Millennials in the Workplace

Millennials in the Workplace

Millennials are a unique generation in terms of their workplace desires. They desire a true sense of belonging within their company, place less emphasis on salary, and care more about workplace flexibility. They want to feel socially connected to their coworkers and be productive at work as a way of being productive in their personal lives as well.

This is crucial information for human resources professional because if your company is primarily millennials, or perhaps just starting to get your first few out of college, then you might be experiencing some shifts to your dynamics. How does workplace belonging truly matter? Millennials are letting you know, and they’re doing so in unconventional ways. Keep reading to learn more!

Millennials value belonging

Millennials desire a sense of belonging in their workplace that allow them to also be social at work. Whether this is regular happy hour, volunteer days or company retreats, any type of event that facilitates social activity allows millennials to feel as though they are integrated into the workplace. It increases employee satisfaction, which in turn, ups productivity. The sense of belonging that can result from collaboration outside of the office can have powerful impacts on the success that happens inside of it.

Millennials value flexibility

The value of a workday is different in the eyes of millennials—many of whom have used screens since they were young. When working remotely from anywhere in the world can achieve the same result as working from a cubicle or a shared office, you can guess which ones they’ll choose. For them, being productive and getting results isn’t correlated to how many hours they spend in the office. If they don’t have to take PTO to go to the doctor or have a repairman come, why do it? Strive to make your workplace flexibile, and you’ll have greater success hiring and retaining millennials.

Millennials value connection

Millennials have been taught the power of networking and connections. They want to build a community within the workplace that contributes to their sense of belonging. Thus, their team is important to them and this particularly includes their manager. They want to connect with their manager and a perfect way to implement this in your workplace is to weekly one-on-one meetings with them. Having managers have one-on-one meetings with their staff will allow connections to form, genuine feedback to be exchanged, an authentic bond to form, and a stronger workplace will result.

Final thoughts

It’s a crazy idea for most individuals (particularly older workers) currently in the workplace that millennials value all of the above over salary. They want to feel as though they belong and make connections while also maintaining a sense of flexibility within their own lives. These ways of appealing to younger workers are changing the workplace and knowing what appeals to them can keep your company at the top of your game.