Engaging the Millennials - Part 3

If there is one truism in the business world it is that there are no truisms; change will happen whether you wish it to or not, the only question is how you and/or your company react to those changes. Trying to impose a value system on younger employees that once worked for older employees may or may not work, but if it does not, trying to force the issue will only create problems.

This is as true for Millennials as it has been since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Complaints about Millennials and their value in the work place of the 21st Century are common, you do not have to listen or look hard to find them.

"They're not ready for responsibility."

"They have a terrible work ethic."

"They only think of themselves."

Are these complaints fair? Are they accurate? The correct answer is: it should not matter. If it does, then you or your company are recruiting the wrong people.

Like every preceding generation the Millennials have their general collective traits, but even with those shared generalities there are tremendous variations in individual performance. In other words, like every generation before them, the 80/20 Rule also applies to the Millennials. If the complaints mentioned above are germane to your company, then your company is going after the 80% of the prospective employees who will do 20% of your company's work, ergo, the least talented and motivated. In all likelihood the company will spend more time and money training them, while receiving less productivity in return, than if they had simply put forth the extra effort to find more talent on the front end.

That Profit Left On the Table can be avoided, however, by recruiting only the 20% who will do 80% of the work. This will require new ways of thinking about employees and appealing directly to what studies tell us Millennials want; in other words, it will require Innovation, which is at the top of every list of concerns the top Millennials want from their employer. Innovation means 'change', and change is sometimes scary in the business world, but as I said in a previous article we are in the age of 'Adapt or Die', so for the company to be successful in the 21st Century business environment, innovation is essential.

That means more than merely designing a compensation package that adheres to an industry standard. If your company pays what other companies in its industry pay, then why should the top talent work for your company instead of the competition? The best answer is that your company should have an innovative culture that is designed to attract the best and brightest of the Millennials, a culture that is constantly being revised and upgraded to stay one step ahead of the competition.

And if this seems like a difficult task, once again innovation should come into play. Find someone who specializes in just such a field and learn from them; Millennials are capable of tremendous accomplishments, if they recognize the value in their company culture.