Millennials in the Workplace

Welcome to our special guest blog post series - "Millennial Perspectives: Voices of a Giving Generation." We hope you will join us each week until the Millennial Donor Summit on June 22, 2011, as we explore Millennial engagement with a variety of leading experts and practitioners.

This week, we've invited Caroline McAndrews, Director of Leadership & Communications for the Building Movement Project to comment on the evolution of the multigenerational workplace.

There has been growing concern about the breadth and depth of new leadership in the nonprofit sector. Until recently, the alarm was focused on the departure of the Baby Boom generation, but this expectation of a mass exodus has given way to a new reality. The changing economic climate, extended life expectancy, and the desire to be remain active and continue their contributions are leading Boomers to remain in the workforce for a longer period of time. So now, and for the foreseeable future, there will be four generations in the workplace. Organizations that hope to capture the energy and ideas of younger generations – and millennials in particular – will need to figure out how to build vibrant multigenerational workplaces. 

Recently, I’ve been presenting around the country on the findings of a report released by the Building Movement Project last year, What Works: Developing Successful Multigenerational Leadership. The report looks at workplace policies and processes that promote good work and great workplaces ACROSS ALL GENERATIONS working in nonprofits today. Despite overwhelming data that points to practices that work for all generations, I still get a lot of pushback from my audiences regarding Millennials. The overwhelming message is that the millennial generation wants too much, too soon, and with too little respect for the traditional way things are done.

To depict Millennials in this way and to so narrowly define their presence in the workplace can distract us from what Millennials can teach about how to build the best organizations for the future. Hopefully by now, people are aware of some of the key traits of the Millennial generation:

• Millennials are the largest and most diverse generation in the US. The Millennial generation numbers somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 million people, 15% of the workforce and growing. Not only are they diverse, but they are the most tolerant generation, accepting of other genders, sexual preferences, race/ethnicities, and backgrounds.
• Millennials are technologically advanced. This reality leads many people to ask a Millennial for help when their computer isn’t working; however, that’s not the best use of Millennial skills. The full implications of modern technology change the way that information is processed, how work gets done, who is involved and from where, and future changes we have yet to anticipate. These changes are second-nature to Millennials.
• Millennials are politically progressive. While many people that I present to attribute this to the fact that everybody is more progressive when they’re young, research indicates that Millennials are more progressive than their counterparts from older generations were at their age. And beyond politics, this generation is much more optimistic about the possibilities of social change in a way we haven’t seen since the ‘60s. 

Keeping these traits in mind, when we look at what Millennials are asking for in the workplace, they are characteristics that respondents in our national survey (from ALL generations) named as important to doing good work and building a positive workplace:

• Clear systems support good workplaces. Clarity about decision making, job requirements, and evaluation are important factors for creating a positive atmosphere in the workplace. This includes transparency and input into decision making, opportunities for management and leadership skills training, and workplace flexibility. In addition, spaces for peer support are important to discuss and apply leadership development skills.
• Explicit paths for career advancement are key. Most people know their job descriptions, but many don’t know whether they’re doing their jobs well. The requests from Millennials in the workplace for clear paths for advancement, knowing what determines success, and how salaries are decided are just a few of the things that older generations are looking for clarity around as well.
• Mission driven organizations are essential. A crucial aspect for Millennials – and all generations – in deciding where they want to work is a strong belief in the mission of the organization and to know how their work contributes to its success. It was no surprise to see that respondents in the Millennial Donor Survey want to see the impact of their contribution. Commitment is to a cause, not necessarily an organization, and Millennials (as well as Generation X) will gravitate towards the organizations and groups that demonstrate a clear ability to create change.

Finally, beyond changing policies and practices, the question I am most often asked by younger generations is whether we can provide them with new models of how to lead organizations that do not concentrate authority and responsibility in one top person. Recent conversations on structures that take into account how younger leaders in the social sector want to lead and how Boomer-age leaders want to adjust their leadership roles push us to look beyond our comfort zone of how organizations have operated to date. Building Movement Project is currently documenting these new models, and CompassPoint Nonprofit Services has released an excellent report Next Generation Organizations: 9 Key Traits.

For more information on generational changes in nonprofit leadership, visit www.buildingmovement.org or read Working Across Generations: Defining the Future of Nonprofit Leadership.