Millennial Workforce Summit – my notes

For those that are not sure (as I wasn’t at first), according to Wikipedia, Millennials (also known as Generation Y) are the generational demographic cohort following Generation X. There are no precise dates for when this cohort starts or ends; demographers and researchers typically use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years.

Last week I attended the Millennial Workforce Summit 2018 in Auckland and learnt a lot! Here are my notes from each session, and the key messages I took away to attract, engage and retain a millennial workforce.

The conference chair started the day with some interesting stats:

• 43% of millennials are likely to leave their current job within two years.
• They outnumber any other cohort currently in the workplace.
• 34% are aged 15-39, while 31% are between 40-64 years.
• By 2020, 50% of the legal industry will be millennials.

Law is no longer a traditional career path - study law and become a lawyer for life! Many lawyers are leaving the industry to try new career paths

Workplace 2020 – sourcing talent for the workplace of the future

You need to tailor your strategy to suit your organisation/industry

Company purpose and values are more important for millennials when looking for new roles

Millennials expect more dialogue – want instant feedback

Don’t be afraid to over survey them

If millennials want to leave every two years, provide that somewhere else within the company (if you are big enough) – lateral movement within your company

Coaching and mentoring is a big recruitment plus and differentiator. There needs to be more focus on this when you are advertising vacancies

There is more tech in the recruitment process now. Video interviewing using AI and facial recognition. Should it be used more for FAQs vs the decision-making process?

Air NZ

• Have set up an innovation team to focus on the future of work
• They aim to lift the capability of their team on a broad scale, not just parts of it
• Want staff to be able to influence without authority
• 80% of their applicants ask about their CSR (corporate social responsibility) to determine if they are the right company for them
• Internally, Yammer is not catching on
• They have 17 different communication channels staff use – too many? How do they manage them all?
• Crew have private Facebook groups – don’t want senior management in them, even though they could help crew with any challenges

IBM

• Initiating Transformation 2.0 across the 150 countries they operate in
• They want to transform 300,00 people in 24 months, and have a digital skills programme for all staff
• Use AI to identify skills/gaps to help form career paths for staff
• Use reverse mentoring
• Have set up a millennials working group to help tackle challenges the company faces

How to attract, engage and retain an ambitious millennial

What is your company value proposition?

• Criticality of the role – how important it is, what impact does it have
• Your technology
• Purpose of business/culture
• Your people/how diverse are you
• Career development
• Work hard, play hard, is your company fun?
• NZ Inc (promote your Kiwi-ness)
• Regular, constructive feedback
• Wellbeing and health
• Are you honest, authentic (warts and all)
• Manage expectations prior to hiring (show the good and bad of the company)
• Realistic job previews prior to joining
• Flexible working – not just time but location, maybe radical flexibility, contract work (By 2020 40% of the US workforce will be contractors)
• Graduates – for many it is their first full time job, and is a big transition from student life, they might need extra care than experienced hires
• Resilience training to handle stress
• Empower staff especially young ones

BECA

• Offers shares in company to 1,200 employees – they then have a stake in the game
• Have an emerging leader program

Creating fast-track leadership programs for millennials

Millennials are very comfortable with instant feedback, they are open to the truth.

Are they reporting to someone who is not as open?

Gamification – they want to know where they are on the leaderboard

Bite sized learning – our attention span now less than a goldfish

Make leadership available to everyone, not just the leaders within business

"Leadership in most businesses needs to be disrupted – it is PALE, STALE and MALE"

Informal mentoring

Cross functional training and learning

Job progression is not just promotions and/or job titles

Implement self-directed learning

What’s the objective of mentoring for both parties?

Get people comfortable with being uncomfortable

“You can’t be brave and comfortable at the same time”

We need a new way of thinking to support a new way of working

Agile – not just a method/process – should be a way of thinking/mindset too

Senior staff share experiences, leaders need to be human, be themselves, walk the talk

Learning is not pretty, can’t look good and learn, learning is hard

By 2025 75% of global workforce will be millennials

Meet the young guns – New Zealand’s most successful millennials

The challenges they face/what they want:

• Machine/system works against them
• Managing staff older than them – will older staff listen to someone younger than them
• Pressure to socialise at work functions e.g. Friday night drinks
• Money is not the answer
• Let them make mistakes to learn from
• Push them
• Expose them to difficult situations but in a controlled environment
• Why do they need to do 20 things when only 10 things need doing
• What’s the value of the task they are asked to do – has it been effectively communicated
• Give them the outcome you want and leave them to get there how they want

Reasons for leaving last job:

• Career progression
• Senior people leaving – less support for them
• New challenge or to be challenged

Balancing reward and recognition with reality-checks

Base salary should be enough/fair to be removed from the conversation

Bigger (and better) employment package – flexible working/dress code

Build employer brand internally, not just to attract new staff

How do you break away from traditional remuneration models – professional services especially?

One size does not fit all

Difficult to implement but personalise packages. Allow employees choice within their package

Is your business model fit for purpose?

Then determine what does your remuneration package look like under that

Do the bonuses you have in place incentivise staff to work harder/go extra mile?

Leaders need to invest time, and talk to their staff about their career

Give recognition, it is FREE, do more of it for all staff not just direct reports or from senior staff

A rewards strategy that may work for one company may not work for another

Listen to your staff – there is no silver bullet

Evolution vs Revolution – you may have to keep changing what you offer

Fonterra have an incubator for staff to work on projects they want internally

Auckland Council – talk to their 10,000 staff to see what matters to them. Health – offer gym membership. Sustainability – offer keep cups.

Orion Health offers their staff the opportunity to work a side gig on projects they are passionate about and/or supplement income

The day ended with interactive roundtables with delegates choosing which topic they wanted to discuss further.

Below is a link to summit website which has the list of speakers and full programme: https://millennialworkforcesummit.com/auckland/

Do you agree/disagree with what I learnt? Please share your thoughts in the comments, or get in touch directly with me.

Shailan Patel, Education Manager NZ, MYOB