MILLENNIALS : a person born in the 1980’s or 1990’s. Milennials and outsourcing go together. They are in majority in any outsourcing set up. Vendors hire hundreds of recruits right out of college every year both to meet their needs and to offset some of the costs of hiring more experienced resources in a cut throat competitive market. This makes it extremely important to know the great divide and bridge the gap to gain efficiencies.

Millennials have different expectations around the pacing and timing of their development. A study conducted recently showed that millennials are ambitious and seek abundant opportunities for development – particularly, opportunities to improve their current skills, learn new skills, and move into new roles. Boring is bad…keep them on their toes by assigning challenging projects where they can make a meaningful contribution.
They appreciate guidance and love feedback.

According to research conducted by Booz & Co., millennials are more willing to defer to authority than either Gen X-ers and Baby Boomers…millennials to look up to you and learn from you. Give them structure and set expectations with them early. Millennials also want feedback – and lots of it, both positive and constructive. Are you investing enough time teaching and coaching the millennials on your team? Its worth thinking, they want to improve and not just execute what you tell them to.

They value work-life balance. To millennials, work-life balance isn’t a perk associated with tenure; rather, it’s how reasonable business should be run given the technology available today. If appropriate, offer flexible schedules so that millennials can strike a work-life balance without fear of damaging their careers. Every year, millennials join the workforce in increasing numbers through various entry-level university programs and move up the ladder. Understanding how their priorities differ from those of the previous generations is critically important in engaging and developing this generation.

In the coming days I will blog more on this imporant topic – happy reading