Capitalizing on Team Spirit

One of the best things about Millennials from an organizational perspective is their facility with working in teams. From their earliest years members of the Millennial generation have worked on projects in school, joined soccer leagues, participated in clubs, and networked through a variety of service organizations. As a general rule, Millennials are comfortable in group settings.

As an organization that can be great news. Researchers have found new hires are positively influenced by communication designed to integrate them into the organization (Barge & Schlueter, 2004; Cooper-Thomas, & Anderson, 2005). Successful acculturation enhances performance and retention and decreases turnover (Kowtha, 2008). Organizational psychology researchers point out that organizational support and integration into social networks play a larger role in retaining volunteers than training (Hidalgo & Moreno, 2009). If you want to decrease turnover and increase productivity, your organization needs to consciously try to help new employees make a significant connection to other members of the organization. You can train them all you want, but if you don’t want to waste dollars retraining their replacement a few months down the road – get them in a group and get them to plug into your organization’s networks.

Getting Help from the Nintendo Generation

As 2010 begins and managers face another year of slow economic recovery, it may seem that excellence is out of reach with the bar set on survival. But excellence is less about an organization’s resources as it is about how the organizational culture manages the resources it has. In fact, an organization’s Millennial employees may be the catalyst for engendering excellence even in difficult financial times.

“The achievement of excellence can only occur if the organization promotes a culture of creative dissatisfaction,” said Lawrence Miller, organization design and leadership expert and author of Lean Team Management.

Who better to build a culture of creative dissatisfaction with than Generation “Why”? They already question the status quo and suggest more streamlined ways of achieving results. They weren’t around when obsolute processes were created, so they have no loyalty to them, no commitment to doing things the way they’ve always been done.

They’re also the Nintendo generation, so they’re accustomed to problem-solving while being bombarded with information. They’re used to processing information quickly and finding patterns that will get them to the next level. Getting to the next level is practically a generational imperative for them.

As managers of Millennials, let’s resolve in 2010 to think about ways to draw on the unique gifts of this generation of employees to get our organizations to the next level.

Talking the Millennial Talk

Check out how East Carolina University is engaged in stealth marketing to attract Millennial students.

As I watched this video, I was struck by how hip it was, but I wondered if such an approach is a college’s best friend.  On the one hand, it certainly engages in a form of speech accommodation in which the speaker adopts the idioms, tropes, and vernacular of the target audience to create a sense of connection.  On the other hand, no freshman course I took or teach remotely resembles the high energy rave that is depicted here.

Reaching out is important, but at what point do you grab the hand you’ve reached for and pull them into your world rather than joining theirs?  Organizations must treat Millennial socialization as a two-way street.  Feel free to let your Gen Y freak flag fly to get them in the door, but be careful not to bait and switch.  From the get go, they need to know that part of joining your organization involves them learning your vernacular too.  Now, that’s love I can feel.

Flipping The Downside to Millennial Goal-Orientation

My co-blogger Carol has written in the past about Millennials and their need to achieve.  She writes:

• Millennials are an intelligent, highly educated and achievement-oriented workforce. According to William Strauss in “The Millennials are Coming,” the Millennials have surpassed previous generations in just about any data point that measures achievement, including science fairs, athletics, the arts, even the National Spelling Bee. In the 1940s you had to be able to spell words like promiscuous to win. Today’s winning words are autochthonous and appoggiatura.  They score 15 points higher in terms of raw intelligence than kids 50 years ago (Greenfield, 1998). The emphasis Millennials place on education is of particular importance to employers, because Millennials expect their jobs to be learning experiences and have no hesitation about leaving jobs that aren’t.

Today I’m reading Millennial cover letters for entry-level positions.  And I’ve been struck  by how this need to achieve translates into some hillarious “ask not what I can do for you, but ask what you can do for me” kind of moments.  For example, I really enjoyed the letter that opened:

“I am writing this letter for the opportunity to get hired as an Intern Reporter.  The job is suitable for the career that I am interested in.”

I am sure the employer will be quite happy to find out they are suitable. 

Or how about the young woman who disclosed she’d like this job because it would give her “a lot of experience to go out and find a career.”

My first impulse is to laugh.  But my second impulse, after reading similar letters with statements about how good jobs would be because they would help Millennial applicants to achieve their personal goals was to think about how employers might benefit from recognizing this tendency.

On the one hand, educators, trainers, and managers can address this issue head on.  They can point out to their young employees that all work places pay you to do your job because it is work.  It’s not so fun that people do it for free.  Adjusting expectations and overtly appealing for a different orientation (i.e. how can you, the employee, make yourself valuable to the organization) can pay dividends.

On the other hand, the best managers do care about the ways in which an organization helps members to achieve their own goals.  Fulfilled employees make for the best organizations.  People give their best when they can see how giving their best is a path to personal fulfillment and achievement.  Can you name five ways your department or organization helps young employees to build experiences and prepare themselves for the next level?  If you can’t maybe you’re not as “suitable” as you could be.

Today’s take away tip: ask what you can do for your Millennials to help them achieve their goals in a way that benefits them AND the organization.

Weird Excuses

People cannot always complete work in a timely fashion.  I get that.  What I don’t get is a trend I see in Millennials to hyper-justify absences and late work.  

The stereotype about Generation Y is that they strive for work-life balance and may be willing to sacrifice opportunities at work to have improved quality of life at home.  But my experience teaching and supervising scores of Millennials a year, suggests that’s not quite right.  Millennials may in fact be willing to do less at work to have more time at home, but they aren’t inclined to take the hit at work.  Hence, the hyper-justification of why the slacking at work shouldn’t be counted against them.

A case in point – here is the ACTUAL text from an email I received this week from a Millennial who didn’t complete an assignment:

“I sent you an email regarding my absence on Friday. I have yet to receive a response. I don’t know if it was due to something being wrong with the email…. I wrecked my car friday and I was also ill. The doctor thought I had swine flu but at the appointment on Monday, the test found it was just the regular strain of flu as well as a URI. Yesterday my cousin (by marriage) committed suicide. I also had to have an echocardiogram and stress test today due issues I have with my heart. I had to have an IV put in after the stress test because of some issues. After all this I am just now able to email you my outline. I have documentation. Thanks”

Now, I’ll ignore the poor choice of tone in the opening sentence and many grammatical mistakes (Millennials and email etiquette will have to be it’s own blog post later), but what I love is the multiple, multiple excuses:  broken email, wrecked car, swine flu, URI, family suicide, and other nebulous “issues.”  All of these things may in fact have happened, but there’s something about the thinly veiled indictment that I hadn’t responded to her initial email (which I had in fact) and the light hearted and legalistic “I have documentation. Thanks” that suggest a less than earnest gravitas about her predicament.  Either way, is this the way you’d notify your supervisor, professor, or boss about the need to turn something in late?  

The best part of all – she forgot to attach the assignment to the email.

Sometimes, the Boss is Wrong

One of the frustrating things about Millennials is their assumption that their ideas are always welcome and their presumption that they are on the appropriate level for even offering them.

For example, my colleague and co-blogger Claire was just beginning a staff meeting with her Millennial worker bees about the process of advising students when one of them interrupted to say, “Wait, I have a better idea of how to do it.” Not exactly the way a supervisor wants to be presented with an idea, but, as it turned out, it was a better idea.

I’ve been surprised by the many ways Millennials can interpret a simple command. I call it “the Google effect.” Google provides lots of possible answers to a search command, some of which are just what you’re looking for and others not even close. I recently asked my Millennial students to research several people who were prominent in the field of public relations, including a man named Amos Kendall. The students who researched Kendall noted that he had served as Postmaster General, but failed to discover that he had been the first presidential press secretary, which, to me, was the most salient fact with regard to our Introduction to Public Relations class. Baby Boomer that I am, with the same assignment I would have been trying to figure out what was Amos Kendall’s relevance to the instructor–the “give the boss what he wants” approach.

These are the sorts of generational disconnects that drive people to read (and me to write) this blog.

It would be easy to rag on Millennials for their arrogance or for completely missing the point by offering their own “interpretations,” but that would be a disservice to their uniqueness as a generation. As Anna Quindlen once wrote, “This core generational belief, that there is usually more than one answer to any question, is threatening for their elders, raised on ‘because I said so’…Socratic is better than rote. Discussion teaches more than dictums. And paths set in stone are, we’ve discovered, often rocky as we move along them.”

Maybe we should follow Claire’s example and give their ideas, however they’re expressed, a chance or, at the very least, a hearing. Even if they’re occasionally wrong, at least one of us is going to learn something.

Dress Codes Revisited as Body Art Increases

As Millennials look for employment in these difficult economic times, they may find that their body art is making their task harder. According to a study published in June by the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, about half of people in their 20s have either a tattoo or a body piercing other than earrings. Yet, a 2007 survey by career publisher Vault.com found that of 468 employers from a range of industries, 85% said body art reduces the chances of employment.

What’s the Big Deal about Body Art?

For one thing, despite its current popularity, many employees in the non-Millennial age group grew up during a time when the only people who had tattoos were sailors, bikers and prisoners. It tends to be associated by those employees and by older customers with risk-taking and making poor or impulsive lifestyle choices.

Because of such attitudes, many organizations feel that body art endangers a good customer experience and have begun forbidding it in dress code policies. Some employees have challenged such policies in court, as in the case of Cloutier vs. Costco Wholesale Corp.

Kimberly Cloutier sued Costco for religious discrimination because she claimed Costco’s no facial jewelry dress code forced her to abandon a religious practice of the Church of Body Modification. Cloutier had multiple earrings, four tattoos, and, after she was hired, multiple facial piercings. Costco’s policy, however, prohibited any facial jewelry with the exception of earrings. The court found that allowing facial jewelry and piercings to the extent of Cloutier’s would be an undue hardship on Costco because of potential customer reaction that could hurt Costco’s image.

Many Millennials reject what they consider to be old-school discriminatory attitudes. As one Millennial put it in a recent blog, “My body art is a part of me. Take me as I am or leave me the hell alone! Why should I change how I express myself just to be accepted?”

They argue that Corporate America’s ‘conform or be rejected; take it or leave it’ attitude will result in less creative, energetic employees being hired. Yet, as we see from the Vault.com survey, an overwhelming majority of employers are willing to take that risk.

Meeting in the Middle

First, it is a fact that many organizations, particularly the entertainment industry, are becoming more body art-friendly. Others tolerate if not embrace it. In organizations which allow telecommuting or in which face-to-face customer contact is limited, a certain tolerance for such forms of self-expression by young employees may be seen as a small price to pay for the talent, energy and enthusiasm they bring to the table.

For organizations with lots of customer contact, Millennial employees should be willing to cover tattoos and piercings that customers and older co-workers may find offensive. Such an accommodation speaks to whether their career goals are sufficiently important to them to make such a sacrifice.

A Sensible Solution

Common sense dictates that employers formulate clear, reasonable policies concerning body art and communicate those policies to their employees.  Discrimination cases so far also point to the need for employers to specify how/why dress code restrictions affect performance.

One policy that seems like a good template for others to follow in formulating their own policy includes the following provisions:

“Factors used to determine if jewelry and tattoos pose a conflict with the job or work environment will include, but not be limited to:

• Safety of self or others
• Productivity or performance of tasks
• Perceived offense on the basis of sex, race or religion
• Community norms
• Customer complaints

“If a potential conflict is identified, the employee will be encouraged to identify an appropriate solution…An environment of mutual cooperation is the company’s goal.”

As Baby Boomers retire and Gen Xers and Millennials take over the management of organizations, body art may become much more acceptable. But for now, respect, both for individuals and community norms, will help employers attract Millennials without offending customers and older workers.

Overstepping Boundaries

Recently, in an article entitled Five Advantages of Hiring Gen Y Employees, Jessica Stillman notes that “[Millennials] are not really into 9 to 5. “

“If I email my assistant at 11 p.m., she responds. If I unintentionally interrupt her dinner, she isn’t caught off guard. She’s attached to her iPhone and as her employer, I reap the benefits,” writes Stillman.

It reminded me of the unfortunate editorial assistant played by Anne Hathaway in the movie The Devil Wears Prada whose life is ruled by her employer’s demands communicated by cell phone.

It’s interesting that what Stillman sees as a Millennial advantage is often a complaint other managers have of Millennials–that they call their bosses at inappropriate times and expect immediate response. It’s not surprising. Their parents gave them cell phones in middle school so they could be immediately accessible. Why wouldn’t others in the organization want to be immediately accessible, especially the boss?

Some people may, in fact, like the appearance of constant and immediate accessibility, but for many others, it represents unwelcome interruption of their most productive hours. If that is the kind of manager you are, you may want to teach your Millennial employees to respect boundaries.

However, you can’t teach it unless you model it. Therefore, you can’t contact them at 11 p.m. or interrupt their dinner just so you can reap the benefits of their iPhone attachment.

Chain-of-command

I recently asked my very talented staff of largely Millennial worker bees to perform an inventory for me. Because there were over 400 accounts to be audited, I divided the work among them and asked them to email me their individual counts, so I could give a complete count to my boss. To my surprise, as the first few emailed counts arrived I saw they had cc:d my boss.

It got me to thinking about changing generational norms. In my father’s generation (he’s a member of the “Traditional” generation born just ahead of the boomers) the workplace was not only male dominated, but a high percentage of those men had served in the military. The idea that you report information up through a chain of command was highly ingrained. With a much smaller percentage of employees with a military background, with more collaborative feminist and team-oriented workplaces, with changing social norms about hierarchy, it’s not surprising Millennial workers don’t come to the workplace with the idea that they need to go through their immediate supervisor to communicate upwards in an organization. Couple those variables with Millennials’ expectations that their input be valued and that their efforts be noticed and you have a recipe for some chaotic communication patterns.

In my own case, I talked with my staff about why it’s not a good idea to cc: the boss’ boss with partial reports (e.g. filling upper management’s in-boxes with useless communication, making it difficult for the receiver to discern the final/composite version, the possibility that they had made errors I’d want to fix before sending it on to my boss). I think they understood. And that’s important to Generation Why?.

Tip for the week: talk to your Millennials about your expectations for upward communication flow.

Would you tell your boss your job is mediocre?: A Millennial Muse

In wrestling with generational tensions in the 21st century workplace, the CEO of Muse Communication, a Hollywood advertising firm, takes a head-on approach. Meeting monthly with his Millennial staff to build a bridge to this new generation Jo Muse must be struck by the “bridge to nowhere” metaphor on some days.

Be a video fly-on-the-wall as his well-meaning Millennial employees declare their jobs mediocre, pine to be Lindsey Lohan, and dismiss 40 as too old to wait for your first million.

The thing that strikes me most about this revealing window into Millennial priorities isn’t the potential for cheap shots at youthful zeal but Muse’s excellent decision to address the differences in generational expectations directly. By owning his Boomer perspective on vacation days, for example, he offers a window into his own expectations while finding out about theirs. The specific positions of the generational negotiation can’t always be accommodated, but understanding the underlying interests of his staff will allow him to manage them much more effectively everyday.

Jo Muse could really be a muse to managers looking to improve communication with Generation Next.