Prepared to attract the millennial generation

Where has this craze for segmenting people into their generation come from? It is because it’s been proven that experiencing the same historical moments in childhood has an effect on people. To the point of sharing the same attitude towards life, the same aspirations, beliefs and dreams. The company is now facing the millennial generation starting work, which requires major changes to be made. We have to adapt.

The post-war generation are considered to be marked by austerity; the baby boomers are branded as ambitious; Generation X is obsessed with success; and for Generation Y or the Millennials, born between 1981 and the end of the century, they have had to face living with frustration. However, as stated in the newspaper El País: millennials “will make up more than 70% of the workforce in the developed world by 2025 and they’ll start to take the reins for the future of humanity.”

 

What is the Millennial Generation?

More than 8 million youngsters (in Spain), children of prosperity, and therefore a well-educated generation, who were hit by the recession right at the age they were supposed to start working and who share certain traits:

The lack of job prospects leads them to value their lives and their free time. The Millennial Generation aren’t in a rush to start working, and when they start looking for a job, it has to be a quality job which allows them to balance their work with their personal lives, even though the salary may not be great.

Many millennials have had to go abroad to make a life for themselves. According to the National Institute of Statistics, there were 2.3 million Spanish people working abroad in 2016. The young ones among these figures have had a university education.

Others have gone self-employed, setting up their own business. Many millennials plan to set up their own business, typically in the digital world, which gives them an enormous competitive advantage compared to traditional companies. Their fluid and collective mentality is already building foundations to change the way in which we will work in the future. They believe in earning money on merit, rather than through the development of a professional career.

Additionally, they are good at identifying opportunities “they connect passion with work as shown by this viral video which best defines the millennial generation: All Work and All Play.

For them as well as having a job, they have to have a purpose. They work 24 hours a day thanks to mobility, but they also live life to the full and they are moved by what they believe in. They love to acquire new skills and participate in the creation of a new globalised world. A collaborative economy, new professions and business models, collective strength, are what they bring to the world.

For them failure is not an option. If a project doesn’t work, they move onto the next one: “those who adapt best can evolve with the changes”, they state. Flexibility is their keyword, or as they call it: forming part of these “liquid times”. They don’t believe in retirement either: life is to be enjoyed, now.

They want immediate success and work based on equality, getting away from hierarchical models. They expect respect for their ideas and contributions.

They are crucial people who defend their own life created in their own way and they have new social values: sustainability transparency, collaboration and social commitment. Therefore, they do not feel satisfied with what society offers them. According to the aforementioned article in El País: “more than 85% of millennials consider that Spain needs to carry out some thorough reforms and that society must change radically”. They are very critical of the system, banks and large companies. They don’t participate much in conventional politics, however, they are very active in non-conventional forms of participation such as demonstrations and protests.

Everything is done digitally. The speed with which they connect to the world marks the pace of their social relationships. They use various sources of information with ease, particularly the alternative ones: “We live with immediacy, in constant contact with new technologies, we adapt quickly to global changes, we search to find a balance between what we feel passionate about in life and work and we are entrepreneurs”, they state in El País.

What does a Millennial mean for the company?

Millennials are those professionals who best understand the Internet, digital marketing and the world of data. Therefore, they ensure the future of company.