A Millennial’s Ideal Workplace

When I talk to my parents and other members of their generation, I often discover an uncertainty about the new generation that recently entered the workforce or is about to get into the workforce: Millennials. Questions that are raised by older generations look like this: What do you want? What are your incentives, since the traditional ones do not seem to work anymore? Why are you so different? Finding appropriate answers to those questions is important. Especially, because Millennials (roughly 18-35 years old now) are already the largest generation in the workforce by surpassing the Gen X in 2015

Since I have just one year left before finishing my Master studies I recently wondered how my ideal workplace would look like. I came up with five major points, which are listed below. One word of warning before reading: This post is a highly subjective view from a Millennial. It lacks evidence-based practice, and it is not meant to be published in a scientific journal. Nevertheless, when chatting with friends and co-workers, I discovered that some points of my vision for an ideal workplace apply to other members of the Generation Y, as well.

1)  Small, but rapidly growing organization

In my opinion, when starting out your professional career, you should try to learn as much as you can. When graduating from college everyone starts more or less at the same level. The differentiating factor for a successful career is how much one develops over the years. You will learn much more in a growing organization than in a stagnating one. Or as Sheryl Sandberg puts it:

“If you are offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat! Just get on.”

Therefore I have an eye on which are growth industries and which are the growth companies within those sectors. Most of the time those are rather young companies instead of mature (IPOed) organizations.

For me, the focus on growth does not only apply to industry and enterprises but also to geographic regions. At a time where well-developed countries are barely growing, India has an impressive growth rate of almost 7%. For a BRIC state with one of the world’s biggest economies, that is quite impressive! For me, it is evident that within the next decade massive growth and leapfrogging won’t be seen in Europe and North America. In particular industries, one may observe growth opportunities in the western world. But this does not count for the entire economy which will continue to stagnate. The window of opportunity, however, opens in African and Asian countries like India and China. This was one reason why I decided to go for a semester abroad at IIT New Delhi, which started mid of July.

2)  Company mission outweighs brand

In his book “Brains versus Capital” which is the German entrepreneur’s bible and can only be recommended, Günter Faltin describes an interesting observation. Faltin, who is not only an author but also a professor, noticed an interesting change of preferences of his students. Less young people are attracted by big corporate brands. Instead, opportunities for self-fulfillment and finding purpose are gaining weight. The generation Y tends to think this can be rather found in small organizations than in large enterprises. The reason for this may be the higher responsibility in startup jobs. In small businesses, the contribution of a single employee is greater in percentage terms. Moreover, founder of startups are many times highly driven by purpose and transfer this spirit on their staff. Therefore the (internal) storytelling of start-ups often exceeds the storytelling of matured companies. Furthermore, the company culture is often not fixed yet and can be changed quickly.

For example, to me, the company mission of Tesla (enabling sustainable transportation for the mass market) is much more appealing than the brand Mercedes. One company tries to improve the world while the other tries to sell luxury cars.

3)  Employee shares

As explained above, in my ideal working place I am part of a company mission I can identify with. Being part of a company mission translates for me into being part of the business itself. But not only as an employee rather as a part owner of it. Employee shares help to foster identification with the enterprise. Moreover, employees participate directly in the company’s success (or failure). In Germany 3 out of 4 employees have low or no emotional attachment to their work according to the Federal Statistical Office. I reckon this statistic can be transferred to most western cultures. Employee equity might be a solution for this issue and is a way to make a company stand out of the crowd.

4)  Time for continuing education

Lifelong Learning is undoubtedly one of the buzz words of the decade. Unfortunately, Lifelong Learning Organization has not made the list. In a faster than ever changing world an organization that wants to succeed in the future should offer a bunch of learning opportunities to its employees. This might be language courses, industry-related workshops, psychology/emotional intelligence classes, etc….

Nowadays it is easier than ever to offer such learning possibilities. A company does not need to hire an external teacher anymore. Access to MOOCs, learning apps/software, or even cooperation with local educational institutions will work perfectly. Most of the enterprises I know do not lack intention in becoming a learning organization. What’s missing though is the commitment towards that goal. There should be a budget (money and time) for every employee of the company, what he can use for training purposes. Moreover, a learning framework needs to be set up. Firstly, cooperations with education institutions need to be established. Secondly, a document which lists all the possibilities can be circulated internally.

For succeeding in the endeavor to become a learning organization, two things are crucial in my opinion.

1) Weekly learning time slots for every employee, which are appointed in advance

Due to 24/7 access, most employees are overwhelmed with distraction which will keep them from learning. A guaranteed amount of learning time needs to be granted by the management board. Otherwise, the daily tasks (which are a higher priority for almost every employee) will outweigh the intention to learn.

2) The commitment to also support further education in non-industry related fields

Out-of-the-box-thinking does not happen when the employee’s thoughts circle around industry topics 24/7.

5)  International experience

The Generation Y had opportunities to travel like no generation before. Travel expenses have become significantly cheaper in the last decades. Moreover, study abroad opportunities are offered by a lot of schools and colleges. Almost all of my university friends have been abroad for several months at least once. The advantage for companies is that most of their recent hires bring international experience to the job. However, this trend also creates a level of expectation for international opportunities on the job, as well. In contrast to the other points I named, I think this is a big plus for big, multinational enterprises (MNEs). Startups mostly only cover one or a few markets, whereas MNEs operate worldwide. Often, they have already processes and structures set-up for international stays of their employees. One flaw, in my opinion, is that this is not advertised enough. Most job postings do not include the international opportunities the company can offer. Offering those possibilities might be a way for MNEs to stand out from the crowd of enterprises in the war for talents.

With this post, I wanted my readers to gain insights about the Gen Y. A generation, most people do not know how to deal with. Moreover, I am aiming to contribute to an ongoing debate, which has tremendous importance now and in the near future. Comments are highly appreciated

Written by Julian Hüner. Student at TU Munich pursuing a master’s degree in Technology and Management.

The author publishes a new post once a month on Linkedin. If you like what you read, you may follow him here.

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