What makes Millennials tick?

1st September 2022

This has been a subject of interest and an important topic of debate for quite sometime…

For those new to the phrase the term Millennial is those individuals born between roughly 1980 – 2000. Millennials have now become the majority generation in the workplace for the first time ever and with this shift comes perhaps a switch in the employer-employee relationship which starts at entry-level.

Chances are if a Real Estate business is looking to grow teams and departments with the freshly graduated, Millennials or Generation Y are now going to be the core candidates to be interviewed.

With this in mind, after lengthy research and through our relationships with businesses, universities and graduates alike, we have compiled the key recurring points to outline exactly what Millennials look for when choosing an employer out of university.

• They want progression, quickly!

Don’t we all. But if there are rigid organisational structures in place that are top heavy and filled with the older generation X, chances are your Millenial is going to soon become disillusioned with the idea that in order to progress they have to have worked in their position for some 15-20 years to really bear the fruits of their labour. In this scenario you might get 1 or 2 hard-working years out of your employed Millennial but they will soon be looking elsewhere for a quicker and more direct route up the ladder.

• They don’t want to be told what to do

The idea of a draconian boss is now out of touch with Generation Y. Millennials want a boss who can help coach and mentor them rather than somebody dictating and telling them what to do on a daily basis. In order to get the most out of your Millennial a boss needs to be a knowledgeable mentor and honest in his or her advice as to how the individual can best improve their hard and soft skill set and subsequently progress.

• They want flexible working

To the Millennial generation, time is more important than financial rewards. Millennials are constantly looking at ways to save their most valuable commodity: time. Growing up in the technological age means Millenials are clued up and used to having all the answers at their fingertips. Similarly, companies such as Virgin and Google that offer flexi-working statistically have the most satisfied employees.

• They love and use technology

Millennials are happy to blur the lines between work and life through their use of technology. That important work email can be checked in a coffee shop on a Saturday morning, or they will take that phone call from a prospective buyer late at night, but with this comes an expectation that they can be entrusted to spend time away from their desk. They will happily put in the extra time out of core office hours, as long as they feel entrusted to not need constant supervision in the office.

• They buy into brands

Millennials take note of a potential employer’s online presence, social media channels and publicity in the press. They are proud to be seen to be working for a ‘cool’ brand. If you can build your brand, your Millennials will champion those for you as second nature. Showing off on Instagram or Twitter about how funky your office is, or how you were allowed to work from home after the works Christmas party last night is massive social media bragging rights.  Millennials will naturally socially shout up your brand in the Twittersphere if you give them a good enough reason to do so. This in turn presents your company to their online community as a satisfying place to work particularly to their student peers.

So, what can we glean from this?

Taking all the above points into consideration, it appears that there are a number of key factors for employers to consider to try and discern exactly what makes Millennials tick. Having grown up in an unstable economic climate, along with rather frustratingly being a part of the housing crisis and ‘Generation Rent’ and available salaries being comparably lower, perhaps Gen Y are more picky and higher maintenance than the generation before them. However, it seems that if employers can bring on and subsequently hold onto the Millennial generation in their workforce, and key points discussed in this article can be addressed, the same research suggests that the Millennial generation will not only be higher maintenance, but also higher performing than those generations before them.