The Secret to Hiring Millennials
I want to break down the whole notion that Millennials are hard to hire. I’ve heard it dozens of times… things like:
- Millennials don’t respect authority
- Millennials don’t understand hard work
- Millennials are entitled
In March, I spoke to a Board of Directors at a large bank who wanted to learn the trick to hiring Millennials. They wanted..
One Weird Trick to Hiring and Employing a Useful, Self-Starting Millennial
What I gave them was a peek behind the curtain on what it means to be a Millennial.
You see, I straddle the line of a Millennial. With one foot in the pre-internet era, I didn’t watch Netflix while I ate dinner as a kid. Nor did I get to watch DVDs in the car on the trip up to Grandma’s. My other foot stands firmly in the first generation of digital natives, having had the first computer in my neighborhood.
I grew up with and without the internet. Because of that, I feel like I get both sides of the paradigm.
First, let’s make this clear: Millennials are weird.
These people, age 36 and younger, were born into the digital age. They are the first generation born with access to the internet. Since the internet was made public in 1991, a series of dramatic disruptions have occurred across the globe.
Taking note from Dan Sullivan’s “Always Increase Your Confidence” series (circa 2003; no longer in production), the advent of the internet has undermined the mediating structures that give us meaning.
The structures that gave millions a feeling of meaning and confidence have started to lose their value.
For example, when my father graduated college with his bachelors in Animal Husbandry, he joined the ranks of the educated young people in America — A group that was small and fierce. He was offered four career jobs immediately after graduation in pharmacology and electronics. He made the decision to sign up with IBM and stayed there for 26 years.
My father was given structure in his life. His job had clear roles, clear responsibilities. Sure, IBM was on the cutting edge and rapidly innovating, but the business wasn’t too dissimilar in structure and growth as it was the 2, 5 or even 7 years previous. There was even a clear corporate ladder for my father to ascend; put two years in at this position and if you do well, you’ll be promoted. This job was confidence boosting because he could make plans in his life around his ascension.
Fast forward to today and technology is rapidly disrupting the status quo. A Millennial can’t predict the future like my father could, and are therefore struck with a feeling of unease. As a Millennial, it feels dangerous and irresponsible to buy a house today with today’s income when the market is so volatile. What happens if my job gets disrupted and gets automated?
These mediating structures that gave us so much meaning in the past, like our affinity to our fraternity or sorority; our community/state/country; our place of worship; and the company we work for; they’re losing their meaning.
Given that a Millennial will have more than 4 major job changes before age 35, it is difficult to know what the hell is going on.
When I graduated from Michigan State University in 2008, I entered a job market with a 6% unemployment rate. Within a year, that number climbed to 10%. The job opportunities my college promised they’d help me identify and snag disappeared nearly overnight. No matter my hustle, I couldn’t find good work.
The one career-type job I was offered was at Quicken Loans just before the entire housing market crashed. Had I taken that offer, my life would be very, very different.
On the flipside of the coin, Millennials are given more opportunities than ever before. Want to work from home, with just a laptop and the wifi you’re stealing from Starbucks? You can be a:
- Journalist at Buzzfeed
- Blogger (Mom Blogger, Food Blogger, Travel Blogger, oh my!)
- Ghost Writer
- SEO Specialist
- PPC Marketing Specialist
- Programmer
- Designer
- Spanish Tutor
- … and on and on and on
There are unlimited choices today for finding work. Some requires more formal training, while thousands of jobs don’t. Some of the most successful people I know don’t have bachelor’s degrees.
To succinctly describe Millennials:
They’re overwhelmed by opportunity but scared to death what will happen in the next 12 months.
You probably are, too, but you’re head is stuck in the paradigm that things are more predictable than they really are.
Just think of all the Millennials driving for Uber. It sounds like a sweet gig, but with Tesla’s recent Master Plan, Part Deux, the world of self-driving car sharing services are on the rise. These Uber drivers are safe for the next 2 years, at most. Then they’re losing their job.
One final thing to consider — The world we live in today is far cheaper to survive in than ever before. Wifi, power and entertainment are free. Clothing is cheap. There’s an abundance of education and fun online. It’s easy to live on next-to-nothing, and when Millennials are too scared to make a bold move, they’re comforted by the luxuries that used to cost much, much more.
Now that we’re clear that Millennials are just scared puppies, it’s important to remember that Millennials want Autonomy and Purpose. They want to have flexibility within their own job to do the work on their own time. They want to provide a result, but they don’t want to get up at 6am to do it. The purpose they want is based in knowing that their doing something important. That they are doing something valuable.
As an executive, you can care for your own Millennial-puppy by:
- Providing a clear structure for them to work inside of.
- Setting deadlines for work to be completed, without care on how or when they do the work. Whenever possible, be more concerned about the outcome than the process.
- Clueing them in on the mission of the business and listening to them when they call the platitudes bullshit.
- Developing a culture that rewards risk-taking.
- Providing psychological safety in the case the decision they made didn’t work out as intended.
- Be open to new ideas, new ways to reach your prospects, using the mediums these Millennials were born into.
- Remember that Millennials are scared. They get confidence from the structure you provide.
I want to hear about your experience with Millennials. I want to know if you think these 7 points would help your organization hire and keep talented young people, or if you think I’ve drank too much of the Koolaid. Please respond below with your thoughts!
Finally – Today at 3pm Eastern, Noon Pacific, our CEO Mike Cline and I are hosting an hour-long webinar where we’ll talk through Product Launches (marketing), Machine Learning (cutting edge tech), and the recent $1B acquisition of The Dollar Shave Club by Unilever. These are the bleeding edge topics that will help keep you relevant to the unpredictable future that awaits us. Join us and ask questions. You can register here.
Casey
PS – Post below what your experience has been in hiring Millennials. Tell me your bad stories (so I can read them and laugh!); tell me your good stories too!