Why millennials think business needs to re-set

Survey finds managers out of touch with youth

GLOBALLY, young employees — the millennials — are different from previous generations. They want purpose and meaning at work and they want to develop their skills and knowledge.

However, they don’t believe business is doing enough to meet these needs.

This disconnect is so strong that, according to last year’s Deloitte’s Human Capital trends survey, millennials were saying “business needs a re-set”. This year’s survey echoes the same theme: “Millennials still want businesses to focus more on people (employees, customers, and society), products, and purpose — and less on profits.”

Similarly, according to the South African Management Index Report 2015-16, young South Africans also have developing skills and knowledge at the top of their list. However, when it comes to purpose and meaning, they buck the global trend.

For them doing work that is of value to society does not even rank in their top five motivators. More important are factors such as job security, career advancement and a high basic salary.

But are young South Africans so different? Or do they face different pressures that obscure an underlying shift of mindset and values? According to the management index report, “with a credit rating downgrade, growth under 2%, an unstable currency, low commodity prices, high unemployment ... it’s no surprise that almost 65% of managers believe that their organisations are suffering in the current economic downturn”.

We can understand what may be happening using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The theory suggests that when basic survival needs — food, shelter, job security — are in place, we start to look to satisfy “higher-order needs” such as purpose, meaning and contribution. But when survival is threatened, as it is in the downturn, then we do not have the luxury of considering these “nice-to-have” higher-order aspirations. This may be particularly true for young black South Africans who face legacy issues and often the economic burden of supporting an extended family.

The management index report says South African business cannot afford to ignore young employees’ needs.

According to Deloitte, globally only 7% of organisations have strong programmes to develop millennial leaders. Similarly, according to the report, almost 40% of South African managers believe their organisations are not doing enough to develop the next generation of leaders.

Across the generations, says the management index report, “managers rank the opportunity to learn and develop new skills and knowledge and engage in interesting/challenging work as their top motivators”. It’s striking that for all employees these intrinsic motivation/engagement factors ranked above basic salary.

It concludes with a challenging statement for SA business: “The majority of organisations represented are, however, out of touch with what motivates employees, with only 53% of managers maintaining that their organisations take the right approach towards motivation.”

It seems millennials have a point: when it comes to motivating its employees, “business needs a re-set”.

Hyams is a leadership coach and lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch Business School

Important are factors like job security, career advancement and a high salary