Baby boomers are credited with creating employee assistance programs and Gen-X-ers are credited with making the workplace more casual… So are you wondering what the new generation of managers will bring to the table?
Naturally, as Millennials enter the US workforce, and gradually take over higher positions, there are many things one can expect from this new group of people who think about corporate culture like no other generation before.
What’s even more interesting, a recent survey by PWC suggested that this new generation is going to completely reshape the workplace in the next couple of years. So this brings us to a serious question – what does that exactly mean for management as most of us know it?
Four Things We Can Expect from Millennials Managers
1. Results-only Work Environment
The program was actually created more than a decade ago, by two Best Buy staffers in an effort to give employees the freed to work on their own time and on their own terms. Although Best Buy abandoned the program back in 2013, a number of different organizations implemented ROWE to great success.
So in the next couple of years, we’ll probably see more companies introducing flexible schedules, where employees have the freedom to work whenever and wherever they choose. Furthermore, millennial managers won’t oversee the work of their employees, they will instead give them Carte Blanche to work as they see fit.
However, we have to point out that not every industry will be able to allow this much flexibility. For example, sectors that rely heavily on the physical presence of workers couldn’t possibly benefit from this trend. But the rest will be able to deploy their workplace strategies without any problems and ensure that their workers are as comfortable as possible.
2. Less talk about the work-life balance
Gen-X managers introduced the term “work-life balance” to the public concrescence. So it’s no wonder that more than 20 million US employees work part-time, in order to achieve a better work-life balance, and gain more flexible work hours, according to data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Recent technological advances have also made it possible for companies to eliminate the traditional nine-to-five working schedule and allowed more flexibility. But Millennial leaders aren’t seeking a balance – they are actually trying to blend their personal and professional lives.
The wide-spread use of mobile devices now allows employees to stay in touch with their colleagues and superiors at all times, and stay productive on the go. This also has social reasons as well, because millennials are leading complicated personal lives – raising kids while taking care of their Boomer parents.
3. A Radical Shift in Communications
Among today’s employees, email is still been viewed as one of, if not the most efficient way of communication among employees. While some corporations are still relying heavily on it, some small and of course, younger companies are trying to reduce the number of emails sent.
The new generation doesn’t see emails as particularly useful. And they are sort of right; according to Thierry Breton, the CEO of the French IT company Atos, only around 10% of email messages an average employee receives on a daily basis are useful. What’s more, 18% of messages are actually spam.
As the presence of millennial managers in the workplace continues to grow, you can expect to see more adaptation of different internal communication tools, like project collaboration software as a replacement for the more traditional email.
4. Feedback on Regular Occasions
Every employee wants some kind of feedback from his manager, but once again, millennials are a tad bit different. They require a larger amount of feedback than any other generation currently in the workplace. Experts tend to agree that this is because they’ve grown accosted to receiving instantaneous feedback from their parents and teachers and having the ability to ask questions right away.
At the moment, most Millennials don’t feel like they are receiving enough feedback from their superiors. According to Gallup’s How Millennials Want to Work and Live report, less than 20% of them say they receive feedback on regular occasions. Even a smaller fraction – only around 17% – say that the feedback they get is meaningful any in way.
Once these young people become managers, they will be determined to give and receive instant feedback in an effort to improve themselves and help their worker create an efficient workflow. While their approach to micromanagement will vary, they will probably give as much responsibility to their employees as possible.
Final Thoughts
So why does all of this matter so much, you might be wondering?. Simply put, millennials are transforming the business world in front of our eyes. Recently, they’ve surpassed Gen-X and became the largest share of the US workforce.
According to pew Research, currently, more than 30% of American employees are Millennials – and the number is only going to grow in the next two decades. As more Boomers retire, more and more young people will be stepping up to fill management roles.
We’re probably going to see the full magnitude of the Millennial’s impact during the next ten years, but the new generation has already impacted the reality of American and Global workplace. You should prepare yourself for the impact and try to make the most from these cultural changes.
