How the Digital Natives will rule the workplace

Anxious to preserve their free time, the « digital natives » create their own ways of life and disrupt the codes of work.

They are uncomfortable with the hierarchy, wear jeans-baskets and listen to Spotify at the office. They tend to meet virtually and fleeing the meetings that they consider costly in time and unnecessary. They are wary of the corporate life, too binding, vertical, impersonal, and dream of entrepreneurship.

Uncomfortable with the traditional codes of the professional world, they are not willing to accept the « daddy’s » working days. To conventional hours 9AM-6PM, they prefer the long days divided by multiple breaks during which they share with their friends, make purchases on Amazon, respond to their private Gmails, or book their next vacation on Trivago. It is a perfect example of multitasking work. That makes them switch from one folder to another and lose in efficiency, but also of the clearing of the border between the personal and professional life called blurring.

Born between 1980 and 1997, they are famously
known as “Millennials” or « digital natives ».

According to some planning specialist, as long as the results are there, their employers do not have to ask how the work is performed.

However, this way of working poses real problems for businesses, which in many cases feel lost about the Millennials way of life. Recruiters tend to reproach them of not having the « culture of the effort », unlike their elders the baby-boomers and the « X Generation » (the 40–50 of today), and also to be compulsive switcher, unable to concentrate on a task.

For 53% of business leaders, « Millennials » are difficult to recruit and retain.

The vitality before anything

Contrary to their elders, the Generations Y and Z no longer live for the job. Their priority is the self development. Since their youngest age, parents raise their children saying them that regardless of the work that they should do, they first have to think about a job that they like and can let them thrive professionally and personally. Three decades later, these are the same people that land on the labor market. Knowing this, how to be surprised to see that these young people refuse to remain in position when they feel they are sentenced to do a job that they do not like?

The Millennials want also to be recognized for « what they are » in their framework. In the same spirit « what they are » is also reflected by the fact that they cannot be summarized to the title that figure on their business card. They want and expect the companies to be able to take into account their specificity and their individuality.

Understanding the world of Millennials

How companies can attract, but also incorporate, involve and retain these employees?

The workplace in which Millennials evolve is not the same as their parents. They have to compete against thousands of graduates to find their first job.

By 2025, approximately 76% of the workforce will be composed of Millennials.

Millennials are also the first generation to face a social downgrading. Previously, the true attractiveness of work was seen more as a social elevator. In the course of the twentieth century, this elevator has worked in the western countries. At the beginning of their professional career, most of the white-collar workers who were admitted in a well-respected company could climb the ladder of a functional hierarchy while learning the art of management. Now people are more concerned about social decline than social elevator.

The managerial challenges

One observation is manifest: employers must evolve on some issues such as the management of the time and spaces.

The best companies are the one that offer a horizontal hierarchy and also flexible hours, with the home and mobile office. The young people also dream of equal pay, of sustainable development and to be able to freely exercise their hobbies in their workplace.

Some companies have already started to adapt to the constant changing expectations of this young generation by introducing a large freedom of schedules, removing the hierarchical levels and also organizing videoconferences via Skype in place of the traditional time-consuming meetings.