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Millennials and Centennials in the workplace

For those of you who don’t know, Millennials or ‘Gen Y’ are the generation born between 1981 and 1996 whilst Centennials or ‘Gen Z’ are the generation born between 1997 and 2012.

How do you attract and retain these Generations?

This is an issue that many companies will face if they haven’t already. Just when they are finally starting to understand Millennials, a new generation is starting to enter the workforce…Centennials.

So why should you care? Well, these two generations make up for an impressive 59% of the workforce so their impact within a company is pretty major and has become something of a hot topic.

Both of these generations are creative and a forward-thinking group of employees. They are ambitious, hyper-aware of their surroundings and question everything! Having grown up with the internet, it’s no secret that Gen Y and Z are digitally native. In fact, 40% of employers admit to relying on younger employees and graduates for their digital skills instead of training mid to senior employees. Consider how you can harness these skills and provide ongoing opportunities. They crave continuous improvement so these are employees you want to develop and keep.

However, these generations certainly do have their differences.

Millennials have been known to prefer communication via email, social networks or text and are very family orientated. They have high expectations of career goals and take longer making decisions. They need detailed information and are pretty optimistic.

Centennials on the other hand are more culturally accepting than Gen Y, they are much more pragmatic, bolder and more open to change. Most commonly they prefer immediate, to-the-point responses and crave continuous improvement and opportunities.

How can we appeal to these Generations?

Both Generations are very familiar with technology and the digital world however, Gen Z are very accustomed to being marketed to and are highly visual so using social strategies to advertise and attract Gen Z should not be dismissed. You should also consider adding more visual alternatives to traditional advertisements for example: Video, Instagram stories, Snapchat accounts etc. In order to really sell your company and for them to gain an insight into what it’s like to work there. The standards for both these generations are continually being set very high, meaning there is more pressure on companies to improve what they offer. They’re less concerned about stability and more focused on opportunities for development, flexibility and making a meaningful impact on the world. Employers must be able to focus on Gen Z’s desire to take their success into their own hands by offering competitive work environments and opportunities to understand how their contributions impact on the company’s overall success. Opportunities for career and professional development is one area where Gen Z and Gen Y share. All in all, this new Generation (Z) is likely going to bring fresh thinking into the workplace. Millennials who might not like certain aspects of Gen Z’s attitudes and behaviours regarding technology for example, may have to be willing to learn and compromise with the realities of this new age. Having both Millennials and Centennials working in the same company will provide a lot more benefits than it will problems.

For any more information or advice please email [email protected] to speak to one of our experienced recruitment consultants.