The Millennial Elephant in the Room

 

By Andrew Acker

If you're scared, intimidated, or annoyed when you hear the word Millennials, then join the club. And I'm one of them. Brace for it, one in three workers today are Millennials (age 18-34). It’s a fact that they’re now the largest generation in the U.S. workforce. It's also a fact that they have a bad reputation; but that doesn't mean it's true. Actually, I bet when you were first entering the workforce and "growing up," the generation ahead of you had less then positive things to say. That cycle of criticism seems to be the pattern of judgment in our culture.

Millennials might not share the same traits and work styles as prior generations, but they do have unique strengths and perspectives that can be invaluable, especially to a veteran industry. Their styles and routines might not be what what companies are used to and what we as leaders are used to managing, but the reality of it can’t be ignored.

One clear challenge we see will be learning how to recruit and attract the best Millennials. On other side of the Millennial employment coin will be the important step of transferring knowledge from a highly experienced generation to a new, motivated generation of workers.

Whether we like it or not, Millennials aren't just a trend that we can sit back and observe and wait to pass by (like PokemonGo, frosted tips, Beanie Babies or pet rocks). The shift is happening. As leaders, we get to decide how we want to narrate the story. At our session, we plan to dive into this topic and discuss the challenges in recruiting Millennials and provide tips for hiring your next generation of workers. We’ll also talk about how to best train new employees and maximize the current experts on your team.

If you're excited by about topic and don't want to wait for the conference to dive into more of the details, I'd encourage you to check out some blogs and books below:

• Misunderstood Millennial Talent
• Reverse Mentoring Program 
• Secret to Motivating Millennials 

Andrew Acker is chief operating officer of D. Bello Associates. He can be reached at [email protected]. Acker and Rich Griffin, vice president of North American Title Company, will speak more in depth about this topic during a session titled "Targeting and Training Future Employees" during ALTA's Annual Convention. Click here to register.