What did I learn by hiring, managing and building a team of Millennials?

Born between 1980 and 2000, millennials are currently the largest generation in the global workforce. Millennials account for more than 31% of world population. They are storming the work space and employers weren’t quite sure what to make of this new generation of workers. This group of tech-savvy and socially-conscious workers arrived on the work scene armed with a set of expectations for their professional lives that recruiters and hiring managers have never quite seen before.

I had an opportunity of hiring, building and managing a team of millennials at Singapore. Millennials account for ~1.2 million people, 22% percent of the total population in Singapore. In the process over two years I have met more than 300 millennials during interviews and saw common patterns and trends in their mindset and expectations. While experts generally agree that this generation’s values, attitudes, and priorities differ greatly from those of their predecessors, many organizations still do not know what’s Important to them, appear lost and end-up using millennials as a buzz word or corporate jargon. In this article I have summarized my personal learning.

1. Classroom is not the only way of education

Millennials know that education doesn’t have to come from the classroom. Their reliance on Google, social media and YouTube to learn how to do something is way much higher. Few attend local classes, and many do part-time/ correspondence education & attend online classes. I met people who have university degree without ever setting foot in a classroom. They have access to more information than ever before. One interviewee very well-articulated understanding of several key soft skills that she did not learn from classroom or university degree, but by working for few hours in a doctor’s clinic during weekends.

2. Work-life balance: Working schedules outside traditional 8hr shift

In the past, work was a location. Today, work has shifted from a place to a space. The technology shift from fixed communications to mobile communications has redefined how and where we work. Millennials are never-offline and due to their always-on approach to life, they see no problem with blending work and life.

Many millennials say that managing their work, family, and personal responsibilities has become more difficult in the recent years. At an early age they are taking larger responsibility in corporate sector and having a working spouse/partner in equally demanding job coupled with having younger children put them on stretched situation.

Most of the millennials I interviewed asked questions about career progressions, learning opportunities, more importantly “is the work place FUN”? They all are interested to know about work flexibility (i.e., remote working and flexible hours). For many millennials, success is having control over how and when they work and accumulating various life experiences.

Millennials focus more on work that means something to them, that contributes to their life and that they can incorporate into their life. Even more importantly, millennials are also fighting the idea that you work to live. They travel more, do more and see more now rather than waiting until they have accumulated enough savings to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

3. Learning to lead: Millennials are looking for mentors—not managers

Millennials generally seem to be pretty good at believing in themselves, believing in their abilities and backing an idea. It doesn’t mean they don’t have self-confidence issues or immune to day-today frustrations. It’s more of a willing to take the lead.

The biggest learning for me is millennials looking to work for leaders who set them up for success, instill in a sense of bigger purpose, and give them the confidence when they need to persevere when the work gets challenging. As I started managing the team of millennials, it became clear to me that millennials don’t want an archaic management system that dictates rules and constraints – this generation craves mentors that guide and inspire them.

In other words, millennials are not looking for managers to control them, but Mentor/coach who would teach them how to take responsibility for their actions, as well as accountability to fix what goes wrong. Most millennials won’t thrive with finger pointing, blaming, or winded lectures. They need to be made aware that a mistake has happened, and confidence is given that they can fix it and receive the support to do so. Their expectation is the management should empower and build the confidence. This means no guilt trips, blaming, or pressuring. They want to feel free to approach their managers and speak openly with them without intimidation, while still respecting employer-employee boundaries.

Millennials operate differently. They prefer to be in their zone. Allow them to practice freedom and accountability when it comes to their working style. If you push them to work in a specific way, it will stifle them and therefore affect their ability to perform. The gist of it is: allow millennials to be themselves and create the environment they need in order to thrive, and they most likely will.

We know that relationships are built on trust, but we don’t usually teach managers how to do that. The challenge is that our managers are often working managers who spend most of their time doing technical work, as opposed to management. Redefine the role and think of managers as coaches and invest in training them to be effective coaches.

4. It's not all about the money: Vision and values of a company need to align with their own ideals

Millennials are driven by purpose. Many interviewees asked me “Why I do what I do” or “What is the purpose of the company”. They strive to find a purpose behind what they do and want to align to their personal mission. They are driven by creating an impact, small or big. They are not satisfied with being told what to do or just doing it. They want to understand why they are doing it.

Millennials aren’t afraid to challenge the traditional systems and question if there is a better way. Millennials are more likely to support a cause or get engaged in corporate philanthropic activities if it aligns with their sense of purpose or personal fulfillment. Many of the millennials I met were curious to know about organizations larger good and charitable actions, and how often employee at entry level get opportunity to play a role in such engagements.

5: Tech savvy – Deliver in a capsule to cater to their shorter attention span

Technology has changed a lot in last decade or two. Millennials are tech savvy individuals who prefer everything to happen through a smart phone or tablet. Coerce them to do things a certain way/ old school way, and they’ll likely be resent. When it comes to the Millennial workforce, they tend to focus on the results and not much on the method in which they are achieved.

Millennials are digital natives. They were born in the era of smart phones and they are used to multiple devices and parallel activities. The result is that they have a much shorter attention span, they are extremely comfortable multitasking and think they’re inefficient if they’re not. They’re incredibly self-reliant, resourceful, and pragmatic. There's a lot of rich information and content on the web and they know how to find it quickly, so they don't feel they need to take a back seat to somebody just because that other person has more experience. Their reliance and belief on google, YouTube and other web-based platforms to search answer is way much higher. I have observed millennials are good at solving digital issues and they have an intuitive way of figuring out IT system glitch and prefer digital processing over paper-based documentation. It is important that previous generation of workforce need to keep up them on technology, even if it’s just the bare minimum, and avoid getting left behind.

6. Recognition: Constant feedback is key

Recognition is key to secure Millennial talent and improve their performance at work. Millennials are accustomed to attention and praise from their earliest days and expect regular affirmation in the workplace. They expect appreciation and positive affirmation, at every step of the progress, even if the work is still not done and completely over yet.

Several studies confirm that employee recognition impacts workplace performance. Recognizing Millennial employees boosts trust, engagement, retention, productivity, and satisfies at a psychological level. Millennials are interested in meaningful recognition that helps them feel empowered. I was told that saying “thank you” or “well done” is not enough. They expect to be compensated and promoted, as and when they demonstrate little better performance. 

Ultimately the purpose of recognition is to reward effort and to encourage greater or continued effort. Elevated effort and performance occur when Millennials feel inspired and incentivized to do more. Being recognized in a meaningful and consistent way strengthens Millennials' connection to the organization and encourages them to become high-performing contributors.

7. Work family: Team-building activities & bonding is important

Team building is an essential part of any successful organization. Team building activities help employees learn to communicate and work together to solve problems. When employees know how to work collaboratively and use their strengths for the common good, they’re happier and work more efficiently.

I have learnt from managing a team of millennials that team building is even more important. Millennials enjoy a relaxed and fun work environment that encourages personal growth. They flourish in an atmosphere that allows for engagement and continuous learning. Any time they can apply their skills or face challenges with innovative solutions, they’re going to be happy. As a result of these traits, millennials welcome effective team building activities.

I understood that millennials do not like sports events that make them feel uncomfortable, where in individual feel embarrassed or socially left out, which puts unnecessary pressure on them. They prefer activities that stress teamwork and collaboration. Team-based trivia games, scavenger hunt, virtual reality, team video game, laser tag, or any game that are guided entirely by a smartphone app is of interest. Millennials love to participate and engage in such activities.

8. High Point

Millennials are taking over the workforce. They are here to stay. Instead of figuring out how to work through them, embrace their differences. This is an exciting time for leaders and companies as they learn to adapt, retain, and grow this generation of employees. Today in the laboratory, the millennial generation is in the age range of 22 to 38. They are new graduates, and they are experienced workers. They are bench techs, supervisors, managers, and directors. They have a voice, and they want to be heard and utilized. They want to understand the bigger picture and to connect their own work to the mission of the company. They seek meaning and connect with companies that show humanity. They strive for happiness through work-life balance.

Millennials share many of the same long-term career goals as older workers. These include making a positive impact on their organization, helping to solve social and environmental problems, and working with diverse people. They also want to work with the best, be passionate, develop expertise and leadership capabilities, and achieve both financial security and work–life balance.

Feel free to post your insights in the comments and share your thoughts.