A Tuesday.  The centre of London.  8am.  Yep, that time again.  The 106 Breakfast Series was back in town – and this time, we welcomed Natasha Gowans from Gaming Innovation Group (aka GiG) to talk through her experiences of Engaging Millennials.  Of course, we were all cautious not to pander to stereotypical (and often negative) perceptions of the Millennial cohort – after all, like Brexit, there’s a lot of scare-mongering and, to be honest, lazy labelling of the generation.  We prefer to think of it as some of the new cultural norms.

Voice– Today, there’s a much greater demand to voice opinions; and with the adoption of internal social media, many are inclined to give you opinions and not to mince their words.

Access to leadership– The days of going up and down through the ‘line’ are disappearing – at least in some quarters.  We see many more people messaging the CEO or simply stepping into their office to suggest something.

Feedback (and transparency)– People have always craved feedback; and now with the immediacy of social and digital media, it’s expected.  GiG has responded with development reviews every quarter, as well as constant conversations.  It’s a good thing, surely.

Tour of duty– Natasha said that at LinkedIn (one of her previous jaunts), they had a concept called Tour of Duty – i.e. you need to move on to a new job within two years (or less).  If you don’t, what are you doing?  Maybe not relevant everywhere, but the principle is great.

Hygiene factors– In Malta, in particular, but we’re sure it’s true in other tech hubs, talent expect key hygiene factors – free lunch, nice working environment, flexible working, maybe even a slide in the office!

Rapid development– Our friends in L&D might not agree, but there’s a perception that with all the knowledge freely available, people can learn and develop quicker.  And they expect development and promotion within the organisation to reflect that.

Don’t be surprised – We live in a world which is fast-moving. Things will happen.  Someone might say the wrong thing.  The CEO might change their mind.  We’ve got to move fast, and react as well as plan.

If you’re interested in engaging millennials in your workforce and you’d like to attend one of our future events on the subject, get in touch.

You might also like:

Think like a student: applying great customer service to early careers recruitment

Grads, Employers and Ethics – just how much do grads care?