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Millennials, Pressure and Your Organization
Like every generation, each has a set of traits defined by their era and how they were parented. The Millennial generation (1982 – 2002) heaviest era influence has been technology and highly involved and doting parents has been the parenting style of the times. These influences are changing the way organizations recruit and retain this special, sheltered, confident, team-oriented, conventional, pressured, and achieving generation.
One of the seven core traits mentioned above is pressured. Many Millennials were pushed to study hard, avoid personal risks, and take full advantage of the collective opportunities adults are offering them. Millennials feel a “trophy kid” pressure to excel. (Strauss and Howe)
What happens when the pressured “trophy kid” grows up and enters your workplace? Given that this generation has had pressure to exceed at every turn, you can tap increase your competitive advantage by focusing on the following.
- Career opportunities. It is common for Millennials to pick their college and career in Grade 9 and have 5-10 year plans before leaving high school. When KPMG surveyed college business students in 2007 and asked them to identify their primary consideration in picking an employer, more than 50% chose career opportunities. Career ladders, mentors and internal career coaches can help you recruit this generation.
- Feedback. Millennials heard “good job” for just about anything. In sports, everyone received trophies and medals, whether the child sat out the season on the bench or hit home runs as the team’s most valuable player. It is a built in expectation to hear feedback from you and hear it often! Recurring adhoc and structured feedback, managing expectations and coaching for credibility are some of the ways you can retain this generation.
To learn more about how you can gain a competitive advantage with this generation, contact Tracie Moser, CPCC
Tracie Moser,CPCC
Principal | Moser Performance Group