Forget The Career Ladder; Millennials Want The Horizontal Escalator

The one solid piece of advice to attract, retain, and get the most out of the Millennial and Gen Z workforce.

You know when you have one of those “aha moments” and things suddenly make so much sense?

I had one of those last week and my mind has been blown.

I was at a conference on behalf of a client in Las Vegas and one of the sessions was about “Millennials” and “Gen Z,” their career expectations, and retention challenges in today's world.

Now you may wonder why I put those two generations in quotation marks.

I've had this discussion with a number of friends, many of whom are considered Millennials and yet have an attitude and work ethic more akin to Gen X (also known as the ‘latch-key kids’ who are independent, resourceful, and self-sufficient).

You see, Millennial seems to no longer refer to a generation born between 1981 and 1995 (give or take a year or two depending on which study you are reading), but to an attitude and general approach to life. An approach that is lazy, self-entitled, and self absorbed.

And yet, I have seen almost as many Boomers and Gen X-ers (the more seasoned workforce as I like to call them) with these attitudes as I have Millennials.

Putting that aside, what this conference session enlightened me to was the different needs of those born in the 80s and beyond, and how the idea of working hard, 24/7, to slowly, very slowly creep your way up the corporate ladder has about as much use these days as, well, a chocolate teapot.

What?

I know, I know. For those of us who worked for free to “prove” ourselves worthy, or who did the time (late nights, early mornings, six or seven days a week) to get into leadership positions, it can be a hard pill to swallow that this approach is no longer working, and to be honest just won't fly with most younger people entering the workforce.

Lazy! I hear some of you cry.

Not necessarily.

Our attention span these days is getting shorter and shorter. Our boredom threshold is higher, faster, and whether technology is to blame or human evolution (I am not an expert on that matter) the truth is, we need to keep things exciting for the younger generation to entice them into the workforce and keep them there.

Forget everything you have learned about the corporate ladder for now, and let's all say a big hello to our new friend, the lateral ladder.

You see the younger generation doesn't expect to step into a workplace as a junior and be promoted to director within a few months (well, there are exceptions of course), they just want to be recognized for their work (don't we all really...we just say we don't) and to be given opportunities to learn and grow, and that doesn't necessarily mean linear progression.

In fact, studies have shown that diagonal moves have made a major difference in people's career progression.

According to a survey by Cigna, eight in 10 female senior business leaders have made a nontraditional change like taking a lateral role to advance their careers. Of those women, six percent credit their current position to such career changes. And this doesn't just apply to females.

Suddenly things have started to make sense to me, and looking at my own career path, those sideways moves have helped me seriously expand my knowledge and skills.

This got me thinking about a friend of mine who recently became frustrated in her role. She loved the company she worked for, and the people, she has a wealth of knowledge about the company and has an extensive skillset, but wasn't being utilized. So she decided to look around for another job . . . and then she stopped for a second.

She decided, why not sit down with her boss and discuss a sideways move, one where she could bring her skills to the table and yet learn new things. Her boss, after getting over the shock and realizing she wasn't handing her notice in, was so relieved and made it work.

And you see, this was a win-win for everyone involved. But it took the so-called “Millennial” to be self aware and confident enough to approach her boss with the idea.

Wow. I love that. It was the Millennial who had the mature attitude to think in this way, and not her seasoned boss, because yes, we can all get stuck in the "how things were" mode. Now that's some advanced communication skills right there.

I've heard plenty of other stories of a perfect employee who was kept in the same role because they performed so well, and yet had aired their frustrations about being unhappy and unfulfilled, and yet nothing changed because “they are great where they are.”

Guess what. Those people eventually leave.

So it's time we realized the same old, same old won't cut it anymore.

Rather than being motivated by an increased salary, job stability, or management responsibilities, Millennials and Gen Z (and there are plenty of studies to back this up) tend to be motivated by an all-inclusive working culture, increased flexibility in their working life, positive mentoring in order to assist their progress (lateral or up the career ladder), and goals so they know when and how they can achieve what is expected (because they love beating the odds).

So simple, right? And that's what blew my mind.