As Millennials flood the workplace and employers struggle to find quality talent how do we marry the two? In my opinion (as well as some workplace articles by Steelcase, Knoll and Inc.com) millennials want to be treated as a person first and an employee second. We watched our parents kill themselves over their jobs; missing our soccer games or dance recitals because they were a slave to "the man". We don't want this lifestyle for ourselves and those of us who are choosing to have children and start families don't want to miss out on anything. We want to have it all; a successful career and a thriving home life.
In order for employers to attract and retain quality talent they have to adapt to the needs and wants of the next generation. Companies complain they can't get good talent but what are they doing differently now versus 10 years ago? Employers don't even have the time to send us rejection letters anymore. Our biggest pet peeve might be asking us to upload our resume and then for the next 20 minutes fill out the online application that asks us to fill out ALL THE SAME INFORMATION.
Employers need to understand that nothing is getting cheaper and unlike our predecessors most of us are thrust into adulthood with anywhere from $30,000.00 to $100,000.00 in the hole before we even do anything. Employers want applicants to "check the boxes" on applications but are missing out on quality talent that might not be able to check those boxes. We honestly cannot afford to be college educated and work for $30,000.00 a year. God forbid any of us move into cities where jobs are plentiful like San Francisco or New York City.
So to all my millennials out there stay strong; slow and steady wins the race to change the workplace and to those who paved the way for us; we are not out to get you and force you into retirement we just want the opportunity to sit at the table and be heard and treated as a person, not just a number.
Happy Labor Day. Don't work too hard. :)
Jordan