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Leader to Leader Journal

Motivating the millennials: Tapping into the potential of the youngest generation

by Razor Suleman and Bob Nelson

Institute, No.62, Fall 2011

The millennials, the generation of workers born roughly between 1980 and 2000, are entering the workforce in droves. An estimated 44 million are already working and 46 million more are to become a part of the workforce in the years ahead. This generation will come to dominate the workforce in both number and attitude—and in the process reshape the work experience of all employees. What is important to this generation and how can employers best tap into the potential they have to offer at work? Given that 75 percent of this generation reports planning to find a new job as the economy improves, it is worth your investment of time and energy to see how best you can attract, motivate, and retain them in your organization today.

Profile of the Millennials

Known by a variety of names (Gen Y, the Nintendo generation, generation next, the net generation, the echo boomers, the trophy generation, and others), members of this cohort are well educated, and they have high aspirations for themselves and their careers and a lofty sense that who they are and what they do matters. They love all things high-tech, have and expect instant connections, and are highly optimistic and socially responsible. The millennials bring some tremendous skills and attributes to the workplace, which can at times be offset by perceived negatives of their generation.

Upsides

Millennials are techno wizards, not only at complete ease with today’s technology but avid users—more so than any generation to come before them. They are quick learners and very resourceful, quick to look for answers from whomever and wherever those can be found. They are optimistic, hardworking, and high-achieving, systematically setting and then achieving goals in rapid sequence.

While these characteristics can be found in high-achievers of any age or in any generation, they are common elements found in the majority of millennials, not just a select few, and, better yet, these attributes all happen to be ideal characteristics most every employer needs from its employees in order to be competitive today.

Downsides

The challenges of working with millennials stem from their tendency to have an inflated opinion of themselves and to be overconfident, especially given their limited work experience. They expect to have meaning and purpose in their jobs from the very first day of work and look to be challenged—some might say entertained—on a constant basis. They want to earn more sooner and have both job status and respect, even before either has been earned. They need and demand instant feedback and praise on an ongoing, daily basis.

Other generations tend to react negatively to these attributes, feeling that millennials are a generation of spoiled youth who need to wake up to the realities of work, where everything does not revolve around them. They need to “pay their dues” and earn the respect of their colleagues and management before they are trusted with greater responsibility. Our experience shows, however, that if managers can look past the limitations and shortcomings of these young people they will have an easier time of tapping into the vast potential this generation has to offer.

Reframing Expectations

Everybody wants everyone else to be just like them: to value what they value, to act like they act, and to conform to their norms. Just as easy to accept is the notion that we can allow people to be who they are, that is, different from one another, but still keep a clear focus on the performance that is needed to get the work done. As is the case for the perceived differences in this generation’s work ethic, if you give younger employees a reason to get excited, they will and do show an extraordinary work ethic and passion to get the work done—plus have fun in the process. Keep the focus on the work and not on those things that may not matter anyway, such as dress, informality, working hours, communication preferences, and the like.It should be expected that this generation feels very entitled and expects more from an employer. This is a generation that has been raised to believe they are very special; a generation that has been told they can achieve anything. They have big dreams and plans and are in a hurry to achieve them. These are positive attributes, but they need to be channeled—and that’s the job of their managers (like it or not!). We’re not talking about abdicating your role as a manager. Or letting millennials do whatever they want—we’re talking about connecting their values and skill set to the work that you need them to do.

In our research, we repeatedly find that the most motivating aspects of work for employees in general—and especially for this generation—are things that don’t cost much money, if any. Taking time to get to know them, asking their opinion, involving them in decisions (especially those that affect them and their work), creating socializing opportunities at work, focusing on learning and development opportunities–these are motivational opportunities that any manager can deploy.homelessness, education, public safety, and more.

Five Motivational Tools

The keys to motivating this generation can be found in harnessing these aspects of the work relationship: work direction, personal development, social interaction, feedback and praise, and meaningful rewards.

You may not need to have your job be fun, but don't fault them if that's their preference.

Work Direction

Millennials want and expect to be constantly excited about how they are spending their time at work. They are consummate multitaskers, very capable of managing a multitude of activities at once. Easily bored, they want and need to be challenged, which is a blessing for managers who want to take advantage of their energy, skills, and resourcefulness.

Provide clear work expectations, but allow millennials to bring their own imprint to their jobs. Show them the big picture as to how their jobs relate to the mission, strategic objectives, and core values of the organization. Ask for and use their ideas as much as possible or encourage them to pursue their own ideas when those have merit. This generation is very socially conscious, so linking them as directly as possible to the mission of your nonprofit organization would be highly impactful, likewise for volunteering. For example, if the organization was Meals on Wheels, you could let millennials go on home visits to see directly who the organization is helping and hear their appreciation, or you could task them with helping increase the organization’s online presence to expand the reach of the organization’s mission.

Personal Development

Millennials are committed to constant learning and personal development and growth, and their manager can easily serve as a coach and mentor to meet that expectation. Talk in terms of “development opportunities” and in long-term time frames that exceed any given task or assignment. If you shape the context for your relationship with a millennial as extending years into the future in how you will help them grow and gain experience they will be less likely to look to change jobs at the first sign of frustration or disappointment.

Managers need to take the time to help coach millennial employees and in the process show them how they can make a positive, meaningful impact at work. Redefine the time frame for this generation’s focus and show them how the things they are doing now can lead to things they want to be doing later. Talk with them about their interests and ways they can apply their skills; talk about career paths and the needs of the organization; discuss opportunities that they can pursue, and help them get prepared to meet future opportunities.

Social Interaction

Millennials are very social and perhaps more peer-group oriented than previous generations. Most of their upbringing and educational experiences were in groups, as was the bulk of their social experience, be it playing video games, group sports, or connecting on Facebook with their friends.

Use these generational preferences to your advantage by allowing millennials to work together on projects and assignments and setting up frequent social situations such as team-building activities and celebrations outside work. If they tend to work best with others and the way they get into a project is to talk it through with coworkers—great, let them do that. Make it clear what you need the end result to be, but let them bring the imprint of who they are to the task so they can be excited about the work and even have fun getting it done. You may not need to have your job be fun to get it done, but don’t fault them if that’s their preference.

Feedback and Praise

One of the most defining characteristics of this generation is their significant need for constant praise at work. This can be frustrating for other generations to understand. It’s easy to think, “I just told him last week that he was doing a good job, do I really have to tell him again?”—and easy to dismiss this tendency as being a symptom of a generation whose parents spoiled them, showering them with constant praise and protecting them from any of the harsh realities of life. Instead, consider this perspective:

The millennials have learned that in times of change one needs a constant source of feedback (think “video game”) to be on the mark and adjust performance accordingly. Since job requirements and expectations are constantly in flux, yesterday’s feedback may no longer be relevant today. Constant feedback, thus, is not to pump up a frail ego as much as to help them stay on track to continue to do good work day after day for the employer. Feedback and praise serve as reinforcement as well as a corrective mechanism for this generation.

By this we don’t mean micromanaging, a negative term that is almost always associated with an ongoing stream of negative feedback and corrections that a manager makes in working with employees. No one feels micromanaged when the boss tells them in explicit detail what a great job they did. We’d recommend making it a high priority to provide greater and more frequent praise and recognition in a greater variety of forms. Equally important, but far less often (perhaps quarterly), would be having “developmental discussions” in which you can focus on ways the employee can improve. When you build on a strong foundation of ongoing positive feedback, employees are more likely to trust that you are on their side and thus be willing to accept constructive criticism from you when you offer it.

Provide frequent feedback based on the performance of millennials, which might be a new perspective for many of them, who grew up getting trophies even when their team lost, or all “A’s” as a result of rampant grade inflation in schools. Provide a context for how their contributions relate to team and organizational goals, the organization’s customers, and even to society. This systematic framing of feedback and praise takes it from being unearned hype to a practical information stream that can help shape desired behaviors and enhance results. Finally, be authentic, providing direct and honest feedback and evaluations that can best help millennials to excel, trusting you all the more in the process.

Meaningful Rewards

Millennials want rewards that are meaningful and exciting to them when they have done good work or an outstanding job. This includes financial incentives; of course, everyone wants to make more money, not just the millennials. The millennials, however, may have the least realistic expectations as to what is needed to earn more money (especially if their role model is P. Diddy, Lindsay Lohan, or A-Rod) and that’s where you can help them out. Show them the skills they need to learn and the contribution they need to make in order to make more money, and show them the path to get there working for you in your organization.

This translates into discussions in which a manager needs to state things like: “I can’t just pay you more because you want to make more. I can pay you more when you have increased your contribution to the organization to a level that warrants earning more. Let’s talk specifically about what that would look like.” Then you can channel all that energy into things the employee can directly impact, such as implementing a cost-savings idea, delighting an important customer, helping streamline a process or bring in a new account, and so on. Of course, there will probably be limits as to what they could ever be paid working for your organization, in which case you can focus on skills you are helping them develop that they can use over their entire career, even to run their own business one day.

When this generation is acknowledged for doing good work, they have expectations that the reward experience will be fun and exciting, not the same old boring thing the company has done for years. They increasingly expect rewards that are creative, varied, and personalized. Creative in that the rewards are fun and unique—not the same certificate, plaque, or trophy that has been passed out to employees for years in the organization. Varied in that employees have a choice and a say in what they can get when they are rewarded for doing a good job. The days of “one size fits all” when it comes to employee motivation are long gone. What thrills and delights one employee may be boring and insulting to another. Avoid this problem by allowing employees to choose what best motivates them—be it the latest electronic merchandise, an experience, or a charity donation—when they have the opportunity to be thanked for having done a great job. Personalized in that the reward needs to be tailored to their unique interests, which can be a hobby, travel, or a life experience.

Online Recognition and Rewards Can Work Best

You can't wait until people are walking out the door to have a strategy to keep them from leaving!

The benefits of an online recognition and rewards program can be achieved by applying some of the latest technology that is now available from the incentive industry. For example, you can have a dedicated website in your organization that can serve as a portal for all things having to do with recognition and rewards: strategic objectives, organizational mission, and core values you want to promote; public recognition, points allocation, and individual rewards redemption; and ongoing communication, tracking, and feedback reports that can be used to enhance and improve the ongoing recognition initiative.

In line with the times, the motivations of the millennials can best be met with the use of an online rewards and recognition program that provides a central online platform or portal. This provides a social-media-like solution that appeals to all generations; the frequent praise millennials desire in the form of online recognition from peers or managers around organizational objectives, core values, and so on; a social aspect of public posting of praises, and the ability to pass praise they receive on to their social network via LinkedIn or Facebook. In addition, it can be tailored to provide maximum choice on the part of each employee as to the rewards to be selected with points they have earned.

In addition, this solution allows you to diminish the costs of administration and personnel to your organization’s recognition and reward programs, often replacing incentive programs that have lost their significance over time. This solution allows ease in tracking and reporting of motivators in a way that helps to build a momentum of success in the organization that truly leads to the creation of a culture of recognition as part of being an employer of choice.

And then they discovered they were asking the wrong questions.

Summary

Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” In harnessing the abilities of the millennials, this could be a conversation, an article, a conference call, a book, a presentation . . . perhaps even a mandate. You first need to raise the awareness of an existing or impending problem to get managers to consider taking action about it. Depending upon the management team you have, understanding and motivating the millennials may take a series of initiatives for them to see the significance of the issue from a positive perspective for both themselves as managers and for the organization.

What creates the urgency in this situation? The pending exodus of the baby boomers as 70 million retire over the next 10 years? The fact that 75 percent of millennials currently working in your organization report planning to leave as the economy improves? The fact that the cost of replacing professional employees is estimated today to be 1.5 times their salary (so says research from the national Society for Human Resource Management)—not even taking into account the opportunity cost of lost corporate knowledge of products and services, client relationships, and processes and procedures? The conclusion is that your organization—and each of your managers—needs to be skilled at attracting and motivating new talent and even more skilled at holding on to that talent.

There are many reasons to be frustrated by the newest generation in the workforce, but a greater number of reasons to be excited about what they have to offer any employer who is willing to meet them at their expectations in the workplace. We like to think of the millennials as having “no boundaries” and “unlimited potential,” that is, an ability to tap into a wellspring of energy, creativity, and attitude that can make things happen. In some ways, what this generation wants is what all employees want. Perhaps now is the time to consider making work more meaningful and exciting for both the millennials and every other employee as well. You can’t wait until people are walking out the door to have a strategy to keep them from leaving!

Razor Suleman is CEO of I Love Rewards (www .iloverewards.com), the leading online rewards and recognition solution provider, with offices in San Francisco, Toronto, and Boston. I Love Rewards has received numerous awards for being a Best Place to Work, Fastest Growing Company, and Top Technology Company in North America.

Bob Nelson is president of Nelson Motivation Inc. (www.nelson-motivation.com), a leading management training and consulting company based in San Diego, California; cofounder of Recognition Professionals International, and a best-selling author of “1001 Ways to Reward Employees” (now in its 57th printing) and “The 1001 Rewards & Recognition Fieldbook,” among others. Morley Safer first interviewed Nelson on this topic in a CBS 60 Minutes segment titled “The Millennials Are Coming!”

Issue No. 62
Fall 2011

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Be a Change Agent

Motivating the millennials: Tapping into the potential of the youngest generation

Issue No. 62 Fall 2011

Awards

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Issue No. 62
Fall 2011