THE M WORD
Millennials and performance in today’s workplace.

Snowflake.

Of all the derogatory words used to describe millennials, that is probably the most offensive. It’s bandied about commonly, with or without the use of other slurs or insults. Most business people, and the majority of those polled for this article, have no trouble pointing out what is wrong with “this group” of workers. We thought it would be a valuable exercise to put together a list of common complaints, and analyze whether this group is indeed so different, as well as determine some best practices for their management and development. First, some facts:

“Millennials” are usually designated as those persons born between 1982 and 2003. The youngest of them are 15, the oldest are 36 years old, and they are the largest single group within the work force.

That’s quite a range. How can one compare a 36-year old and put him/her in the same category as a 15-year-old child? Nevertheless, we are talking about working age persons for the sake of this article, so let’s narrow the focus to early twenties to mid-thirties. One of the striking things about this group is their expectations – they typically insist on far more from an entry level position than workers 20 years their senior. It is not uncommon for a potential employee to expect a higher salary than is commensurate with their experience, as well as flexibility in their work schedule. These two things alone would be a contradiction to those of us in our fifties – we were taught that you work long hours for poor pay until you build up experience and a resume. Hearing such a different mindset in an interview can be off-putting.

64% of millennials would rather make 40K per year in a job they love than 100K in a job they find “boring”.

This is a generation that lives at home far longer than any previous age group. The financial crisis and subsequent poor job market that lasted from 2007 to 2017 hit this group hard. They have watched their parents become unemployed, and their own opportunities vanish in front of their eyes. This would certainly lead to a lack of trust in the corporate world, and who could blame them? Only 19% of Millennials agree with the statement “most people can be trusted” versus over 40% of Baby Boomers. If you couple distrust of business with the ability to stay at home without loss of stature from your peers, this is a very predictable state of affairs.

One of the myths about Millennials is that they want to be left alone once hired. In reality, they actually want their managers involved, providing feedback. While they take criticism much harder and more personally than previous generations, it is not true that they want to be left alone at a computer all day. It is true, unfortunately, that this generation of workers expects to progress quicker than they should realistically expect. In his book Not Everyone Gets A Trophy, Bruce Tulgan points out that this group has had their parents as advocates for most of their lives, and been given “participation trophies” as awards for the most mediocre of results. Unlike previous generations, they do not have the same drive to break free of this as they reach adulthood.

The simple (if arduous) solution to this is to manage them as a parent would. There is no point in trying to re-invent a new employee who has had parental intrusion in every aspect of his/her life. The strong management you provide replaces the void left by their parents being gone, at least for 8 hours per day. Being a strong leader that leads by example when it comes to personal issues such as paying bills on time, supporting charitable causes, personal development such as physical fitness and ongoing learning – all of these will pay great dividends when managing this age group.

84% of Millennials say that helping to make a positive difference in the work is more important than professional recognition.

One of the better examples Tulgan uses in his book is the Marine Corps. The Marines take on roughly forty thousand millennials each year. They have a “wash-out” rate that is too low to comprehend considering the dangerous and stressful nature of the program. Success leaves clues – in your company, you can replicate the intensity, shared experience, and the feeling of belonging to a group that millennials want. Providing steady learning will give them a consistent challenge.

There is a gap in basic skills common with millennials, and we can either teach these skills or whine about them not having them. Of course they should be expected to come to work on time, dress appropriately, stay focused, and be cooperative. If you are the boss, you need to help them learn these things – it’s not enough to point them out and lament the fact that they are not exhibiting these traits.

One of the most useful things to teach persons of this age group is a time budget. Simply take the hours in a week and start subtracting all the large parts like sleep, work, etc. It is best done in person, but the net of the discussion ends up being how much time we actually have in a given week. Since millennials usually list time as one of their most important commodities, this tends to hit home.

Millennials are earning 20% less than their parents did, and are under double the student loan debt.

While not all millennials belong to both categories listed above, a substantial number of them do. This changes their perspective in regards to short and medium-term goals. The fact that they save at the same rate as their parents did has little to no impact, due to the debt to income ratio. Therefore, they are predictably more interested in travel, vacations, and extracurricular activities than simply looking for a spouse and buying a house. Home ownership many times isn’t even on their radar, due to their financial situation and their recollection of the real estate crash of 2007-2008. We have an economy where 30% of the workforce is in a situation where a third of them live at home with their parents. This phenomenon does not exist in a vacuum; it affects spending habits, attitudes towards work versus play, and their aspirations for the future. Expecting them to behave as we did 25-30 years ago is ludicrous. If we are to hire, train, and manage this group we must adapt our expectations and change our approach. Some effective techniques employed by successful manager include:

• Making yourself available at any time to answer questions
• Request feedback – make them feel they are a part of the policy formation, even if just for their input on how best to implement it
• Get involved with their after-work life with charity events, learning opportunities, seminars, etc.
• Teach, rather than assume basic skills like time management and proper work etiquette
• Be open to hearing new ways of doing things, even if at first, they seem foreign – it never hurts to listen to another point of view.

In two years, one in three adults will be millennials

Many of us while taking classes in college heard professors deride the generation of students. They called us the “me” generation and would pepper conversations with analogies designed to show us what a detriment we were to society. We hated their condescension towards students. We turned them off. After all, we weren’t part of the “greatest generation” but we weren’t anything like the generation they so detested and derided, so why should we listen to them always judging us? Our millennials feel the same way.

There are many hard working, intelligent millennials who undoubtedly are tired of hearing terms like snowflake, whiner, etc. “Millennial” is the M word to this group, and we in business leadership would do well to take a more nuanced approach to employing this age group. Are there many millennials who exhibit the worst traits attributed to this group? Of course, there are – but are we to pretend that there aren’t 45-year old’s that show up late, complain about everything, expect too much, and generally waste time? Many of our co-workers throughout our careers have exhibited the exact same characteristics ascribed to millennials; we just didn’t have a stereotype or moniker for it.
There is no changing the demographics – we are dying off, and they are ascending. We can either learn how to motivate and manage this group, withdraw completely and only work with our own (learning nothing new) or we can take the lead and do the work necessary to give our companies the best shot at competing in the marketplace. To stomp our feet and complain about how unfair things have become seems like snowflake behavior to me.

Have You Shifted Gears?

Has your company shifted gears, to take advantage of these 4 developments in the economy?

• GDP growth 4.1% in June
• Unemployment 3.9%
• American workers received largest pay raise in 10 years
• Corporate taxes driving profits

Simply put, if your company is not seeing gross revenue and profit growth of 8-10%, you need to speak with us. There are either structural problems with your organization preventing you from taking part in this economic boom, or you have people unable or unwilling to ramp up their performance.

During times of economic hardship, many employees slide comfortably into a mode where they coast along, secure in the fact that no one seems to be doing any better than they are. These are precisely the people you need to retrain, re-motivate, or replace today. Many have found comfort in mediocre performance and are loathe to gear up and run fast again; they will curtail your revenue while poisoning your new personnel.

If your staff is ready to go and free from the malaise described above, but you are still not performing better than last year – see us about structure. Many companies make the necessary changes to save on costs (usually payroll) during the down times, only to be caught unprepared for the influx of capital and opportunity in a booming economy. Processes and staffing changes that made sense a few years ago could well be hampering your progress now – don’t let any more time elapse without talking to someone who can analyze your company and point out opportunities.

We offer a 1-hour free consultation that can help you determine where you stand, but whether you speak to us or someone else – look at your company critically and determine if you’re keeping up with your competitors and taking full advantage of the current economic trends. Remember – inflation is coming, as sure as night follows day. How are you going to afford higher costs when your income has remained flat?

Sticking your head in the sand only ensures you will be eaten without warning.

How many of your employees have personal problems affecting their concentration and performance?

While most companies have some form of HR department or employee policies, many are focused on preventing claims rather than developing employees. Staff training is imperative to prevent abusive or illicit behavior; one need only turn on the news to see the damage done when this is not a priority. As important as this “preventative maintenance” is, however – we feel there is another important aspect that goes completely unaddressed. Personal development of staff members is an ongoing process of education and coaching. Providing employee guidance on education, finance, and health goes a long way towards ensuring a productive environment.

How much concentration is lost in a workday when an employee has gotten him/herself in a financial bind that could have been easily prevented?

What is the cost of an employee who deals with your customers but has never had training in conflict resolution?

How many hours of productivity have been lost due to sick days, to say nothing of the reduced pace of an employee who is always tired?

These are important issues, and while they must be addressed delicately, they cannot be ignored if you want to grow your people along with your company. We are seeing an increasing number of new employees entering our client’s companies with no education on making a budget, controlling expenses, and avoiding debt. Many are in dire need of a mentor yet have no one to ask for help – HR departments in most companies are woefully inadequate to handle this.

It is quite simple to arrange for this training from outside sources; you do not have to become an expert on these issues. Some topics we have found useful:

• Financial Fundamentals – Managing Your Money
• Management Theory – Are You A Leader or An Analyst?
• Health, Energy, and Performance – How Your Health Determines Your Income

These are some of the topics that we and our partners provide – they are by no means an exhaustive list. You can schedule a free consultation with us here to go over details and assess your company’s needs.

As I watch a company I once knew fall apart, losing manager after manager, I cannot help but wonder how the C – Suite occupants failed to see it coming. Gone are the days when district and regional management came up to the front lines to help out; it’s now a conference call, distribution of blame, and threats – with the inevitable comp plan changes designed to elicit more dedication from the managers.

This story is all too common.

So often the establishment of KPIs results in a false sense of security amongst lazy executives; they think they can manage performance from their easy chair. Countless conference calls to go over the numbers, the assignment of blame without any first-hand knowledge of what is going on in a market – this is so common it would be laughable, if not for the deleterious effect it has on managers.

KPIs are meant to raise awareness of particular problems; these problems cannot be solved by a phone call. When you are too lazy or inept to actually go teach, train and inspire, your people will simply manipulate the reporting until they get caught. The ensuing response from the C – Suite is usually to install more reporting, designed to catch people cheating on their numbers when the simple solution is staring at them the whole time.

Get out of your office and go help them. Travel to markets or locations where managers are underperforming; they will appreciate the fact that you care enough to try to help. If you cannot actually perform the task you are asking them to do, you’re in the wrong job to begin with and are probably terrified they’ll find out. This is common in companies who hire upper management from the outside. It’s the old philosophical problem of infinite regress – I need better people because mine aren’t ready, and mine aren’t ready because I need better people.

When we consult with companies, we embed ourselves with their people as well as their systems. If this sounds interesting to you, please contact us for a free 1-hour consultation.

If the balance of power was completely upended, and bosses could be fired by their employees – how many would have their jobs tomorrow?

Not many, in our estimation.

Leadership figures that bring value to their employees would be the only ones that survive. A philosophical exercise, to be sure, but one we think deserves some analysis when you endeavor to create a company culture and recruit talented, driven individuals. Task driven, top-down management styles may be great for running an assembly line, but fail miserably when applied to multiple site location management where trust is required; you simply cannot be in two places at once.

Position Power is easy to understand. Employees view the term with reference to a controlling manager; hence the negative connotation that comes from experiencing managers using it. When your staff does things because of what you will inflict upon them for non-compliance, you poison the work environment and must constantly supervise them. This makes it impossible to manage multiple locations; they simply do not care about your goals and have no trust in your leadership.

Personal Power takes much longer to develop, which is why only managers with the proper level of personal and social skills can employ it effectively. Employees will quickly see your actions, determine your intentions, and judge your integrity. You must bring value to their employment in excess of a paycheck. Continuing education, training, and rolling up your sleeves and helping them succeed are great ways to earn the trust necessary to groom and retain the personnel necessary to grow your business. All of this takes time and effort; you cannot fake your way through this, but the results are well worth the investment.

We suggest taking a look at the current level of education, training, and interest you are providing directly from your office, not just the HR department. If you would like to discuss how best to implement this, please contact us for a free consultation. Your employees may not have the power to fire you, but they are certainly in charge of your success.