MILLENNIALS, WE ARE COUNTING ON YOU

By Klaus Motoki Tonn

It is expected that by the year 2025, 75% of the workforce would be millennials. What does this mean for employers, organisations and millennials themselves? What mindset do millennials have, what expectations and hopes do they have?

Photo by Melody Jacob on Unsplash

While older generations are still trying to figure out Generation Y, by 2025 almost 75% of the labour market will be flooded by millennials. This means that all organisations must be ready to get busy to understand the mindset of this generation. Here are some facts we all need to be familiarised with:

1. 75% of Millennials would accept a wage cut if it leads towards job satisfaction.
2. Many millennials believe that they can — or have to — help their superiors in the field of technology.
3. Generations Y and Z are uncertain about their future. The complexity of new technologies leads to uncertainty as far as the choice of occupation is concerned.
4. Millennials expect their employers to contribute to their environment. The Deloitte Millennial Study clearly showed in 2018 that millennials are disappointed in employers’ indifference to the environment and sustainability — and are unprepared and uncertain themselves about their own stance and role in Industry 4.0.
5. Millennials are highly media-savvy. They no longer distinguish between online and offline habits (POPC Mindset; “Permanently Online — Permanently Connected”).
6. Millennials seek development opportunities in their professional worlds and expect new methods and environments that are conducive for creativity. Recent studies show that millennials are becoming more doubtful that employers are adequately preparing them for current and future challenges with “soft skills”.
7. Millennials remain true to organisations that promote diversity, flexibility and space. Young people are looking for role models and orientation in “Leaders for Change”.
8. Millennials are constantly changing: only 12% of Gen Z imagine staying with their current employers for the next 5 years. More than 61% are looking forward to a change in less than 24 months.

Further literature and links:

1. Deloitte Millennial Survey: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-2018-millennial-survey-report.pdf
2. Deutsches Jugendinstitut e.V., Impulse 3/2018: https://www.dji.de/fileadmin/user_upload/bulletin/d_bull_d/bull117_d/DJI_3_17_Web.pdf
3. Der mediatisierte Lebenswandel — Permanently online, permanently connected; Vorderer and Klimmt
4. Tanja Gojny, Selfie — I like it: Anthropologische und ethische Implikationen digitaler Selbstinszenierung, 2016