The arrival of millennials in the company shakes up the traditional codes of managers and their reality framework. This generation, also called Y, is perceived as demanding, impatient, and scattered. It is also said that they reject the codes of traditional business, preferring startups and their more free models.
But they are also a pragmatic, creative, autonomous generation that believes in strong values. In search of meaning, millennials feel a profound disconnect between the tools they use on a daily basis and those they discover at work.
Beyond the tools, it is through the intergenerational management and the evolution of working methods that these new generations will be able to feel involved in the company and then unleash their full potential for creativity.
Creating an environment conducive to autonomy
According to a study conducted by ViaVoice for ManpowerGroup*, among the criteria that push Generation Y to stay in the company:, 29% cite the opportunities for development within it. Also, if they turn to startups more readily today, it is because they perceive the hierarchies of large companies as constraining, preventing them from achieving the autonomy that would allow them to express their ideas. Independence and accountability are therefore a real source of fulfillment for them.
To satisfy this need for autonomy among these employees, the manager should no longer be in constant control but in an accompanying role. By listening to the new expectations of the employees, his role is to set a framework within which autonomy will be encouraged, and to allow for the right to make mistakes. It is this right to make mistakes that will create commitment and unleash the creativity of the employees.
Facing the impatience to succeed, the need for the manager to communicate
For millennials, digital technology is not just a tool; it is a daily reality that impacts how they communicate and collaborate: they do not tolerate static exchanges; they prefer chat to email to streamline and speed up interactions; they consume content at every moment; they have access to a multitude of information and knowledge instantly.
This addiction to instantaneity in their personal daily lives then clashes with a different professional reality within which they encounter slower processes. In an interview that went viral, Simon Sinek invites this generation to patience Recognition and professional satisfaction are achieved only through experience, and therefore time.
This is therefore a generation impatient to take on responsibilities within the company, but also eager to learn and cultivate their daily access to knowledge.
The manager must then establish a culture of continuous feedback to create a framework conducive to the professional development of employees. He or she must offer regular feedback on their work, without waiting for a too formal annual interview and whose frequency is no longer suited to the expectations of the employees or the pace of the company.
A major challenge for the manager: engaging his employees
Will the professional daily newspaper create disenchantment among new employees from the Millennial generation? It is up to the manager, among other things, to motivate them to join the company’s culture and project. But engagement does not only concern young people aged 18 to 30.
Jürgen Appelo, founder of management 3.0, proposes a few principles to meet the major needs of the employee, which are: competence (the ability to do something) and autonomy (the ability to make choices). Among these principles, the manager must enable people to be dynamic. To do this, agile methods allow for the creation of environments that stimulate creativity, which are well suited to the expectations of the Millennial generation (but not only!).
The Agile manager He is not only the one who will know how to apply a methodology: among his qualities, he must contribute to establishing a genuine participatory model by taking into account everyone’s creative abilities, allowing for imagination and ideas, and creating a new sense of closeness with his teams in order to share the company’s values on a daily basis.
Thus, he will then be able to engage his employees, who, in return, will unleash their full creative potential for the benefit of innovation.
With the arrival of the Ys and soon the Zs in the company, being agile becomes a necessity for managers, and this applies to all employees.