Workforce Development
Since millennials have literally ‘grown up’ with technology and its advancements, programs should be made flexible to include more on-line programs as well as asynchronous learning that are better aligned with employee personal needs and busy schedules, thus maintaining more acceptable work/life balance.
Secondly, regular managerial feedback and coaching are fundamental requirements of millennials, who have a deep-seated desire for consistent, immediate feedback, as well as expressed gratitude for job accomplishments. This may require re-vamping of existing communication channels and improving top-down, bottom-up and horizontal communication approaches, as well as establishing more effective informal approaches as well. This technology driven generation prefers instantaneous communication, emphasizing tweets, emails, and social media, as well as tech-driven intrinsic rewards such as digital badging.
Lastly, like any diverse, multi-cultural organization, multi-generational workforces require a gamut of drivers to keep employees challenged, motivated and engaged.
While the differences of each succeeding generation become more complex, the current millennial workforce will present newfound challenges that will force alignment of organizational strategy with workforce requirements and individual employee needs.
Allan Gardner, PHR, HRMP, MHRM has over 35 years of experience in the Human Resources field.
Currently, he is an expert HR Trainer throughout the EMEA region and also teaches HR and Management programs for the MBA at the UAE campuses of Chifley Business School Australia.
http://www.humanresourcelearning.com