There has been a lot written about the millennials and what type of employee are they going to be. This blog explores the myths versus the realities
At The Frontier Group we have a unique perspective because:
- We provide career coaching to them as individual clients looking to advance their career in a still uncertain economy
- We hire them to help us in marketing, social media and web development.
- We mentor them in the various Atlanta career ministries that we volunteer in
What we can safely say is there are far more similarities than differences with millennials versus previous generations. The same praise (new perspective, up to date on current trends) and complaints (self centered, unmotivated) have been said about previous generations entering the workplace.
There are some differences though that are well worth noting:
- Millennial social media and web skills are unique in that they have a deeper more intuitive grasp of technology versus previous generations mainly due to the fact that they were never living in a pre-internet world
- They are also driven/career minded professionals but their "drivers" are different that previous generations. A fallacy is that millennials are lazy (see the blog "The Fallacy of the Lazy Millennial"). Their motivations - in general - are more well balanced. Work and career is not everything. They have a more holistic view and want a successful career but also want to have a rewarding outside life. I really admire them in this regard.
As a hiring manager how do you create a millennial talent acquisition strategy to take all of these factors into place? Recognize that matching position requirements to candidate skill set and attitude are still the vital elements to a great hire. I was recently interviewed by Nedra Rhone with the Atlanta Journal Constitution on hiring millennials ("Job Hunting Tips for 2014"). It was worth noting that one of the big challenges millennials face is overcoming negative stereotypes.
One tool that The Frontier Group is now using is a EQ Millennial Assessment from The Adele Lynn Leadership Group. This is one of the better hiring assessments we have found to provide hiring managers with solid feedback.
