These days I hear a lot about “The Millennials”.
Why so much emphasis on age? I believe your age has nothing to do with what type of employee you are, but do others?
The story is that young employees aren’t motivated by the external incentives that drove previous generations. They are motivated by a call to adventure, where incentives are built into the purpose of their mission. Aligning personal and professional purpose for young employees is the primary challenge for today’s managers.
There are three dominant generations active in the contemporary workplace, and broadly speaking each has a different approach to work: Baby Boomers live to work, while Gen X’ers work to live and Millennials see their work and life as undivided and so are drawn to a livelihood that aligns to what they see as their purpose in life. They are known to be very tech savvy and always connected using digital technology and mass media.
Why do today’s employers think that we need to cater to these “80’s babies”? The inter-generational problems that affect the workplace are deeper and more complicated than many of the solutions to correct them. Most office environments are disconnected from what motivates Millennials. However in my opinion, work is still work. Customer service should still cater to the customer and not the employee.
As a recruiter I do not look for the adventure seeker, the voracious users of new technologies, or the “everyone is a winner” type. I believe that hard work, great communication skills and overall passion for their industry is the winning combination. Age is just a number, but hard work and dedication still need to be number one in the workplace.
written by: Megan Roberts
