Millennials. It seems like their work dissatisfaction has made headlines for years. Granted Millennials' key issues of diversity, climate change and ethics are noble and urgent; but, they also are notoriously intractable. Plus Millennials' long-term memory only reaches back through the Recession, so they have dibs on justified skepticism.
You'd think I'd have some natural affinity for their views. I joined the workforce in the middle of a deep Recession that lasted almost a decade and included impressive inflation. Graduates had been advised that some would not get jobs, but I was lucky. It was a good thing, too, because I had school loans to pay off -- which all lines up with the Millennial mantra. I even got screwed on my salary offer. They lowballed me, but I negotiated the salary up to a level I thought was fair. Then when I got my first paycheck, I found out my salary was actually the lowballed one. Those were the days!
Facts don't typically influence opinion, but I just ran into some new statistics on Millennial pay that have deeply influenced my understanding of Millennial malaise. The New York Times included an op-ed with data to support this statement, "People between the ages of 25 and 34 were earning slightly less in 2017 than people in that same age group had been in 2000." Check out the visual, it's pretty shocking, especially when you compare the Millenials' trend lines with those of other age groups.
Deloitte's recent report on Millennial views announces, "Perceptions of business are heading south. Millennials' opinions about business' motivations and ethics, which had trended up the past two years, took a sharp turn downward."
I'm not suggesting compensation is the only cause of Millennials' negative attitudes, but I am suggesting it plays an important part. Pay is a baseline item in the employee value proposition, especially for Millennials. Should Millennials improve financially because we've finally loosened up our pay and increase policies, it's likely that their attitudes about their employers wouldn't be turning as negative.
Beyond cultural issues, Deloitte's research also gets to the nuts and bolts. 63% of participants say financial rewards and benefits are very important when choosing to work for an organization. Now this finding is not wildly different from the answer I would have given to that question when I was starting out. Nor is it different than any young worker would have given since then. But at least I could imagine that my income (and buying power) would keep growing if I kept working, and my employers knew they were likely to keep me as an employee.
Loyalty and trust are built when you are able to predict that the behaviors of the "others" take your needs into account. By 2020, 46% of U.S. workers will be Millennials. Deloitte reports that today, 43% of them expect to leave their job within two years. Poor engagement and high turnover can be wildly costly. At some point, wouldn't it be wiser to invest (in salaries, let alone other loyalty and trust issues like career development) rather than spend (on lower productivity, recruiting, orientations and so on)?
Margaret O'Hanlon, CCP brings deep expertise to discussions on employee pay, performance management, career development and communications at the Café. Her firm, re:Think Consulting, provides market pay information and designs base salary structures, incentive plans, career paths and their implementation plans. Earlier, she was a Principal at Willis Towers Watson. A former Board member for the Bay Area Compensation Association (BACA), Margaret coauthored the popular eBook, Everything You Do (in Compensation) Is Communications, a toolkit that all practitioners can find at https://gumroad.com/l/everythingiscommunication.
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