Are Millennials Worth the “Trouble?”
Are Millennials Worth the "Trouble?"
Q. Tell me Millennials are kidding?! I saw this article all over the internet about a girl who started a GoFundMe because her salary was not respectable at Yelp. I know I need younger people at my company. Is that even legal to say? But I don’t need the headaches and unreasonable expectations. Am I in for trouble? Can I just wait until another generation comes along??A.
Millennials, just like every generation, are different than the generation before or after. This group has taken plenty of heat, most recently because of the letter you mention, and the response. One person was unhappy with her pay, and the speed of advancement, and another person delivered a scathing response about the hard work it takes to get ahead, and basically to “get over herself.” We can generalize about Millennials. As potential employees, they can be extremely valuable and challenging because:
- Millennials are the most well-educated generation. They pursue higher education more than any generation before them.
- According to a study from the White House, Millennials are actually more loyal to their employers than Gen Xer’s were at the same age.
- Millennials are “digitally native” their familiarity with technology can be beneficial to most employers.
- Millennials value work-life balance more than former generations; they do have expectations about flexibility that you may find challenging. Work is not a place, its an event, so they may want to work remotely (from home or elsewhere), or work different hours on a regular basis.
- They care about social responsibility, and will ask you about your views and commitments in that area. Millennials take pride in the efforts that their company is involved in, and want time to support those efforts.
- Millennials love working in teams. They have grown up collaborating with their peers in the classroom and on social media.
- Millennials want to advance. They do not respond well to lock step promotions, or time-based advancement. Its all personal to them, and they don’t want to be compared to others.
So based on what you know about the generation, you need to develop very concrete behavioral interview questions. Identify background, beliefs, values, sources of frustration and how they deal with it. The contributions outweigh the challenges as long as the communication and expectations on both parts are clear, and they do not end after the hiring process.
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