Posted on 9/08/2018 by

Millennials are the new up and coming generation which are reaching adulthood and just beginning their working careers. These people have been characterised in the workplace in a number of ways such as “lazy, narcissistic and coddled.” But just how true is all of this…?

Deloitte’s 2018 Millennial Survey was based on the views of 10,455 millennials who have a college or university degree as well as full time employment. The survey asked them about their future careers and their attitudes to working.

The most interesting fact which leapt out was how long millennials foresee staying within their job. An almighty 43% envision leaving within the first two years. For businesses, recruiting is hard at the best of times; however, this poses further issues for employers to be aware of. Keeping these people engaged to stay longer is vital because its takes a lot of time and resources to keep replacing employees. Therefore, when recruiting, it’s important for businesses to be more prepared to see and accept CV’s with more regular career movements than they would probably have expected. The report highlights how millennials “need a positive reason to stay within work.” This includes a realistic prospect of development that by staying loyal to the business, they will be develop individual skills in the workplace. However, businesses can’t risk been solely focused on developing millennials for them to leave within the two years. This is backed up by 51% of millennials believing businesses prioritise the pursuit of profit than developing employee skills. On the other hand, only 28% of millennials seek to stay in their job beyond five years. This is a small percentage because 63% said they would take up higher financial gain or benefits. Other answers included workplace culture (52%), Flexibility (50%) and continuous development (48%) as to a potential reason for moving jobs.

It’s also very interesting to see how “out of step” employers are with millennials priorities. For example, 43% of millennials would like their employer to generate more jobs and employment whereas only 25% of millennials believe that is the case. This is just one of the many factors where millennials believe businesses don’t prioritise issues which matter to them. Another example is 39% would like to see an improvement in society, whether that be education or health and wellbeing. This compares to only a quarter saying the employer priorities that as an issue. It seems that millennials are losing faith in businesses. This is backed up a staggering 67% agreeing to the statement “businesses have no ambition beyond wanting to make money.” It is a worrying trend that this generation are going to be the future of businesses.

So, what do millennials want in their job? The key finding was that flexibility was vital in a job. 55% of the millennials who said they expect to stay in their job for more than five years agreed with the statement “more flexibility corelates to loyalty.” In comparison to the respondents expecting to leave their job within two years, only 35% agreed to the statement. Flexibility in this context means strict working hours and locations of work. Some millennials are said to be quitting lucrative jobs because they are “burnt out.” However, it seems businesses are reacting to this by providing more flexibility as millennials even go on to suggest it has “achieved ever greater profitability for the business” which is in line with their key priority.  So, is it that these up and coming millennials are “lazy, narcissistic and coddled” or is it the way the workplace is evolving and changing with times? As long as both businesses and millennials benefit in their desirable way, then who is to complain?

Businesses are changing and adapting to enhance their standing amongst millennials. However, millennials feelings about businesses motivations and ethics are not aligned to their own; but where matches exist, the perception amongst businesses is that they are more successful, have more simulating work environment and have success developing future talent.