Millennials in the workplace

Millennials in the workplace

Read a report on millennials in the workplace to practise and improve your reading skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.

Preparation

Reading text

Millennials in the workplace

Background

Millennials (those born between the early 1980s and the early 1990s) make up a huge part of our workforce but they seem to lack loyalty to the companies and the leaders they work for. Multinational companies are noticing larger turnover rates of millennials as employee retention rates fall. This report looks at the findings of two large-scale surveys on the mindset of the millennial generation and explores how organisations can strive to address these needs, increase employee engagement and encourage retention.  

Research

In a global survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), more than 40,000 millennial (born between 1983 and 1993) and non-millennial responses were collected on the topics of workplace culture, communication and working styles, pay structure, career development, work–life balance, etc.

In a separate global survey conducted by Deloitte, more than 10,000 millennials participated in a study about their perceptions of the threats and opportunities in the complex world of work.

Key findings

  • Millennials are as committed to their work as their more senior colleagues.
  • Millennials value interesting work and a good work–life balance. They do not believe that excessive work demands are worth sacrifices in their personal lives.
  • Millennials want flexibility in their working hours and are willing to give up pay increases and promotions for a flexible working schedule. They believe that success should be measured by productivity and not by the number of hours they are seen in an office.
  • Millennials want to feel supported and appreciated by their company and their superiors.
  • Millennials want more opportunities to develop their skills. These include technological skills, teamwork and interpersonal skills.
  • Millennials believe that businesses and business leaders should contribute to the improvement of society and they are more likely to be loyal to a company with strong ethics.

Recommendations

Organisations and managers wanting to retain millennials should consider:

  • monitoring their workload and satisfaction levels with their work–life balance
  • creating a flexible work culture where employees have more control over their working hours and their work location
  • providing meaningful work and interesting opportunities
  • offering help and support in continuing professional development
  • changing the organisation's goals from being mainly about profit-making to motives that address social concerns and solve wider societal problems.

Discussion

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Average: 4.1 (30 votes)

Submitted by Max90 on Tue, 28/04/2020 - 11:30

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I think millennials has right chances to reach their goals, the way to work are changing and with it there are some opportunity to give to improve the worklife balance of workers. this one has been understood by millennials and now many private companies run to improve employee retention.

Submitted by Daudau0601 on Sat, 25/04/2020 - 15:32

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The most important things for me to be happy at work is work atmosphere. It has to be democracy and comfortable. If the company has democracy environment, everyone can contribute their ideas as positive as they can. Furthermore, motivation such as promotion, rewards is the best recommendation for anyone who work at your company. They will try as hard as possible to get the reward so the result of work is better and company's profit will increase
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Submitted by Rafaela1 on Tue, 14/04/2020 - 03:07

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I wonder if Covid-19 will entirely change the way we work and open up a changeover to a new industrial structure in the near future?

Submitted by shahhoseini on Wed, 08/04/2020 - 15:43

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What's most important for you to be happy at work? In my opinion, the workplace should be friendly so that no one gets bored while working.

Submitted by alsayed on Mon, 09/03/2020 - 14:15

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There are many factors by which we will be happy at work . First . Well paid job makes employees happy .they will be able to pay their bills. They could face high prices rates or effects of inflation . Second . There must be balance between work and employee's life. It will be a very boring job that consumes the whole time if ours .it is meaningless to earn a lot of money and you could not find time to spend it . Third .I must have passion towards my job because those passion will motivate me to develop my skills in many areas .

Submitted by Fikymaulana on Sat, 04/01/2020 - 04:11

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In my opinion, all of jobs or companies has a strength and weakness point. it depend on ours perspective and motivation. In my country it so hard to get a jobs. A large number of fresh graduated confused to find a jobs. I think, we have to apreciate of our jobs while we keep to improve skills and ability in order as a self development. For peoples that haven't get a jobs yet. Don't be affraid and keep going to looking for a jobs.

Submitted by om mariam on Mon, 26/08/2019 - 06:35

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Work atmosphere is the most important things that makes me happy in the workplace.Many factors are included in the term of work atmosphere , it means to me to be comfortable, motivated, and more engaged to the job. But I think these can’t be occur without more democracy in decisions making, open discussions, flexible work hours beside the firm should give the development of employees a special concern i.e the training course that they really need and after their agreement.Bosses who are embraced the culture of low distance power will promote the sprit of initiative and creativity.