Priority on Purpose: What Millennials look for in a job
By Tsering Kenji Sherpa, a fourth-year student pursuing International Relations and Business Administration at IE University. Content Coordinator at Fundie Ventures.
As the university semester looms to an end, students are actively pursuing job opportunities and internships. While professional preferences vary from person to person, this article takes a closer look at how millennials are disrupting the status quo with their unique job priorities. As Fundie is an organization staffed entirely by millennials, we are particularly interested in delving into more about millennial work priorities.
Millennials — The Purpose Driven Generation
By 2020, millennials (typically considered to be born between 1980 and 1996) will comprise 35% of the global workforce. As the global workforce shifts to include more and more millennials, their impact on the evolution of business will similarly increase. For this reason, it is vital for businesses to align their goals with those of their future employees to ensure employee loyalty and increasing productivity.
Millennials are often called the purpose driven generation. According to this survey conducted by the world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock, 67% of millennials affirmed that they wanted their investments to reflect their social and environments values. The numbers don’t stop there — the Manpower group also reported that a majority of millennials all over the world say that purpose is a priority when looking for the job. For instance, 8 in 10 millennials in Mexico, India and Brazil say working for employers who are socially responsible and aligned to their values is important.
Apart from purpose, what else should businesses be prioritising?
- Financial compensation
No matter what generation employees may be part of, salary and financial compensation still top the list over the rest. In all the above mentioned surveys, salary still remains the most important aspect for millennials looking for a job. As highlighted by the 2017 Global Shapers survey, 49.3% of respondents chose salary and financial compensation as their most important criteria during their job search. Along the same lines, an increase in salary was reported as the number one reason why millennials stay in a job.
2. Work- Life Balance
Work- life balance is another criteria that is very important for millennials. Not only do millennials want work-life balance in their jobs, but 42.1% believe it should be part of an employer’s mandate to ensure work-life balance. This growing emphasis on this is likely due to the increasing work-life unbalance that the millennials are facing today.
3. Opportunity to learn and grow
Millennials strive to learn and grow from their professions. They are even willing to pay for it personally and give up their time for training and development. The importance that is given by millennials for an opportunity to learn and grow in their job is clearly reflected in the fact that millennials have reported being disengaged and stumped in their jobs as one of their main reasons for quitting.
All these factors should be taken into consideration in businesses looking to attract innovative millennials. While monetary compensation still plays a big role, it is clear that it is not the only factor and having a purposeful and engaging business that addresses work-life balance for millennials is vital to keeping your prospect employees engaged and productive.
