Are some of the lounges or furniture in your office spaces being swapped for ‘bean bags’ lately?
Are you witnessing a new ‘game room’ in the building and more ‘standing desks’ sprouting from office corners?
If so, then there’s a high chance either your company now employs a ‘Millennial’ workforce and/or your company leadership/CEO is in fact a Millennial himself/herself!
How about a cafeteria (possibly serving free foods, coffee and Red bulls), sleeping quarters/Pods, Friday afternoon kegs and ‘a slide that drops from the second floor’?
Now that could be a clear indicator that your company is run by millennials which thrives on a workplace culture and business environment that embraces the future.
Millennials, or the Generation Y, are those people born between early 1980s to early 2000s. Though some studies specifically put the demographic cohort to be born in between 1982 and 2002 (Howe and Strauss), there has been various speculations on exact birth dates for the millennial generation.
Today, Asia hosts 58 percent of Global millennials, with India having the largest domestic population of millennials at 385 million.
In US alone there are over 75.4 million millennials, who have recently surpassed the baby boomers in the country, and today millennials consists of over one-fourth of the global population amounting to 1.7 billion people.
This population, who is now in its young adulthood stage, is also quickly becoming the crucial demographic cohort for consumer spending growth, sourcing of employees and leaders, and for global economic prospects. It's clearly a ‘no brainer’ that companies around the world should give heed to this new ‘tribe’ of people who significantly impact global business opportunities.
Though it's impossible to characterise millennials and rather ‘constricting’ to put them into ‘pre-defined boxes’, let's explore a few Ideas and trends that help us understand and appeal more to this unique blend of future leaders, who are reshaping our workplace culture and business environs:
1. ‘Entrepreneurship’ Mindset
Some of the words that could resonate with a typical millennial could be; liberal, freedom, flexibility, empowerment, multi-tasking and not surprisingly, Entrepreneurship.
This is truly a generation that is far more likely to want to become their own boss, thus they’ve received the title as ‘Generation Entrepreneur’. However, let’s be clear on the fact that being an ‘entrepreneur’ for the millennials is actually related to having a certain ‘mindset’ rather than actually starting a company (says LaVecchia, founder of New.Theory.com).
On the ‘activity’ front, rather than the ‘mentality’, as John Lettieri, co-founder of Economic Innovation Group says “Millennials are on track to be the least entrepreneurial generation in recent history”.
The Wall Street Journal analysis of Federal Reserve data also substantiates the claim saying that the share of people under 30 who own a business has fallen by 65 percent since the 1980s and is now at a quarter century low. It seems, older generations, (40 years and above) are doing most of the successful entrepreneurial works (Kauffman Foundation).
The statistics though seem to go against the general media portrayal of the millennials as an entrepreneurial ‘force’ – businesses like American Express have yet again declared, “Millennials Could Be the Most Entrepreneurial Generation Ever”.
The ‘mentality’ element seems to reside on the grounds that millennials see business as a team sport and are more inclined to see business profits as a property of the teams rather than just the owners.
A shining example of this idea can be seen in promising startups like Scribe Media. Zach Obront, the co-founder of the company says they have an extensive ‘profit share’ programme, where each quarter 25 percent of all the company’s profit is distributed to the team. He believes that it’s the piece of the pie they’ve helped grow; and are entitled to.
Such Entrepreneurship mindset engrained with the millennials help them find value in their jobs and put in their best effort, as they portray and feel themselves to be the owners of the company. A disruptive approach giving rise to the idea of ‘Corporate Entrepreneurship’!
2. Collaborative Organisational Structures
The hierarchical organisational structures with top-down management and decision making, will soon be a thing of the past, in the new millennial driven structures.
The new concept is that of ‘flatarchies’ rather than ‘hierarchy’. It's rather a network of ‘team structures’ that work on a horizontal plane rather than the ones with hierarchical vertical layers. Such networks of collaborative structures with lesser layers bring more agility and creativity into the business processes.
Even the ‘vertical career paths’ and silos within organisations will take a disruptive turn, with the ability to swiftly adapt and react to the changes in the market, technology and customer preferences.
We're already seeing the digital technology in the form of tools and apps, such as Slack, Jira, or Skype, which is enabling teams to collaborate instantly on single planes, allowing for increased efficiencies in business and reducing the clutter.
The underlying principle for this ‘collaborative’ structure is to be able to nurture shared values and culture, transparency and easy access to information, clear objective and project goals, and a reward mechanism that values individual/team skills and abilities, as opposed to ones that value job titles and position!
3. Innovative Workplace Culture
A significant characteristic of the millennials is they're changing how the workplace looks and feels.
They look forward to building a relationship with the work they do, just as customers keep a relationship with a brand. They want to feel empowered and engaged with their work, with a strong feeling of ownership and connection to the bigger picture.
Much of this culture is spoken through the physical space that surrounds the workplace. Whether it’s the sweet bowls in the ‘lounge rooms’ or the green floors with gardens where people brainstorm, have meaningful conversations, workplaces are designed to incite creativity and innovation. For instance, a culture that doesn’t raise any eyebrows if you walk in your shorts or your gym pants and prefer to work from the office cafeteria. A culture that promotes good work-life balance and places high trust on its employees by providing mentorship, motivation and encouragement to make a difference.
To Sum It Up…
Estimates say that 44% of millennials, if given the choice, would leave their current employers in the next two years. How do you think you should work towards creating a favourable work environment to accommodate and nurture Millennials at your workplaces?
If you'd like further assistance or would like to discuss anything covered today, we'd love to hear from you.
Call Andy Fox (me) on (03) 5249 5570 or email andy@element7digital.com.au
Our Website is element7digital.com.au
