Millennials are a generation which stretches from the mid-eighties to the late nineties, and the name itself comes from the people born between these two dates being the first generation to move into further education in the new millennium. Millennials themselves are generally viewed rather negatively as a whole, despite the statistics surrounding their lives giving an entirely different story.
It is true that many millennials act differently to the generations which came before them; this is perhaps where a lot of the negative stigma comes from. This new way of behaving is extremely noticeable in the personal lives of millennials, but it is also prevalent in their ways of doing business as well.
Millennials do things differently.
Millennials do things differently in a lot of ways, partly because the world is a very different place, and partly simply because they are different people to the generation before them. Reading the list below will help give some insight into what drives millennials in business.
1. Goals.
Millennials are more likely than any generation before them to start up their own business – Forbes has lately put the percentage of people who want to start their own business at around sixty five percent. While this has become endless fodder for jokes about millennials wanting to become rich or wanting to be the next big ‘thing’ that everybody is talking about, in reality the intentions are a lot more altruistic.
Whether or not this is due to our current social movement towards being tolerant of everybody, many millennials see starting their own business as a way of helping people. Being in business in green energy, or in journalism, or in charity working, is their way of getting help to those they perceive as needing it. Business is their way of changing the world. This is not, of course, to say that previous generations had no desire to help anybody – millennials have good digital skills, and access to more information than ever before – seeing the world as a whole has changed how they view both it and their place within it, and so has changed how they see themselves working.
2. Digital Natives.
Recent research into the digital world has coined the phrases ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital immigrants’. While there is some contention as to what exactly constitutes either term, millennials are the first generation to really have grown up with the types of technology which are ubiquitous today. This has changed the way we work and the familiarity which many people have with the technology has meant that they can take advantage of this. Communication technology has made communication much easier, cloud technology and other sharing software has made collaboration easier, and more doable regardless of time or environment. The basic technology we now have has made even the basics of knowledge accumulation and storage much faster and easier than it ever was before.
3. Work Culture.
The changes which technology have brought has meant that attitudes to work have changed as well. As experts from Essayzoo.org state, the traditional approach to work, with a strict schedule, has been changed to one which allows for more flexibility thanks to new strides in communication and data storage. This has also meant that more and more people are now working remotely as the distance is no object to collaboration and communication. Current working trends favor relaxed attitudes, as seen in the open floor plans and casual clothes which are now common.
Essentially, what millennials want is for everyone to feel relaxed at their work, which is an admirable goal. The current trends of bringing people into greater contact with each are geared towards making people feel able to make contributions which they might otherwise be afraid to make. Millennials feel that it is important to have every body feel able to contribute to the work at hand if they feel that they have an idea.
4. Marketing.
Marketing is one area where millennials are making huge changes, and these changes can be seen by everyone. While a lot of marketing is simply a natural progression from the marketing which came before, millennials are making changes of their own, some of which are inspired by new technologies, some of which are not.
There is a new emphasis on content marketing which did not exist before – the changes which have been made to society by the internet have meant that businesses now see more success if they create something which makes customers feel involved. These campaigns are markedly different to whatever has come before.
Wrapping it up.
Millennials are still a mostly-unknown force, as they are just now beginning to move into the workforce in greater numbers. It is clear that they are bringing change however, change on many fronts at the same time. The way we work is changing rapidly, partly due to the technology we now have (and millennials’ knowledge of how to use it), and partly because that same technology has given us greater access to the world than we have ever had before, which has led to more and more people wanting to change the way we work.
