Managing The Millennials

The new generation of workers are different than the previous generations, and each generation has its own broad patterns of engagement. A clear understanding of the patterns is the key to a great talent management model.

- Pinakesh Mukherjee

There exists great evidence which stands as proof that the workplace of the future shall be increasingly different from what it was a few years ago, and for that matter, significantly different from what it is now. At the very core of this lies the nature of workforce that shall occupy the workplaces. An ever-increasing life expectancy with an improved quality of life, health, and fitness would mean that the office of the future would be multi-generational.

Therefore, the big question on everyone's mind is managing this multigenerational talent at the workplace. With around 35% of the workforce anticipated to comprise of millennials, it is worthwhile to take a sneak peek at some of their characteristics.

Always connected and an instant response

It is well-known that millennials are digital natives. This implies that they possess the technology available to remain connected 24/7 and be always on. More often than not, this is indicative of the fact that they shall come forth with an instant response. When translated into the business context, this means that in order to engage them at the workplace, things must happen closer to the moment. For instance, it makes sense to do away with the traditional employee engagement survey held annually in organisations, and instead keep in place a simple technology where the millennial worker can share feedback on the go and help the organisation to make improvements alongside.

Along the same lines, millennials look forward to continuous feedback at every stage of the employee journey. When someone joins the organisation the 30-60-90 day onboarding feedback can be replaced by 1st, 7th, 15th and 30th day feedback. The purpose is to reduce the response time and make it closer to the event.

Impact oriented