Are you ready to work with Millennials? This is how they behave

Those born in the 80s and 90s will represent 35% of the global workforce by 2020; employers will have to adjust to the way they work

The millennial generation has been very difficult to define. We do not know exactly who is in this category, because some definitions include those born in years as distant as 1977. We do not know what they are either, because while some media label them as murderers of industries, a nightmare for the economy, others celebrate them as leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs. In fact, we have no certainty of almost anything that defines them, but we know that they are filling jobs and forcing big changes.

Leer en español: ¿Listo para trabajar con Milennials? Así se comportan

A study by the ManpowerGroup recruitment firm Millennial Careers: 2020 Vision revealed that by the year 2020, millennials will represent 35% of the global workforce and will become the generation with the highest market share, regardless of whether they are capricious or innovative. By this time, companies will have to know what the needs of this controversial generation are if they want to use and keep them.

Previous generations don’t understand them

The book Keeping the Millennials by the authors Joanne Sujansky and Jan Ferri is a guide for managers to know how to manage this generation that would soon join their ranks. However, despite the good intentions of Sujansky and Ferri, today this book does nothing but reheat a series of stereotypes of millennials, attributing acronyms that have never been used in history, such as AWLTP (Avoiding Work Like The Plague) and an obsession not justified with paintball.

These kind of publications show the disconnection that exists between the millennials and the generations that precede them. The communication is null, the ignorance reigns and the relation in its combative majority. They are excessively critical of one another. It is easy to see how such a relationship translates poorly IGNORE INTO the work environment.

Millennials love to give up

Perhaps the millennial web portal par excellence, Vice.com, published in July of this year an article entitled "The new trend among millennials: quitting their work". Here they cited several studies, the most impressive among them one of the consulting firm Deloitte, which revealed that 43% of millennials anticipate resigning their jobs within the next two years and only 28% intend to retain their current position for the next five years.

According to Vice, among the reasons for this behavior is the disenchantment with capitalism. A study by the Harvard Institute of Politics revealed that only 42% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 support the concept of capitalism, a radical change made possible by the stigmatization of post-cold war leftist ideology.

It makes sense, capitalism has done little or nothing for this generation, the conception of the work that companies present to their millennial employees is not the one they seek, and the inflexibility of the 'boomers' (those born in the recent postwar) and those of Generation X (born approximately between the 60s and 80s) have scared them away from their jobs.

Millennials may not love their work, but they work long hours

According to ManpowerGroup, millennials work the same or more than previous generations, and are far from the stereotype of being 'lazy', one of the first suggestions offered by the Google search engine when typing 'millennials are' in the search bar (along with 'the worst generation' and 'stupid').

Millennials in India, for example, say they work an average of 52 hours a week, more than 10 hours a day. The countries where millennials work less, the United Kingdom and Australia, show that on average they meet 41 working hours a week, equal to over 39 hours per week, the maximum amount of time that a study of the National University of Australia considers that it does not involve health risks.

Which jobs do millennials want?

Then, it is clear that millennials are willing to work hard, but it seems that they have high demands. According to ManpowerGroup, they have five key preferences when choosing a job they want to preserve.

Also read: Why should you study arts if you want to be a successful entrepreneur?

First, they look for money. Many of them carry debts from their college loans, and paying them limits their purchasing power seriously, so they look for a salary that compensates and also allows them to get the most out of their free time. In fact, free time is the third priority of millennials, when it comes to looking for a job.

The key, then, is the recognition of the efforts, because it is a group that works above expectations but does not see how their efforts are translated IGNORE INTO results. In a second place, it is the flexibility, the possibility of feeling that their work does not bind them for life to a single employer.

LatinAmerican Post | Pedro Bernal
Translated from “Los milennials se tomaron la fuerza de trabajo y así se comportan”

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