Millennials Are Rocking the Workplace

True story: Anne, a seasoned HR manager at a large manufacturing company, welcomed Justin, a new hire fresh out of college, for his first day of work. She gave him a tour of the office, got him settled in at his desk, and told him when and where his orientation session would start later that morning. Then Anne went back to her own desk to work, and just as she was digging into the accumulation in her inbox, the phone rang.

BridgeWorks’ Survey on Millennials

BridgeWorks is a Minneapolis-based firm dedicated to understanding what makes generations click and clash at work.

For the new book by Bridgworks' Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman, The M-Factor: How the Millennial Generation Is Rocking the Workplace (released in April by HarperCollins), BridgeWorks conducted in-person interviews, but also surveyed approximately 1,400 people on line, most from the United States, but approximately 20 percent from Canada, Asia, Europe, and other regions. The online survey, conducted in February 2009, drew responses from 339 Traditionalists, 688 Baby Boomers, 434 Generation Xers, and 307 Millennials. Of that total pool of 1,768 respondents, approximately 1,400 completed the full survey.

Read Bridgeworks' weekly blog for Twin Cities Business here.

It was Justin’s mom. She wanted to thank Anne for giving Justin his first job and also offer some advice about how to manage him.

And that was the moment when Anne says she realized something fundamental was changing about the environment her company operates in.

The 76-million-member Millennial generation, born in the years 1982 through 2000, is an increasing share of the work force, but Millennials (and their parents) aren’t like the generations that preceded them. Managers and recruiters are called on to deploy the talents of this skilled and educated group, but many of them are perplexed about how to communicate with Millennials and engage them.

Anne’s story? It’s no outlier. And while she might have reacted with frustration at the parental interference, instead she formed a committee within her department to prepare for what looked like a trend. They developed an outline for all human resources staff members on how to handle calls from parents: what information could be shared, what was off limits, and how to put the company’s best foot forward with involved moms and dads.

Wait a minute, you might be thinking. Aren’t we still grinding through the worst economic period our country has seen in decades? Don’t employers have the upper hand in hiring, and can’t they just avoid candidates who come with strings attached?