Yesterday’s Advisor shared tips for managing the newest generation in the workplace—the Millennials. Today, more tips from About.com’s HR expert, Susan Heathfield, another take from Claire Raines, plus news about a timely audio conference.
First, more tips from Heathfield (Go here for tips 1-6.):
7. Expect multitasking. Millennials are multitaskers on a scale you’ve never seen before, says Heathfield. Talk on the phone while doing e-mail and answering multiple instant messages? Yes; it’s a way of life.
8. Take advantage of your Millennials’ electronic literacy. The computer, cell phone, and other media capabilities of these employees are amazing. You have a salesman in China? How’s the trip going? Old-timers call and leave a message in his hotel room, Heathfield says. Millennials text him in his meeting for an immediate response. (How about reverse mentoring—youngest workers train oldest workers?)
9. Capitalize on the Millennials’ affinity for networking. Not just comfortable with teams and group activities, your Millennial employees like to network around the world electronically.
Boomers, Gen Xers, and now Millennials. Get ready, because here they come. Find out how to involve and mentor this new breed of employee at BLR’s new audio conference Managing Millennials: Minimize Exposure to Data Security Risks and Intergenerational Bias Claims. Get more information or register.
10. Provide work-life balance. Your Millennial employees are used to cramming their lives with multiple activities, Heathfield says. Although they work hard, they are not into the 60-hour workweeks defined by the Baby Boomers. Balance and multiple activities are important. Ignore this at your peril, advises Heathfield.
Six Principles from Generations at Work
Generations at Work, the online home of Claire Raines Associates, says that the following are Millennials’ six most-frequent requests of management:
1. You be the leader. This generation has grown up with structure and supervision, with parents who were role models. Millennials are looking for leaders with honesty and integrity.
2. Challenge me. Millennials want learning opportunities. They want to be assigned to projects they can learn from.
3. Respect me. “Treat our ideas respectfully,” they ask, “even though we haven’t been around a long time.”
Traditionalists and Boomers are in charge, but the youngest workers have to teach them about new technology. Reverse mentoring, anyone? Get answers to your specific questions at BLR’s new audio conference on managing Millennials. Get more information or register.
4. Be flexible. The busiest generation ever isn’t going to give up its activities just because of jobs.
5. Let me work with friends. Millennials say they want to work with people they click with.
6. Let’s have fun. A little humor, a bit of silliness, even a little irreverence will make your work environment more attractive.
Is Millennials’ Tech Know—How a Threat?
Having grown up on e-mailing, texting, Internet surfing, file-swapping, blogging, and digital downloads, Millennials may be insistent when it comes to using personal technological devices, such as PDAs, iPods, and smart phones, at work.
In fact, in a study conducted by Symantec in March 2008, nearly 70 percent of responding Millennials said they would use a computer application, technology, or device regardless of the corporate IT policy. That’s a little unsettling, given how easy it is to copy your sensitive data and trade secrets.
And all HR managers are going to face intergenerational tensions between Millennials and older employees—who have a different take on appropriate workplace protocol, dress, seniority, and roles.
Want to find out more about managing Millennials? Join us on February 27 for an in-depth 90-minute audio conference, Managing Millennials: Minimize Your Exposure to Data Security Risks and Intergenerational Bias Claims.
As with all BLR audio conferences, one fee trains all the staff you can fit around a conference phone, you can get your (and their) specific phoned-in or e-mailed questions answered in an extensive Q&A that follows the presentation, and your satisfaction is assured or you get a full refund.
What if you can’t attend on that date? Pre-order the conference CD. For more information on the conference and the experts presenting it, to register, or to pre-order the CD, go here. We’ll be happy to make the arrangements.