Millennials do care about more than just their smartphones. Like generations preceding them, they have their own aspirations to give back to their communities, contribute via their careers, and make the world a better place.
We have all encountered the stereotypes of millennials as cyborgs: young people, intimately connected to their Apple Watches or computers, who interact with the world primarily through the binary filters of technology. The truth, however, about this first generation to come of age during the digital era may be surprising. Millennials are actually much more heterogeneous, as well as more profound and sophisticated, than many older adults may think. Let us delve into some research-based myth busting about this poorly understood tide of people.
LOVE ME DO
Millennials have been unfairly characterized as needing much more psychological stroking than do other generations. Actually, a seminal study conducted by the IBM Corporation dispels this myth of generational narcissism, at least in the workplace. Far more than they want a boss who makes them feel like a prince or a princess, for example, millennials hope to find a supervisor “who’s ethical and fair and also values transparency and dependability.”
Millennials even consider benefiting from these positive traits in bosses to be more important than achieving recognition in the workplace or being asked to provide their thoughts and opinions.
SHARED GOALS
Many older adults may think that millennials have different goals from other generations, but studies show that millennials’ goals actually match up very evenly with the hopes and aspirations of those who were born before them. Issues such as climate change, divides between rich and poor, and world peace matter to millennials across the globe. Indeed, almost as much as baby boomers, millennials want to impact their world. Fully 22 percent of millennials (compared to 24 percent of baby boomers) report that they hope to solve social or environmental challenges in their lives.
Far from the stereotype of being unrealistically self-assured and inappropriately ambitious, millennials demonstrate the same tempered career goals as baby boomers and Generation Xers. Only 18 percent of individuals from all three of these groups, for example, relay that becoming a senior leader is a top career goal for them. Millennials are also slightly more likely than the preceding generation to want to save the world, with 13 percent of millennials saying they would change jobs for a good cause compared to 11 percent of Generation Xers. Here, millennials are nipping at the heels of the socially conscious baby boomers, 14 percent of whom say they would change jobs for the same reason.
JUST ME AND
MY INTERNET
It is true that working online comes easily to millennials. But just because they have this facility does not mean that this young generation wants or even expects to handle everything virtually. Like people of other generations, millennials overwhelmingly prefer, for example, to acquire new information and skills through face-to-face interactions.
Not even a majority of millennials want to be trained by a series of self-guided PowerPoints or videos, either. Only 35 percent of millennials say that they are comfortable with virtual learning. This number is practically identical to Generation Xers, 33 percent of whom say that they are comfortable with virtual learning, and not that different from baby boomers who report a 30 percent comfort level.
JOB HOPPING
Here lies another unfair myth: millennials are capricious people who flit from one job to the other, showing little loyalty to their employers. In reality, it is the economic milieu in which millennials have come of age that has forced them to find serial sources of employment. Twenty-seven percent of millennials have worked for five or six different employers, but research shows that this is a question of preservation, not preference. Those who can stay at their jobs do so, and 75 percent of millennials have held their current position for three years or longer.
Indeed, people of different generations typically report similar reasons for moving on to a new job. While 42 percent of millennials report that they change jobs when they want to make percent of Generation Xers and 42 percent of baby boomers give this same rationale for moving along. Millennials are more likely than Generation Xers to want to shoot for the top when looking for a new job (24 percent versus 19 percent), but baby boomers trump both these groups in ambition, with 28 percent reporting that they want to assume more responsibility in an organization that has a top-notch reputation.
MUCH IN COMMON
Particularly in the workplace, millennials are not as different from older generations as many may think. They actually share some of the most significant concerns with the two generations that directly precede them. Here, it is important that employers take note because these worries do not bode well for productive work environments.
Like Generation Xers and baby boomers, many millennials feel that they do not understand their employers’ business strategy. Related to this concern, approximately half of people hailing from all three of these generations say that they do not fully understand their supervisors’ expectations of them, what their customers want, or their organizations’ brands.
All three generations additionally agree that customer experience in the global marketplace is generally poor. Whether you are a boomer, a Generation Xer, or a millennial, you are also likely to feel that this shortcoming is somewhat mitigated by the innovative uses of social media.
BEYOND STEREOTYPES
If there is any single lesson to be learned from studying millennials, it is that they are, after all, people. The best and the brightest of millennials thrive in a collaborative organizational culture—just like workers of other generations—and enjoy being encouraged to contribute new ideas at work. Far from waving the flag of individuality, most millennials sincerely want to adopt a collective approach to making decisions. These young people are not actually the “me, me, me” generation … and that is a good thing, because they will soon be the generation that leads our world.
