Many companies have the wrong perception about the millennial generation and believe that they can be seduced easily by offering monetary perks, free food and movie vouchers.
How wrong they are!
Millennials look for a lot more than just money and food in their jobs; something that can give their work-life a purpose and allow them to do what they want along the way. If you head the human resource team of a large corporate or own a business that requires Millennials for various tasks, make sure you know exactly what drives them. These points can help you in decision making-
Trust – They Don’t Want To Be Let Down
No matter if we talk about Millennials, Gen Xers or Baby Boomers, trust drives them all at the time of opting for a new job. They all want to work for companies that can live up to their expectations and deliver value as promised. Some Millennials consider monetary benefits as the basis of the trust while others give preferences to the overall vision of the organization and how much it’s aligned with their thought process.
Work Life Balance
Though money is important for Millennials, it doesn’t drive their decisions solely anymore. Now they look for jobs that can help them maintain perfect work-life balance. They’re ready to work for 16 hours straight when needed, provided their company understands the fact that they have a life outside of work, and gives them the freedom to enjoy it. Initiatives like work from home, multiple holidays a year, flexible timings, long weekends (at times), etc. work well with Millennial generation.
Personal Growth
While Baby Boomers feel motivated when their individual skills are recognized, Gen Xers focus on getting jobs with companies that can make their routine lives easy and help them finish their daily projects in an easy way. Millennials, on the other hand, look for companies that give them a chance to grow professionally. Moreover, they seek for supportive managers, healthy lifestyle, egalitarian organizational structure, rewards for good ideas, projects that challenge them and improve the knowledge base, and company funded personal development programs & training sessions.
Job Responsibilities
Millennials want to work for employers that assign responsibilities and then allow them to use their skills to get the results. Their ways may seem different, but they understand their responsibilities and are aware of the consequences if something goes wrong. The companies that show full faith in their skills and allow them to carry out job responsibilities as they want are the ones they want to work for at any cost.
Contribution Towards Social Development
Nowadays, people want to work for those companies that treat them well, ensure a proper work-life balance, and at the same time give them enough chances to work towards social upliftment through CSR activities. Doing so makes them feel proud and gives a sense of job satisfaction. Millennials tend to work for employers that have such arrangements in place.
Innovation
Innovation is the reason why Google is one of the best companies to work for in the world, and why youngsters go crazy for getting jobs at Facebook, Tesla Motors, Salesforce, etc. Gone are those days when employees wanted to do the same things over and over again and call it a good job. Now they want to experiment and come up with innovative concepts that can change the world, and enjoy working with employers that appreciate their innovative ideas.
There can be 10,000 other things that Millennials look for when it comes to working for a new employer, but the ones mentioned here cover the highest percentage among them.
What else do you think should be on this list? Share your feedback with us in the comments section.
[The author of this post is Bhupendra Sharma– he holds a post graduate degree in management from Christ University. He is an investment banker and trader by profession and a writer by heart. He blogs about startups, internet marketing, blogging, online money making ideas, IoT, tech, entrepreneurship & personal finance. When not working, he can be caught reading books.]
