I need to hire several early career sales reps. What do I need to know?
We told our Millennial sons and daughters to go to college, work hard and after you graduate you will get a terrific job. That worked until the “Great Recession” when many of the Millennials graduated from college and entered the job market.
With the national unemployment rate hovering over 10%, graduating Millennials found themselves without work, and even now, the unemployment rate for our Millennials is still high. Gen Y was the last to enter the workforce and the first to be released. Half of the Millennials who are working are working at part-time jobs. Forty-five percent believe that a decent paying job is a privilege.
Without work, many Millennials went back to school to get their graduate degree.
Millennials are the most educated generation, but the average Millennial is now $65,000 in debt.
Parenthood and marriage are far ahead of the priorities of Millennials over career and financial success. Much like Gen X, use of technology identifies Millennials but in a much more pronounced manner. Millennials have integrated technology into all aspects of their life, both on and off the job. This is an important issue for companies who have established a stringent Internet access policy as 56% of Millennials won’t work for a company if it bans social media access.
Millennials want the same access to technology at work as they have at home. “Work/Life” balance has been replaced with “Life” balance – the boundaries between work and non-work are blurred.
When leading Millennials, realize that their average tenure is only about 2 years and 69% believe that attendance is unnecessary on a regular basis. They tend to do what their manager tells them to do to a much greater extent than older generations.
But more importantly, 80% of Millennials say they prefer on-the-spot recognition to formal reviews. This will be a major departure from the annual performance review that we have all come to know (and love?).
So, what are the dynamics when 60-year-old Boomers report to 30-year-old Millennials? I think the reversal of authority will be an amazing adventure. Maybe we should all make a pact that we Boomers will not treat our supervisors as our kids and our supervisors will not treat us as their parents.
Or maybe that’s not such a bad thing after all.
Ken
Ken Lazar, CEO
Ability Professional Network
(614) 403-6079
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