Discovering and Navigating the Treasure Within Your Multigenerational Staff

1. Discovering and Navigating the Treasure Within Your Multigenerational Staff Dr. Jeanna Mastrodicasa Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs University of Florida jmastro@ufl.edu @drjtothemastro

2. Generations • Perceived membership in a common generation • A set of age locations, common beliefs and behaviors • A common location in history • Broad generalization about an entire generation

3. 1880 1895 1910 1925 1940 1955 1970 1985 2000 Generations in the U.S. • Lost Generation (born 1883-1900) • GI Generation (born 1901-24) • Silent Generation (born 1925-42) • The Boom Generation (born 1943-60) • Generation X (born 1961-81) • Millennials (born 1982-now)

4. Some definitions of millennials • Confident • Connected • Open to Change • --Pew Research Center • Special • Sheltered • Confident • Team-oriented • Conventional • Pressured • Achieving • --Howe and Strauss

5. Millennials: The Entitled • Children of Baby Boomers • Parents wait until later in life, more affluent • “Baby on Board” signs • Marketing to children increases: Barney, Hanson, Spice • Family decision making, e.g. vacations • Politicians started talking about effects on children for first time • “Helicopter parents” • Strong sense of entitlement and high expectations of personal reward

6. Are millennials more narcissistic than other generations? • Some say YES: • Some studies show more narcissistic personality disorder (the clinical form of the trait) • You can now hire fake paparazzi to follow you around at night! • Cultural evidence: • plastic surgery has increases 5X in ten years • Square footage of US homes nearly doubled in 30 yrs • Levels of debt increased16% to 19% of disposable income • Circulation of gosssip magazines up while others down

7. Millennial relationships with parents • Perpetual access to parents (cell phones) keeps them in a permanent state of dependency • Today’s children don’t know how to solve problems or to plan ahead • Median frequency of communication: 1.5 times per day • Parents do problem solving for college students and new professionals in work world

8. Theory of “Emerging Adulthood” (Arnett) • A developmental phase between ages 18 and 35 when people assume adult responsibilities more gradually than previous generations. • At the same time, these individuals claim rights of adulthood.

9. “Electronic Tether” (Fullman) • Describes connection students and parents maintain through cell phones, IM, and other cheap and convenient communication. • Extends “Emerging Adulthood” to describe the role technology plays in extending relationships with home instead of creating independence. • Delays development of Chickering’s “Autonomy” vector. • Faculty/staff and students are actors in both of these theories

10. Use of Technology and Communication

13. Cell phones and texting • Cell phone calls are viewed as an interruption, impolite if unscheduled. • Many rely on voice mail and return call by text or email • Caller ID has role in decision of answering the telephone

16. From onlinedegrees.com

17. From onlinedegrees.com

24. Remember the treasure of your staff? There are 80 million millennials and 76 million boomers in the US as of June 2013. By 2025, 3 out of 4 workers will be millennials.

25. --From FDU Magazine, 2005

27. Millennial work attitudes • Leisure: flexibility, telecommuting options, ability to go part-time, maternity/paternity leave, role of work life as part of central focus • Extrinsic rewards: pay, material possessions, prestige • Intrinsic rewards: motivated to work due to job itself, job that is interesting, provides variety, responsibility • Altruistic rewards: motivation to help others and society through work • Social rewards: friends at work, creating a sense of connection --Twenge, Campbell, Hoffman, and Lance, 2010

28. Millennial work attitudes compared to boomers Twenge, Campbell, Hoffman, and Lance, 2010

29. “No Collar Workforce”--Millennials • A 2012 study of millennials in the workplace found: • 89% agree “it’s important to be constantly learning at my job” • “Loving what I do” outranked salary and a big bonus • Half would “rather have no job than a job they hate” • 95% are “motivated to work harder when I know where my work is going” • 66% agree that they want to invent their own position at their jobs • 60% agree “if I can’t find a job I like, I will try and figure out a way to create my own job” • 83% are “looking for a job where my creativity is valued” --From MTV’s “No Collar Workers” study

30. “No Collar Workforce”--Millennials • A 2012 study of millennials in the workplace found: • 76% believe “my boss could learn a lot from me” • 75% want a mentor • 65% say “I should be mentoring older coworkers when it comes to tech and getting things done” • 90% want their senior people in their company to listen to their ideas and opinions --From MTV’s “No Collar Workers” study

31. “No Collar Workforce”--Millennials • A 2012 study of millennials in the workplace found: • 93% say they want a job where they can be themselves at work (including dress) • 79% think they should be allowed to wear jeans to work at least sometimes (compared to 60% of boomers) --From MTV’s “No Collar Workers” study

32. Developing generational intelligence in the workplace • Managers: • Prioritize training and mentoring • Start with clear objectives • Use the best training medium for your audience • Give feedback early and often • Consider your reaction—give it time • New employees: • Don’t add your boss on anything besides LinkedIn • Don’t criticize your workplace on social media • Know preferred communication styles of your manager • Become the subject matter expert and learn • Follow the lead of your manager on protocol --Meister, Forbes magazine, 2013

33. Tips for managing millennials • Encourage the millennial's self-assuredness, "can-do" attitude, and positive personal self-image. Their parents told them they can do it - they can. Encourage - don't squash them or contain them.Take advantage of the millennial's comfort level with teams. Encourage them to join. They are used to working in groups and teams. In contrast to the lone ranger attitude of earlier generations, millennials actually believe a team can accomplish more and better - they've experienced team success. --Heathfield

34. Tips for managing millennials • Listen to the millennial employee. Your millennial employees are used to loving parents who have scheduled their lives around the activities and events of their childrenMillennial employees are up for a challenge and change. Boring is bad. They seek ever-changing tasks within their work. What’s happening next is their mantra. Don’t bore them, ignore them, or trivialize their contribution. --Heathfield

35. Tips for managing millennials • Millennial employees are multi-taskers on a scale you’ve never seen before. In fact, without many different tasks and goals to pursue within the week, the millennials will likely experience boredom. • Take advantage of your millennial employee’s computer, cell phone, and electronic literacy --Heathfield

36. Tips for managing millennials • Capitalize on the millennial’s affinity for networking. Not just comfortable with teams and group activities, your millennial employee likes to network around the world electronically. Provide a life-work balanced workplace. Your millennial employees are used to cramming their lives with multiple activities. Home, family, spending time with the children and families, are priorities. Don’t lose sight of this. Balance and multiple activities are important to these millennial employees.Provide a fun, employee-centered workplace.Millennials want to enjoy their work. They want to enjoy their workplace. --Heathfield

37. Thank you! For a list of references and resources, please contact JeannaMastrodicasa at jmastro@ufl.edu Follow me on Twitter: @DrJtotheMastro