As the Baby Boomers retire, Gen Xers and Millennials are becoming the new face of company management and business practices. Millennials have had a profound influence on the way work is done and business is conducted all over the world, from shorter work hours and less unpaid overtime to company perks like free gym memberships, in-office snack bars and even nap pods to help boost productivity during daytime work hours.
As the business world navigates the 21st century, Millennials in the workplace are at the helm. Here are five ways Millennials are changing the workplace.
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Transparency in the Workplace
Millennials are all about transparency – in everything from politics to the workplace. Millennials represent a significant portion of the workforce, and their increased demand for transparency from the management and executive departments of the companies they work for has produced significant results. Millennials want interconnectivity throughout the companies they work for so everyone is kept informed – and no one is blindsided by change.
The Remote Workplace Phenomenon
A huge number of people already work from home, and the majority of these remote workers are Millenials. Because many Millennials want a greater work-life balance, the integration of their work and home lives helps to serve this purpose by removing the shackles of the standard nine to five schedule and allowing remote working Millennials to work when it suit them – resulting in a higher degree of productivity and work engagement.
Experience Over Degrees
Millennials, despite being one of the best-educated generations currently living, also carry the most college debt of any other generation. Subsequently, they have come to see college degrees in a different light than that of their forebears: nice, but not critical. Millennials in management positions are much more likely to recruit based on skills, experience, and established results than they are to hire someone on the basis of a college degree.
Work-Life Balance
Millennials work to live – they don’t live to work. Millennials in the workplace expect that their work will not take over their entire lives – that they will not be expected to stay late with no compensation, that their management will give them the tools they need to achieve the tasks they must finish during the workday, and that when the workday is over they will punch the clock and be on their way. This is also part of the reason many Millennials choose to work remotely – they can cobble together a number of projects that provide meaningful work and in addition, can choose greater freedom over financial rewards that may or may not come with working in the way that their forebears did.
Technological Adaptation
Millennial are extremely tech-savvy, as most of them were born shortly before the Digital Age. They are more likely than any other generation to be early adapters of technological services and products, and use a wide range of tools to communicate, to organize and achieve goals, and to complete tasks. Millennials are leading the technological connection movement in the workplace, where entire companies can be well-connected without even needing to be in the same building – or even the same city or country. Companies led by Gen Xers and Millennials are hallmarked by heavy use of technology and innovation to make workflows smoother and team integration speedier and more convenient.
As the new century blossoms, Millennials are changing the way we work in a number of tremendous ways – and they will set the tone for many future generations going forward in what they can expect from their workplaces, their careers, and their company leadership.
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