The new generations of young employees arriving at companies, the millennials, are becoming increasingly important to those in charge of Human Resources, because they make up a larger proportion of the workforce (in the United States they will represent around 40 percent of the workforce in 2020), and because their demands are very different from those of the baby boomers or Generation X: they have a great interest in acquiring a variety of skills and living challenging experiences, they attach greater value to flexibility and diversity, and they demand prospects for professional development.
Below, we will explain some of the management trends related to the growing presence of millennials we have detected in the 73 Top Employers Spain 2016 companies and in the 1,100 companies we have certified this year in over 100 countries.
This generation has a more lateral concept of career progress. Companies are adapting to their demands, offering this type of career development as opposed to the traditional vertical system. There has been an increase in the number of Spanish Top Employers companies that define horizontal (76 percent of companies in 2015 compared to 79 percent in 2016) and multifunctional (70 compared to 78 percent) career paths.
Career preferences are also changing. Young workers, besides being less interested in following linear career paths, look for varied and challenging jobs and attach a lot of importance to the mission and purpose of the company. That is why it is becoming increasingly important for companies to transmit their values to their employees and achieve that the latter adopt these as their own.
In order to help them engage and retain the young employees, companies are offering them greater transparency, broader work opportunities – across borders and the boundaries of specific roles – and possibilities for mobility that allow them to pass from one project to another.
In addition, we have observed that the greatest possibilities for development are connected to the fact that employees take more responsibility for it. In 93 percent of companies employees are expected to take the initiative for their own development.
This way, the availability of development opportunities is becoming a particularly crucial aspect. Millennials are restless workers, interested especially in flexibility, mobility and possibilities for diversity in their careers.
Millennials want flexibility and a work-life balance. They are demanding when it comes to working conditions, and achieving a work-life balance is also an essential element for them. Factors such as the management style or the work environment are also becoming increasingly important for their commitment.
The Top Employers companies are adapting their value propositions to employees in order to respond to the demands and needs of these new generations. In fact, the main objectives of the talent strategy of the Top Employers companies in Spain include the improvement of workers' flexibility, greater mobility and achieving a more diversified workforce.
In this context, managers are being converted from talent hunters into talent cultivators to avoid the negative effects on motivation that can result from the lack of development opportunities.
Career and succession management is ceasing to be an annual evaluation and becoming a constant process, with continuous conversations using coaching, mentoring and the establishment of objectives as part of the daily interaction between managers and their teams. This is how companies are responding to the needs that define this generation, such as the wish to have a meaningful job, training, or the combination of personal and professional development.
Download the full Career & Succession Management report to learn all about the current trends in Career & Succession Management and how organisations deal with these trends in their business processes.
