They are everywhere and they fill every office space in the Philippines – with their cool haircuts, their Starbucks coffee and their fancy gadgets. They are early adopters, extremely tech savvy and style-conscious. Millennials seem to operate on a separate plane that middle-aged folks can’t seem to understand. If you are born from 1981 to the mid- 90s, you might have a chance of understanding what it is like to grow up with social networking and easy access to Wi-Fi; however, the oldies are quite stumped.
Here are some tips on how to work with the social media generation:
Do Not Dictate or Order Them Around
In dealing with millenials, you have to be a facilitator, not a dictator. Always explain to them what to do and how to do it. If you dictate to millennials, they will probably rebel. In working with these kids, it’s better to have them in a team working together and agreeing on the tasks, rather than having one person in charge and handing out tasks.
Provide Them with Adequate Training
Millennials are growing up in an incredibly complex world. With so many innovations, so many inputs, and so many resources around them, things may be quite overwhelming. However, the advantage of working with Millennials is they are open to training and learning new skills. Millenials actually have a desire to be lifelong learners, and that can open up some training opportunities.
Give Them a Purpose
Millennials always want to know the “whys” behind everything. All of us do; but these young ones tend to be even more aware of the underlying motivators. Growing up with social media and the Internet, they are better at perceiving value and weeding out the superfluous. In the workplace, you are competing with apps that have an obvious value – so it’s up to you to go the extra mile and explain why something is important or why it is even worth doing.
Work-life Balance is a Blur to Them
Work should end when the shift ends; it is a reality for most of us. However, since millennials grew up with easy access to phones, tablets, laptops, and every gadgets, it is a challenge how to balance the easy access to work due to technology with how to have a separate life after work.
Have Fun with Them
Make your office space in Cebu a fun environment. This is more than just adding a playroom, although that can help. It’s all about how you’ll make millenials love to go to the office that counts. Making the environment fun might even promote productivity.
Be Clear About Your Expectations
Be clear about your expectations. When you give your expectations, you should ask a millennial what he or she expects from you as well. Millennials have tons of expectations; you have to be clear about yours.
Context is Everything
Each expectation and project should tie up nicely into a mission. Millenials always need context. Why is this project important? What will we get out of this? Contextualizing is something millenials have learned from an early age, since “meaning” and “purpose” are so important for authenticity. With the abundance of trivial information due to the Internet, young employees need to know why something matters.
