Attracting millennials

Attracting millennials.

The formally called Generation Y now goes under the name millennials. The persons that are born after 1985 is the ones called millennials. Their way of thinking and act differ from earlier generations, which will change the way we work, and certainly many other parts of society. This group is more independent, wants more flexibility, and rather prioritize personal values then organizational goals and economic success. They are also more likely to change employers frequently.

By 2020 40% of the workforce in USA will consist of millennials. If this number will be as high in Sweden is hard to tell but we stand before a different kind of challenge, which this generation plays a crucial role: Until 2025, half a million of people needs to be recruited to the public sector. In a survey conducted by the trade union Vision notes that less than one out of ten students associate jobs inside the public sector with personal development. Only 13 percentage of the surveyed students associate work in the public sector with interesting tasks.

The expectation is that the millennials will be driven by their values through their entire working life. Many talks about wanting to make a real difference and contribute to development to the society, which suggest that, a career in the public sector would be right up their alley. If you want to be a part of the millennials selection group organizational/company managers needs to engage themselves in what they value with an employer. CSR therefore becomes even more important. In Ungdomsbarometern 93 percentage answers that it’s important that everyone makes an effort to make the world better, and when someone buys something, they don’t only buy the goods, they also buys the story behind it. It is probably true when choosing employer.

The main reason that millennials want to change jobs is the lack of development opportunities and a sense of being overlooked. This is a generation that has grown up with social media which makes the used to both transparency and direct feedback. To keep their motivation on top it takes more than one performance review per year. They want to see how their performance helps to develop more organizations and have clearly set personal goals to work towards.

Statistics from SCB shows that younger persons with higher educational degree continuously replaces older with lower educational level. The entire time you study is defined by the fact that you always have a clear goal to work towards. Courses get finished and you slowly get closer to the degree. Then when you come into the workplace a mental crash might occur since a solid job doesn’t have a defined ending, which might effect the motivation. As an employer, you can help in many ways. To continuously discuss purpose and objectives in a personal and professional level will be a way to document the new employee’s development.

The public sector is an industry that is lined with prejudices about being inflexible, slow moving, and hard to advance within. By working actively with mentorship you can challenge these prejudices and awaken the interest in a hard to seduced generation. To meat someone that has succeeded is inspiring and at the same time you get the opportunity to take lessons from his pitfalls and progress.

How does your organization work to attract and motivate younger generations? What makes you an attractive employer?

Published 2016-03-11 13:31:00 in bjornhag.se