In recent years, millennials have surpassed Gen X as the biggest age group in the labor force. Therefore, millennials’ impact on the workforce is here to stay and is expected to grow in the future. According to Business Insider, most millennials prefer working in companies with cultural and technological advancement like Google.
Organizational culture can take several years to develop but may take days or even hours to destroy. Culture plays a major role in differentiating your company from those that are competing with yours. As such, if your company builds a robust culture, it inspires your employees, particularly millennials.
Unstable Markets and Changing Attitudes
Currently, there are several reasons why millennials prefer to work in a more flexible work environment. First, most millennials came into the labor force when the industry experienced the Great Recession. And even as the job outlook keeps improving for many, unemployment has gripped millennials within the 24 – 29 year-old age range over the years. Therefore, such an uncertain job market influences millennials’ attitudes regarding job searching. For this reason, most millennials have been reported to quit looking for jobs completely. As such, millennials are looking for companies that have a culture of safeguarding their employment.
Ideas Count More Than Products
Today, the way organizations conduct business activities is shifting fast. The emergence of the sharing economy has made branding more crucial than it has ever been. Some of the best examples of start-up companies in the sharing economy include Uber, Favor, and Airbnb. As such, millennial marketing experts know that ideas count more in the modern market than products.
Millennials now value the culture of coming up with an idea and transforming it into a product or service. This is evident from how most tech-savvy millennials from Silicon Valley have created huge companies like Google and Apple from a simple idea. In such companies, ideological innovations matter more than sales figures. This means that millennials are interested in firms with strong values and culture.
Autonomy
Today, millennials want to define when they work, how they work, and when it’s appropriate for them to work. In the modern era, millennials tend to work from any location through their smartphones or laptops. Therefore, millennials, who are the majority in the workforce, expect companies to develop a culture that allows them to have work autonomy. Consequently, most companies have shifted to the remote working environment, with more than 24% of Americans working from home.
Work-life Balance Counts
Flexible working schedules are among the most important factors most millennials consider when they search for an organization. Today, concerns over personal, mental, and physical well-being among millennials have sparked the need for work-life balance. Over 40 million US workers have experienced anxiety disorders attributed to busy, stressful work schedules. Furthermore, statistics reveal that eight out of ten US workers admit that workplace life contributes to anxiety and stress. For these reasons, most millennials are looking for companies with proper virtual team building programs that offer work-life balance.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Economic turmoil impacted millennials’ anticipation for employee benefits and made them wary of their company’s CSR culture. Studies reveal that millennials are attracted to organizations with brands they regard highly, implying a company’s CSR programs can influence them. Moreover, an organization’s position on certain pertinent issues like environmental conservation matters to millennials more than its profitability on occasion.
Today, brand image is more crucial than ever, and most millennials are brought up in an environment where “Social media shaming” is a reality. It’s an era when a millennial client can impact your company by only sharing a few words with the world. Therefore, millennials expect your organization to live up to their standards, and they need an actual, personalized relationship with your company. As such, you need to develop a culture that appeals to this generation of workers to remain competitive.
Organizational culture is one of the things most millennials consider when looking for companies to work for. Consequently, you should ensure your company is developing the right culture to remain relevant.
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