Millennial talent

A lot has been written about Millennials. A Google search on ‘Millennials’ returns 23,000,000 hits, as compared to ‘Baby Boomers’ which returns a paltry 10,600,000, despite the latter having been on Earth for 40 years longer.

So, why the obsession with Millennials? Well, that’s simple―come the year 2020, 86 million Millennials―will be in some form of employment, representing 40% of the total working population. Moreover, by 2025 it’s estimated that Millennials will make up 75% of the US workforce.

That’s a big piece of the pie right there.

Are you ready for the Millennial workforce? Do you have the right strategies in place to ensure that within the next 4-10 years you can attract, engage and retain the Millennial beast?

Google tells me that the best place to start is to diagnose what makes the Millennial tick.

4 facts about Millennial talent

1. Only 13% of Millennials want to climb your corporate ladder, whereas 67% want to start their own business? Oddly enough, I would argue that this desire isn’t unique to the big M. If you did a straw poll of employees across the various levels of your organisation and asked whether they want to start their own business, you’d get a fairly high proportion saying ‘Hell Yes! If I could come up with the next Uber, Facebook or Twitter I’d definitely leave my job.’ Go figure.
2. 77% of Millennials cite flexible work hours as the key to boosting productivity. Astonishing―but surely not unique to Master and Miss M? Pretty much every generation is on the flexibility band wagon.
3. Millennials are more likely to say they would take a pay cut, forgo a promotion or be willing to move to manage work-life demands better. Funnily enough, if you ask pretty much any working mother in the Western World whether she too would take a pay cut, forgo the pressure of a promotion or relocate to better manage her work/ life responsibilities, you are likely to get a resounding ‘Yes!’
4. 64% of Millennials state making the world a better place is a priority for them. Really? How altruistic of them. Is it just me, or is it a reasonable assumption that more than half of the Earth’s population is likely to agree with this sentiment?

Getting over the Millennial obsession

We need to get over this obsession. M&Ms are no different to the rest of us. We all want challenging work; we all want to be respected in the workplace; we all want the right level of flexibility to allow us to better manage our lives; we all want to make a difference; we all wish we’d thought of Virgin Records. Move on.