Aren’t we all just Millennials anyway?
There has been a lot written on Millennials recently as if
the current generation joining the workforce are some kind of alien invasion.
“The kids today”, depicted as bizarre for expecting honesty,
regular feedback, opportunities to develop quickly and influence company
decisions.
The BBC published an article recently applauding KPMG for
changing their recruitment process “following research suggesting millennials
were frustrated by lengthy recruitment processes”.
I don’t know about you, but I was pretty frustrated 15 years
ago when Big 5 recruitment took months from application to offer. And I’ve never been a huge fan of being lied
to, stagnating in my role or having my opinions ignored.
So why are these expectations being publicised as “new” or
exceptional when actually they have been around for decades?
Isn’t the reality simply that the global economy has meant
that we all have many more options in terms of our employment than we did 20
years ago?
Having a career for life is simply not a reality any
more. None of us need to work for 40
years in the same company in order to make Company Director. In fact, most people now change jobs every
2-4 years. Companies with long service risk
becoming stuck in their ways and failing to address their customers’ changing
demands. Regular turnover is actually a
benefit to the employee as well as the organisation.
Career changes are becoming increasingly popular with people
training to be Teachers after careers in Industry or turning their hobbies and
talents into Cottage Industries. The
rise of technology use in every aspect of our lives has also created such a
huge demand for tech skills that people are working for themselves at an
unprecedented level.
I don’t believe it is relevant to say that one generation
has made this happen. The global economy
has opened up so many opportunities that we all have many more choices than we
did before. Maybe the Millennial
Generation is better able to benefit from these opportunities because they have
less financial and familial responsibilities, but that doesn’t mean the rest of
us don’t expect the same things.
I would give the same advice to anyone from 16 to 60 – if your
boss can’t have an honest conversation with you; if you aren’t developing your
skills or aren’t able to share ideas with your colleagues at work, it’s time to
get out of there! None of us have to
wait 3 months to get a job offer. The
world moves much too fast for bureaucracy these days; it’s comforting to see
that big companies are finally catching up.
