Meet Your Millennial Manager, Part 3 - Performance Management

This is the last in a 3-part series on Millennials as managers. Part 1 covered Millennials as hiring managers.  Part 2 offered strategies for communicating with Millennial managers. This post address Millennial managers and performance management.

Millennials see the conventional annual or semi-annual performance review as static and one-directional. As managers, they will replace existing performance management processes with real-time goal setting and feedback loops using technology that allows for multi-directional, multi-level, and often transparent comments about the performance of an individual, team or manager. This will be challenging for both staff and HR professionals from older generations, who will have to adapt to new performance metrics, collaborative feedback channels, and different compensation and advancement protocols.

Millennials also believe that the 9-5 construct of work is dead. The workplace of the past is one where productivity is measured by the number of hours you sit at your desk. To Millennials, the future of work requires a high degree of flexibility – from the employee and the manager. This means fluid working hours, technology that enables remote work, and relationships that extend beyond the office. For Baby Boomer and Generation X employees who have spent their careers conforming to fixed hours and mindsets about performance, this will take an enormous adjustment in thinking and scheduling.

Millennials now comprise the largest generation in the U.S. workforce and are rising in rank. The world of management -- and all of its conventional wisdom -- is about to be turned on its head. For more insight into this sea change, download my new white paper Meet Your Millennial Manager – A Survival Guide for Older Generations, or contact me directly.

Amy Hirsh Robinson, Principal, Interchange Group

Workforce Strategies for the New Economy

Meet Your Millennial Manager, Part 2 - Communication

In response to recent requests, I am providing a 3-part series of guidelines for Generation Xers and Baby Boomers who report to Millennial managers. The first in the series offered older generations insight into Millennials as hiring managers.  This post covers communicating with your Millennial manager. 

Communication breakdowns between Millennial Managers and their older direct reports are often the result of a difference in the definition of “initiative.” For Gen Xers and Boomers, taking initiative means “figuring it out” on one’s own, without having to rely on or involve others. Removing one’s boss from the weeds and any unnecessary details, meetings and decisions demonstrates strategic thinking and high performance. In contrast, Millennials equate taking initiative with asking questions and collaboratively engaging one’s boss. As bosses, Millennials expect their direct reports to regularly (as in daily, if not hourly) update them on projects and include them in decision-making. 

Older generation employees will have to revisit the meaning of effective employee-supervisor communication and learn to collaborate more closely with their Millennial managers to keep them in the loop. For most, this will be a challenging but valuable exercise.

Amy Hirsh Robinson, Principal, Interchange Group

Workforce Strategies for the New Economy

Meet your Millennial Manager, Part 1 - The Interview

For the past 10 years, the world of work has struggled to make sense of Millennial employees. But what happens when Millennials are the managers, responsible for hiring and supervising older generations? 

Welcome to Part 1 of a 3-part series that introduces Generation Xers and Baby Boomers to Millennials as managers and provides practice guidance for working with and for them.

Let’s start with the interview.

Baby Boomer and Generation X candidates walk away from interviews with Millennial hiring managers perplexed, if not downright offended. Education and experience – the pillars of professional credibility and financial worth for decades – are not highly prized by Millennial recruiters. Instead, the emphasis is on what you know, how you think, and whether you are the right cultural fit for the company and team. What Millennial hiring managers really want to vet during an interview is whether the candidate has a knowledge of current and emerging trends for the job, demonstrates an ability and willingness to learn new skills quickly, and relates well to them. Millennials will immediately tune out to candidates who tout degrees, long tenures, and past knowledge. Know-it-alls need not apply.

Millennials now comprise the largest generation in the U.S. workforce and are rising in rank. The world of management – and all of its conventional wisdom - is about to be turned on its head. Are you ready?

Amy Hirsh Robinson, Principal, Interchange Group

Workforce Strategies for the New Economy

The Secret Tool of Culture Change

An effective New Employee Orientation (NEO) ensures the retention and acculturation of new hires. This is particularly important for Millennials, who rank learning the corporate culture as the greatest challenge when transitioning into a new job. An NEO also serves as a crucial lever to attaining cultural transformation in an organization. If your company has embarked on a culture change or recognizes that the culture must change to drive better business results, it is best to focus on employees at the beginning of their tenure, when they are most impressionable. It is during these first days, weeks and months with a new employer that employees decide whether they will be champions of change within the company, become disgruntled and leave, or stay and become toxic by upholding the “old” culture.

NEOs are a critical opportunity to instill new employees with the culture your company aspires to represent to the world. Once acculturated and educated, these employees become key influencers of change, spreading throughout the company as foot soldiers of your mission. For strategies on achieving culture change through your NEO, download my new whitepaper, Achieving Culture Change Through Your New Employee Orientation. You can also join me for a free HCI webcast, Navigate A Successful Transformation from Orientation to Acculturation, on Thursday, February 25, 2016.

Amy Hirsh Robinson, Principal, Interchange Group

Workforce Strategies for the New Economy

Millennials & the Feminist Divide

Generational clashes on feminism, politics and leadership are heating up, creating a perfect storm for the 2016 election year and new dilemmas for women (and men) in the workplace. Case in point: 

• In October the Daily Beast published an article, “Why Millennial Feminists Don’t Like Hillary,” in which Millennial reporter Lizzie Crocker dismissed Clinton, a Baby Boomer, as “too outdated and mainstream” on women's issues.
• This week, Los Angeles Times columnist and self-proclaimed Generation Xer Meghan Daum countered Crocker’s views in an Op-Ed piece entitled, “Yes, Millennials, Hillary Clinton is a Feminist.”

Regardless of what you think about feminism and politics, this multigenerational debate represents an intersection of conflicting generational norms and values about what it means and takes to be a female leader in the 21st Century. When translated to the workplace, these conflicting sentiments reveal profound generational differences among working women and challenges for the employers who struggle to recruit and retain them. 

We are entering of a new era of gender definitions and issues. The impact to the workforce and to companies tasked with attracting, engaging and developing women leaders, should not be overlooked. For more insight on this issue, please feel free to download my whitepapers, “Millennials Don’t Want to Lean In: Why Generational Differences Among Working Women Matter to Companies” and “The Working Mother of the Future: How Demographics Will Force Change for Women at Work,” or contact me directly. 

Amy Hirsh Robinson, Principal, Interchange Group

Workforce Strategies for the New Economy

A College Educated Workforce for 2016

In the United States, the student debt of the Millennial generation is at an unprecedented level and university dropout rates continue to rise. The demand for college educated, skilled workers is quickly outpacing the supply. 

To help reverse this trend, the Interchange Group is donating funds this holiday season to Scholarship America, a non-profit whose mission is to make postsecondary education success possible for all students. Scholarship America is the country's largest provider of private scholarships, awarding over $3.3 billion to more than 2 million students and spending 97% of its total budget on programs. 

My wish for 2016 is to help students complete their education beyond high school with manageable debt so that our communities will prosper and our workforces will strengthen. 

Happy New Year!

Amy Hirsh Robinson, Principal, Interchange Group

Workforce Strategies for the New Economy

The 10 Toughest Jobs To Fill In 2016 & What To Do About It

2015 was a challenging year for hiring managers. Regardless of industry and geography, companies struggled to find and keep top talent. Unfortunately, 2016 is predicted to be tougher. According to new data from Career Cast the 10 most difficult jobs to fill in 2016 represent a diversity of industries, levels and functions. 

• Data scientists
• Electrical engineers
• General and operations managers
• Home health aide workers
• Information security analysts
• Marketing managers
• Medical services managers
• Physical therapists
• Registered nurses
• Software engineers

Attracting and retaining talent will be the number one human capital challenge of 2016. It will force executives and HR leaders to reassess their needs and priorities and to work together to accomplish key talent objectives. To achieve your recruitment and retention goals for 2016 and beyond, follow these three strategies.

Amy Hirsh Robinson, Principal, Interchange Group

Workforce Strategies for the New Economy