The millennial generation, which ranges from 1882 to 2004, is now between 35 to 13 years old. That means they’re not just one of the most important parts of the job market today. But will be for some time to come as they mature and take on ever more important positions. They’re going to take over all sorts of top-level positions all over the sector.
They the biggest section of the workforce now, as shown on the graph above by Pew Research Center.
In addition, they’re the best equipped to take advantage of the newest technologies. And that makes sense. After all, the younger generations find it easier to adapt to what comes out into the market than those who have been around a while, due to their increased flexibility.
It’s not just that, either. The world place has dramatically changed over the last decades. We move around far more often between different positions, jobs, and companies.
This has led some to accuse the millennial generation of being selfish, entitled and disloyal. Of course, that’s hardly fair.
Millennials are naturally reacting to a workplace environment that is changing rapidly and constantly.
And it’s good for them.
What’s more, the more positions millennials hold, the more skills they’re actually going to have. Quite often people who did the same jobs day in and day out have stagnated in their growth and their abilities.
Those people who continuously take on new challenges and learn new things not only have more skills, but it also keeps them mentally flexible and leads to greater brain plasticity. This means that they’re going to find it easier to adapt even within a job and a company as the requirements change.
Even better, they’ll be able to learn new skills and abilities even when they’re older. This means they’ll stay valuable to companies later in life. Which, with the ever rising age of retirement around the world, is most certainly something that is important to them and to businesses.
It also means they’re changing our relationship with jobs.
In previous decades the ball was firmly in the company’s court. And it showed. Most jobs and offices had little to no opportunities for people to relax, build up relationships with colleagues or even visually pleasing dimensions.
Nowadays, companies are dramatically different. In order to retain their employees a lot of companies have dramatically reconsidered how the work environment should be.
They’ve worked hard to create a space that people actually like to be in. They also offer all sorts of refreshments, opportunities to interact and other ways that people can enjoy their workplace.
A lot of employees in modern companies are far happier than they were previously.
And this has had some unexpected benefits, including significant boosts in productivity and creativity.
Now, all sorts of experiments are going on in what kinds of relationships there should be between workers and companies. And that all started because of how millennials look at the work place, as well as how millennials are hiring their peers.
More people are finding themselves.
As an added bonus, the fact that millennials are not settling down in one career that they’ll continue to do for their whole lives means that many people are able to keep looking for what truly motivates them for years longer than previous.
After all, people were expected to know what they wanted to do when they were fresh out of school and that was that.
For some of us, this was fantastic. We knew what we wanted. But for most of us, it wasn’t so easy. We didn’t know. We needed much more time to find our way. Unfortunately, that wasn’t available to us.
Now it is. And that means there is more time for people to find out what they’re actually good at. Of course, some people take it too far. They switch when the going gets tough and therefore never get going – but then everything has its downside.
And the upside, of having a generation find its way through to a job that gives them fulfillment, is a big one indeed.
We ain’t seen nothing yet.
As the millennial generation continues to grow in importance and confidence, we should see further transformations in the workforce which we can’t even imagine now. That’s because many of the millennials have yet to enter the workplace or have only just begun. They’re going to work out new ways to interact with their companies.
Another force that’s going to lead to all sorts of changes is obviously the technological innovations going on. This will allow us to reconsider how and where the work environment should be.
So not only has the millennial become the dominant force in the modern workforce. Their influence (and the change they will wreak) will without doubt grow for at least a decade more.
I wonder what their future will bring?
About The Author
This article was written by Angela Baker, a self-driven specialist who is currently working as a freelance writer.