If you have a business, it is a safe bet that you employ millennials, and are likely to hire more. They are rapidly becoming the labour market’s biggest pool. Millennials have developed a bad reputation - entitled, uncommitted, difficult - but that doesn’t have to be your experience. Up your millennial management game and see good results, not social stereotypes.

The five keys to managing millennials
Growing up with rapid change, the digitisation of the world and the explosion of social media has given millennials a different outlook to baby boomers or even generation X. However, they are every bit as bright and capable, they just need handling differently and here’s how:

• Mentor, don’t manage - Millennials are not great with overbearing authority - they respond to mentorship, especially when it leads to ...
• Career development - tangible results and progress (learning) are important to millennials and can help make their desire for instant gratification a motivational tool.
• Stand for something - having a company ethos that millennials can get on board with is important for job satisfaction. They want to make a difference and see that their employer is making a difference too.
• Flexibility and dynamic working conditions are important - just clocking in and out does not compute for millennials, they want to get the job done and get on without being tied to a desk simply to show face.
• Reward - millennials need positive feedback. An absence of criticism is not enough to boost morale or even retain staff.

The strategies above are just some of the ways you might modify work practices for a changing workforce. And while millennials are forcing this change in the workplace, the good news is that these new ways of working benefit everyone.

Written by Chris Lamb
PKF Rutherfords Limited