take organizations towards success, but they will remain short in supply. Hence, it has become essential to organizations to retain generation that contains a unique set of abilities as the supply is already short (PwC, 2011).
Positive characteristics millennial bring at the workplace
Globalization is the reality of the business world that allowed the organization to bring the best talent at a single place for having best of them (Deal, Altman, & Rogelberg, 2010). The trend of globalization enhanced diversity in companies and millennial is the generation that is more accepting of diversity (Myer & Sadaghiani, 2010). Some other characteristics of millennial are: they have an enormous knowledge of technology, capabilities of advanced communication, ability to work in teams, and determine the issues and opportunities from the bright perspective as compared to past generations (Gorman, Nelson, & Glassman, 2004). Businesses are going more global, and this trend will continue to grow with the use of different technologies for communicating over borders and doing other business activities (Deal, Altman, & Rogelberg, 2010). The know-how of millennial generation regarding technology is excellent due to which they are and will remain in demand (PwC, 2011).
Importance of considering the factors affect the millennial generation
It is widely accepted that millennial generations are self-important and disloyal (Deal, Altman, & Rogelberg, 2010). However, after realizing the importance of millennial generation for businesses and determining their unique abilities that can contribute immensely to organizational success; organizations realized that they need to alter their policies and rules (Deal, Altman, & Rogelberg, 2010). Here, the question arises that how management of organizations can motivate millennial and retain them at institutions for long with the aim of taking advantage of their abilities (Myer & Sadaghiani, 2010). Therefore, for keeping millennial generation at organizations and taking advantage of them, it is pivotal to consider the factors that can engage them with the companies (Myer & Sadaghiani, 2010).
3.2 Factors those are important to retain millennial at organizations
It is important to consider the factors that just not affect the ability of millennial to perform in the team efficiently but also influence their capacity to build a good relationship (Myer & Sadaghiani, 2010). These factors can considerably help organizations in retaining millennial at the workplace (Deal, Altman, & Rogelberg, 2010). The most common expectations of millennial that contribute in motivating them and organizations should include help millennial in building good and close relations with supervisor and coworkers (Deal, Altman, & Rogelberg, 2010). They want rapid feedback from administrators, as such mechanism motivates them. Open communication from management and superiors, teamwork, regular evaluation of performance, knowledge sharing, soliciting input, enhanced coordination, cooperation with subordinates, and supportive climate all are the factors that affect millennial and contribute in retaining them at organizations (Myer & Sadaghiani, 2010).
Practice Followed by HR to Retain Millennial at Workplace
Companies with the aim of retaining millennial adapt different tactics that vary with the organization (Deal, Altman, & Rogelberg, 2010). It has been realized that companies with the passage of time made significant improvements in this regard and changed their rules and policies (Myer & Sadaghiani, 2010). Hence, the practices followed or adapted by HR to retain millennial at the workplace can be divided into historical and recent practices that will help organizations in discriminating the prevailing trends of industries for keeping a talented workforce and will assist in building effective policies (Deal, Altman, & Rogelberg, 2010).
Historical practices followed by HR to retain millennial at workplace
In the prior arena, during the 1960s when women started entering the business world, the need of flexible working hours developed (McGraw & Burr, 2011). In the prior arena, incentives either financial or non financials were the factors of retaining millennial at the workplace (Statistics and Trends, 2016). Millennials were demanding early offs, right job fit, meaningful connections with coworkers, and high salaries (Taylor, 2013).
Some recent practices followed by HR to retain millennial at workplace
Organizations follow different practices to keep millennial at the workplace (Deal, Altman, & Rogelberg, 2010; Myer & Sadaghiani, 2010). The most common trends or followed practices that are being used by human resource to retain millennial at workplace include (Deal, Altman, & Rogelberg, 2010; Myer & Sadaghiani, 2010):
Providing millennial opportunities for career progression
Competitive salaries
Excellent training and development programs
Flexible working arrangements
International opportunities
Good reputation and equal opportunity.
Greater supervisory and management support
References
Deal, J. J., Altman, D. G., & Rogelberg, S. G. (2010). Millennials at work: What we know and what we need to do (if anything). Journal of Business and Psychology, 25(2), 191-199.
Gorman, P., Nelson, T., & Glassman, A. (2004). The Millennial generation: A strategic opportunity. Organizational Analysis, 12(3), 255–270.
McGraw, A., & Burr, M. (2011). Changing Demands: The Workforce of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Cornell HR Review. Retrieved July 21, 2016, from http://www.cornellhrreview.org/changing-demands-the-workforce-of-yesterday-today-and-tomorrow/
Myer, K. K., & Sadaghiani, K. (2010). Millennials in the Workplace: A Communication Perspective on Millennials’ Organizational Relationships and Performance. Journal of Business and Psychology, 25(2), 225-238.
PwC. (2011). Millennials at work: Reshaping the workplace. Retrieved July 21, 2016, from https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/managing-tomorrows-people/future-of-work/assets/reshaping-the-workplace.pdf
Smola, K.W., & Sutton, C.D. (2002). Generational differences: Revisiting generational work values for the new millennium. Journal of Organizational Behavior. 23(4), 363–382. doi: 10.1002/job.147.
Statistics and Trends. (2016). Millennials are the most demanding workforce, according to UK bosses. The Online Recruitment Resource. Retrieved July 21, 2016, from http://www.onrec.com/news/statistics-and-trends/millennials-are-the-most-demanding-workforce-according-to-uk-bosses
Taylor, K. (2013). Why Millennials Are Ending The 9 To 5. Forbes. Retrieved July 21, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/katetaylor/2013/08/23/why-millennials-are-ending-the-9-to-5/#530f14aa3d75
