Millennial Attitude
(Chapter 8 from Transform: A Rebel’s Guide for Digital Transformation)
Flexible and in control
More than anything, Millennials — those born from the early 1980s to early 2000s — want control of their lives, so build the tools that give them control. Millennial is not simply a generation. It is an attitude that is reaching across generations. Millennials are poorer than their parents’ generation. In the US, Millennials wages actually fell across a range of industries between 2007 and 2013. This was particularly the case in retail and hospitality, where wages dropped by an average of 10% and 16%, according to the US Census Current Population Survey.
Millennials are well-educated and much better connected. They feel powerful among themselves. They are less religious and are getting married later and having less children when they do. They are just as optimistic as any previous generation. They don’t look up to brands or institutions or figureheads as much. The future, they know, they must build for themselves with their friends and peers. They know they must take control of their own careers. That they must think independently. Lifelong employment is a fairytale for them. It’s all about lifelong learning, being on the move, being in control. That’s partly because they know that employees who stay with companies longer than two years will be taken for granted and will, on average, get paid 50% less, but it also because they know that they live in an impermanent, ever-changing digital world.
Millennials aren’t taking or buying crap
Millennials value privacy and many of them see Edward Snowden as a hero, according to a 2015 poll by the American Civil Liberties Union. A 2014 poll by the Harvard’s Institute of Politics found that “cynicism toward the political process has never been higher. It’s been clear for some time now that young people are growing more disillusioned and disconnected from Washington,” said Harvard Institute of Politics Polling Director John Della Volpe. “There’s an erosion of trust in the individuals and institutions that make government work.”
The core message here is that the customer has radically changed. We can’t do as much old model design that’s focused on huge beautiful visuals and images of actors pretending to be customers, and gushing content that talks about how much the organization cares and how easy they are making things for customers. There is no blind trust with Millennials. They’ll try and use the thing you’ve designed, and if it’s not fast and easy … Next!
Millennials would prefer to clean a toilet than ring customer service. They want to do things for themselves because often when they interact with organization employees they have to wait ages, and often they don’t even get their problems solved. “Millennials aren’t buying crap anymore, destroying businesses that, well, sell crap,” Danny Crichton, a millennial, wrote for TechCrunch in 2015. “I want to transfer money in ten seconds — not ten screens. Along that simplicity theme, part of shedding all of these human touch points is also reducing the complexity of banking products. Every time I go to a bank, there is a rigmarole involved as we go through the new-account-type-of-the-month, each of course with their complex tiers of fees. I know this is designed to screw me, and I don’t like it. Simplicity is golden.”
Are you working for an organization that “sells crap” or that treats its current customers like crap? It’s going to get harder. So, you need to make a decision. You need to help convince your organization to do useful stuff, or else you need to find an organization that sells valuable stuff or delivers valuable services and work for them. In such an organization, you can make a real difference and build a successful career. The crap sellers did great in the old model of blind trust and mass marketing. They’re not going to do nearly as well in the new model of skepticism and impatience.
Millennials “will not tolerate waiting in lines, repeating their problem to five different people or being treated like a number,” Joe Gagnon and Jason Dorsey state in a 2015 survey of Millennials. “Companies that do not adapt risk obsolescence as this new generation becomes an economic powerhouse.”
The disloyal generation
“Millennials are self-reliant and technology dependent, but not necessarily tech savvy, and they expect instant gratification,” said Jason Dorsey, Chief Strategy Officer at The Center for Generational Kinetics. “They don’t just like speed and ease of use, they expect it.”
Millennials are disloyal. According to a 2014 survey on Millennials by Aspect Software, over half of them dropped at least one brand in the past twelve months because of poor customer service. A study by McCarthy found that 84% of them dislike advertising. A 2014 study on telecom providers found that Millennials were twice as likely to switch providers as any other group.
Not surprisingly, Millennials are cost conscious. They “are less interested in name brands and more about creating their own unique style,” Washington Post wrote in 2015. “They’re also less willing to pump their entire paycheck into their wardrobes.” Millennials want to create a unique look and do it at a lower cost. Abercrombie & Fitch, for example, the teen retailer, who made fat profits by getting teens to pay to advertise their products by walking around with huge A&F logos emblazoned on their chests, was forced to go logo free in 2014 because Millennials sneered at the idea of paying to be a human billboard.
Millennials are about finding rather than remembering. Their smartphone is their second brain, and their most valuable possession and the Web is their memory. They search quickly and ruthlessly. Millennials use four different devices daily and check their smartphones an average of 43 times a day, according to research from SDL. For 9 out of 10 of them the smartphone never leaves their side. Almost 80% reach for their phone to fill any pauses or gaps or moments of inactivity. Only 10% of those over the age of 65 do the same.
Seeking work life balance
Millennials are the least-engaged entity within the US workforce. In 2014, only 29% felt engaged by their jobs. So, 70% of millennials do not feel that they are in the right job environment. Maybe one reason for that is because, according to Forbes, “44% of college graduated Millennials are stuck in low-wage, dead-end jobs, the highest rate in decades.” Not surprisingly, 60% of Millennials will leave their jobs within the first 3 years, costing their employers an average of $20,000 each. They don’t particularly want job security because they know it doesn’t exist anymore. What they do want is the ability to train and develop and to have a work environment that reflects their life environment — with the same cool tools and ease of use.
“Close to 80 percent of millennials surveyed are part of dual-income couples in which both work full time,” Brigid Schulte wrote for the Washington Post in 2015, quoting a report from Ernst & Young. “Wanting flexibility or work-life balance is the number one thing we hear all the time from candidates,” said Heidi Parsont, who runs TorchLight, a recruiting firm. “It’s the number one reason why people are looking for a new job, by far. But companies still see it as making an exception. It’s still not the norm.”
A Pew Research Study revealed that out of the last four generations, Millennials are the first that do not place work ethic on their list of what makes them unique. It’s not that Millennials don’t want to work. It’s that they don’t want to work for “the man”. They wonder why they should slave away and be loyal and obedient to organizations that shows no loyalty to them. They constantly ask “why” and they want feedback because they know they have to keep developing, keep learning, keep moving, keep connecting. According to them, their use of technology is by far the most significant thing that makes them unique. This Millennial attitude is causing a revolution in the workplace.
Read the previous chapter: Marketing from getting to giving attention
Read the next chapter: Revolution in the Workspace
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References
Thompson, D. The Incredible Shrinking Incomes of Young Americans, The Atlantic, Dec. 2014
Crichton D. Millennials Are Destroying Banks, And It’s the Banks’ Fault, May 2015
Forbes. The 5.4% Unemployment Rate Means Nothing for Millennials, May 2015
Bever, L. How Millennial Shoppers Have Made Gap’s Uniform Look Obsolete, June 2015
SDL. The Future of Customer Experience: Five Truths for Tomorrow’s Marketer, 2014
Adkins, A. Gallup: Majority of U.S. Employees Not Engaged Despite Gains in 2014, 2014
Career Advisory Board. The Successful Independent Contractor: A Workforce Trend for the Future, 2014
Tyson, L. US Jobs Data Reveals Economy Is Bouncing Back Strongly from Recession, Oct. 2012
Schulte, B. Millennials Want a Work-Life Balance. Their Bosses Just Don’t Get Why, The Washington Post, May 2015
