Millennials currently form 36 percent of the U.S. workforce, and they are estimated to be 50 percent of the global workforce by 2020—that’s five years from now. So, as Mike Bradley astutely notes, you can’t afford to be judged as living in the dark ages by the younger workforce.
The needs and expectation of Millennials represent a pretty big shakeup from the status quo for most businesses. These range from technical requirements (HELLO BYOD), to company culture, views on leadership, gender roles and, most significantly in statistical terms, business priority and ethics—the ability to have a positive impact on society.
“When looking at their career goals, today’s Millennials are just as interested in how a business develops its people and its contribution to society as they are in its products and profits,” stated Barry Salzberg, CEO of Deloitte Global, in the analysts’ 2015 Millennial Survey. “ These findings should be viewed as a valuable alarm to the business community, particularly in developed markets, that they need to change the way they engage Millennial talent or risk being left behind.”
Having a company action plan to adapt to the unique needs of the younger workforce is one way to approach the issue.
There is a plethora of resources available from studies conducted on Millennials and other research. For those looking to delve even deeper, workforce expert Lauren Stiller Rikleen’s “You Raised Us—Now Work With Us: Millennials, Career Success, and Building Strong Workplace Teams,” was written to help the various generations create a more effective work environment.
Check out the February print edition of SCN to read how columnist Mike Bradley, president/CEO of ECD Systems, is embracing change and fostering a culture that embraces it.
