Managing Millennials — A Challenge For All

In my hometown in Punjab, we get our milk from a local dairy. It is housed in a shop which has a facade of fewer than 10 feet and it goes deep inside. It can easily be ignored as another hole in the wall, if you are not looking specifically for that shop. He employs about 7–8 young guys who help him deliver milk and run operations of the diary efficiently. Whenever I am at my home on the monthly trip, I usually see one or two new employees joining him and working with him. And I also observe that some of the older employees are missing in action from the shop. On my recent visit, I asked about a missing guy whom I had met during my last visit, and he tells me “he along with one more has left last month and I have got a couple of new ones in their place.”

I am amazed at the coolness with which he underplays the issue of attrition of his employees. I ask him that isn’t it difficult to replace a trained employee? He answered, without raising a brow, that I hire young guys and they are bound to be restless. “Most of my employees are in the early 20s and at that age, you do not think much ahead in your life. They are restless and they want to explore life.” He further went on that when you are in your 20s you always feel that you are in this world to do something amazing. “The burden of expectations is not upon them yet and they are willing to take risks, and explore the life themselves according to their own set of rules.”

I know this situation very well as many of my clients are going through the same problem with millennials. This is a world of VUCA (volatile, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity).

According to a report by US Department of Labour’s Bureau Labor Statistics, the age group between 25 years to 34 years stays at a single job or company for about 3 years. This figure was 3.2 years in 2012. If we add employees aged less than 24 years than the average stay in a company is reduced to 16 months. This is a big challenge for any manager in any organisation.

Engaging the millennials in any organisation can be challenging. They are restless. They work to have a good time. Their financial responsibilities are limited and for them having fun at a workplace is important. If they are not liking some aspect of their job then they would not come back to you and give feedback. They will simply leave the job and work somewhere else. That sense of building a career in a typical old fashioned way is not there yet.

Changing multiple jobs frequently is also a way of getting more raise in the salary. Typically, increment given in any organisation is 12–15% while if you are joining a new company you will be given a raise of 25% and in some case it is more than 30%. This makes this job hopping more attractive for many millennials.

20 somethings are always on career exploration rather than building a career in a typical ‘corporate-ladder’ fashion. Ideally, there is nothing wrong with it. They want to spend their first 5–6 years of their professional life exploring their strengths, interests and figuring out where the heart lies. And good thing is that they are being paid while they are experimenting with new industries and new roles.

Engaging them is tough but n aot difficult. However, the way they will be engaged will be different from employees who have already spent more than 10 years in corporate life. Engaging them is not only about financial rewards. It is creating something meaningful about which they can be proud of, being involved in a lot of fun projects and have short-term goals which give them a clear picture of their career progression. They would also look for opportunities wherein they can pursue their own personal projects.They believe that if they can give instant feedback about their Uber ride then why they have to wait for one year for their performance review. They are focussed on instant gratification in terms of feedback and reward.

In a way, they are changing many age-old rules. Famous CEO coach and business consultant Ram Charan explains it in simplest manner when he says “Millennials is a fact of life. I tell CEOs, you can’t fire them; they will fire you.”