PLOTT shares our insight at the Progressive Employers Group

PEG was created to bring together Midlands employers to really disrupt people management, HR, recruitment and retention. Based on the ‘Upside Down Management’ methodology – adopted by John Timpson – the group discusses various methods and how other businesses can become more progressive and empower their staff.

Based on the talk we delivered last year at the Recruitment Expo at the NEC, we created a millennial persona to take the audience on a journey and help them understand the environment they’ve grown up in. Thus Millennial Mike was born!

Millennials often frustrate current business leaders as they struggle to manage them. The digital revolution has fundamentally rewired everyone in the workplace but most notably it’s the millennials that come under most scrutiny.

The goal of the presentation was to give everyone a better understanding of the upbringing this age group have had and to help them connect with them in the workplace, rather than criticise them!

From Google to Facebook to the first iPhone, millennials are early adopters of tech and social media and will continue to use these tools wherever possible in the workplace to innovate and improve processes.

It’s safe to say millennials’ (and every other generation’s) communication has been completely reshaped by technology.

We carried out an interactive workshop to create the ‘perfect job’ for a millennial. This was loads of fun and caused a lot of conflicting ideas on what engaged and motivated this elusive generation. We split the attendees’ into groups and they discussed the following points below using their knowledge to prioritise which they considered the most important.

• Chance to make a difference
• Work/life balance
• Growth and development
• Values that align with their own
• Chances to collaborate
• Bosses as mentors
• Inspiring, rewarding work
• Opportunity to embrace tech
• Open 2-way communication

We had a variety of outcomes but generally, all groups agreed that although money will always be an important factor, it was not necessarily the key motivating factor.