If Millennials do not learn to be Operations Managers, who will?
In order to answer that you need to understand why Millenials think the way they do.
Here are some of the millennial traits shaping our economy.
- Millennials have been slower to marry, have children and become home or even car owners. Millennials have a different kind of attitudes towards ownership.
- For millennials, having access has become more important than ownership and this has helped spawn what’s being called a “sharing economy.
- With lower employment levels to previous generations, smaller income and less money to spend than other generations, Millennials are amongst the hardest hit by the economic downturn.
- Millennials are encumbered with debt, with student loan payments and education taking a growing chunk of post-graduate income – along with credit card payments
- Millennials are digitally savvy and a mobile-first generation. Having the Internet at their fingertips and an affinity for technology helps shape how Millennials shop.
- Millennials are used to having instant access to price comparisons, product information and peer reviews which influences their purchasing power.
- Millennials value simplicity, ease and efficiency.
- Millennials turn to brands that offer maximum convenience at the lowest cost in all transactions and that can evolve to meet the demands of their lifestyle.
- Unsurprisingly, the Millennial generation that lives online also buys online.
- Millennials are optimistic about the future, value cause-related marketing and want to be good to the planet, believing that collaborative action and strength in numbers can make a difference.
- Millennials are social creatures both on and offline, with their lives being lifestyle-centered.
- Millennials prioritize happiness and passion and are more open-minded to somewhat controversial topics.
- For fun, Millennials seem to enjoy playing video games, downloading music, using social media, chatting on instant messaging platforms and watching TV online.
- And Finally, Millennials are dedicated to fitness and wellness, devoting time and money to exercising and eating right, and are using apps and technology to guide this.
- Millennials active lifestyle influences trends in everything, from food and drink to fashion.
Downsides of being a Millennial
1. Poor Work Ethic
Millennials report working an average of 38.8 hours per week, much less than Generation X (47.8) or Boomers (47.1). Explains why in a production environment schedules are seldom met when the project staff is overpowered by Millennial poor attitudes towards time management.
2. Devalue Face-to-Face Communication
Millennial women use texting three times more often than calling. Explains why response times to returning phone messages are slow.
Millennials’ high reliance on technology has resulted in a deterioration of other interpersonal skills. While Millennials have good reason not to answer your phone call, there is still tremendous value in face-to-face communication and if leveraged appropriately can forge deeper connections.
With so many varying communication preferences in today’s workplaces, Millennials can stand out by changing the channel and engaging in face-to-face communications. Read this to learn how Millennials can best communicate face-to-face. Read this for to eliminate miscommunication across generations.
3. Career Impatience
Seventy-one percent of Millennials likely to leave a company within two years believe their leadership skills are not being fully developed. Since most business cycles take five years this frequent moving from job to job before establishing time in title results in Millennials never getting the work experience needed to validate their worthiness.
Even though work is shifting to more project-based work with shorter turnarounds and timelines, managers continue to wrestle with the unrealistic career advancement expectations of Millennials. Growing up in fast times, helicopter parenting and coming of age in an on-demand culture, Millennials have little patience for stagnation, especially when it comes to their careers.
Millennials who gain early clarity surrounding their career progression inside their organization will be able to adjust their expectations and explore cross-collaboration opportunities to gain more experience and to put their anxious ambition to good use.
4. Frequently Job Hop
Sixty-six percent of Millennials expect to leave their organization by the end of 2020.
In most industries, including video-centric digital marketing, job hopping is a resume red flag. Job hopping into the same industry and position over and over again is the new red flag. Job hopping into new industries or positions is working against Millennials.
5. Dependent on Feedback
Millennials want feedback 50 percent more often than other employees.
It’s not surprising that Millennials want frequent feedback considering they grew up playing videos games which immersed them in constant feedback loops and had guarding parents that made sure every action they took while growing up was reinforced with positiveness even when their actions were not positive.
6. Fixated on Flexibility
Eighty-eight percent of Millennials are fixated on controlling when they start and finish work.
Mobile technology has unfortunately shifted work from a place to a space. Millennials have developed an erroneous boundary-less view when it comes to when, where, and how work can be done.
7. Act Entitled
Sixty-one percent of American adults think of Millennials as “entitled.”
There probably isn’t another word more synonymous to Millennials than the word “Entitled”. Whether or not you believe Millennials are entitled, with 71 percent of American adults believe they are…perception is reality. Millennials should do what they can to combat the label.
Millennials who demand or expect things too fast instead of being patient and respectful only expose their naiveness as young professionals. Millenials will have to learn to stop demand anything and start earning everything.
Business Operators Stand Up
As the owners of businesses, or executives over the operations of a business, there is a tremendous need to turn Millennials attitude towards working around. If not, it is expected that most mainstream businesses…the businesses who hold the economy together…will be without any experienced operations managers in less than 10 years. Without the people who know how to deal with problems, who stay cool under fire and can be depended on to learn their job. the economy will really start to tank.
Find the operations managers who have the experience, entitle them to teach the Millennials the skills they will need to be successful is what every business owner and executive should be doing today to ensure their business has a long future.
Let me know how I can help.
