Millennials in the Workforce - are you ready?

I’ve had a great opportunity to begin working with some very skilled facilitators within Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) principles over the past year. One of my colleagues within the Illinois Technology Foundation’s advisory board, Elaine Robbins Harris, is a very experienced facilitator and curriculum developer within D&I. Her current passion is in recognizing both the exceptional skills and challenges that the Millennial generation - born between 1980 and 2000, is introducing and facing in the professional workforce. In fact, we are hoping to work together to deliver this training to Millennials who happen to have a disability. I expect that we’ll be able to help drive home that they are well-equipped to take advantage of the growing momentum for real change in how we view work and contribute value to our employer or client.

More organizations are accepting, and even embracing, the principles as a flurry of academic research is bearing out bottom line impact of greater diversity and inclusion. While the earlier studies looked at race and gender based D&I, the past ten years or so has seen an explosion of activity around other factors of D&I including sexual orientation, faith and spirituality, disability, and generation.

What Millennials Want from the Job

Our Gen-Y or Millennial colleagues are already having dramatic impact on the nature and definition of career, the speed at which new knowledge is processed, considered and made actionable to strengthen, disrupt or completely dismantle traditional business models and deliveries, as well as on Boomers’ , and even Gen Xers’, staid notions of hierarchy and internal communication. But with Boomers and Gen Xers still holding the reins of many businesses, agencies and other prospective employers, these shiny new products of Helicopter parents and all that’s Green will need to navigate their career seas with at least some caution.

Monitor has published a very insightful report based on better than 100 in-depth conversations with senior HR executives. Some of the most interesting hallmarks of this current generation of new grads and younger professionals are their drive for work/life balance and associated need for a flexible environment or workplace, their strong belief that results vs. “time in the office” should be a critical measuring stick by which employers assess their value to the organization, their insistence on the integration and transparency of connected technologies into their work and life (What do you mean I can’t Twitter and update my Facebook profile in the office?), and their disinterest in corporate hierarchy over knowledge capital.

While Millennials may not have their cake and eat it too, at least not in one big bite, the impact that they have on how we view career can only grow as they mature in our workforce and ultimately control its direction. What a great opportunity for students and young professionals with disabilities to finally begin to establish careers alongside their brash and highly capable Millennial peers! As long as you can bring value, knowledge, drive and passion to the workforce, this wave of new influences should naturally support your success.

Why You may be a Perfect fit for the new Workforce

Consider the following hypothetical case study. Our young candidate is a new grad from a quality university who uses a power wheelchair for his mobility. He graduated with a B+ average, was active in clubs and social service projects, uses social media extensively with profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn – plus his own branded You Tube site for some creative video projects, and employs assistive technology in the form of voice out over his laptop and mobile device, sip and puff controller for his chair, and alternate input devices for both his laptop and mobile due to his challenge with finger dexterity. His challenges or key considerations as he looks to begin his professional career track are the following: difficulty of travel/driving, verbal communication, overall accessibility, and occasional need for personal care attendant support. Hmmm. In our traditional, 9-to-5 workplace these challenges have posed some real issues for “traditional” employers.

Fortunately Millennials not only aren’t hung up on the traditional workplace,  but it’s clearly anathema to them. They work effectively from anywhere, at any time of day or night - focusing on the results of that work as opposed to punching a clock. They are completely trusting of and comfortable with e-communication and knowledge transfer, and value others who are like-minded. In short, it’s what you bring to the team or the organization that counts, not what you look like,  when or where you contribute to team success, how you “speak”, or what car you drive.

Let me be clear. I don’t believe all of us are on the verge of being offered pure telecommuting positions. Nor do I mean to suggest that the Millennials don’t value face-to-face teamwork and the breakthroughs, mentoring and support that often occur within that dynamic. I am only suggesting that they are clearly compelling senior officers, HR Directors, and fellow colleagues to rethink how we perceive work and our capacity to bring value to an organization.  So brush up your business and social media footprint, rustle up your Baby Bach tapes, know your value proposition to an employer or client, and plan to ride the Millennial wave to career success!