The MOST IMPORTANT THING That Millennials Want At Work

A conversation series between Lindsay Boccardo and Lauren Moffatt, HR expert.

Lauren: So Linds.

Lindsay: Yeah?

Lauren: You coach millennials like a boss...

Lindsay: "Like a boss." [laughs] Yeah, sure.

Lauren: What's interesting is I get this question all the time, and I'm curious what you would say. For a boss who's not a millennial, what do you think is the most important thing that they could know about the millennial generation and how to work with them, coach, and manage them?

Lindsay: I think the biggest one -- that companies tend to score low on too when I go in to work with them -- is this piece around personal growth. So your employee really wants to grow. And sometimes that comes out in a way that's not really palatable, like, "I want to be the VP here." But I know that millennials really want to grow, especially if they came from college. They're running at a pretty fast clip -- every semester I have new teachers, I live in a new area, I might move from a dorm to a fraternity house or sorority house, I'm always changing! They're at this three to four month clip where they're used to seeing change. So when they come to you, and they've been with you for eight months, and they're like, "Oh, I just, I feel so bored. I wonder if I'm ever going to grow here." It's because they're used to a totally different pace of life.

Lauren: That's so good.

Lindsay: Yeah, so making sure that you have a plan in place where they're co-creating and they know that you're considering their personal growth and that they're also self-advocating and taking steps for themselves that you're encouraging. That is huge. 

Personal growth is the top reason why people hire me [as a career coach], because they're not getting it at work, which makes them think, "I'm going to leave this job and I want to grow." When I go in to companies, I have them score four different factors, and one of them is in your culture. How much is personal growth supported and encouraged? How well are you doing that? That's often where they score the lowest. So it's interesting that there's this overlap between what millennials tell me they want most when they come to me, and then companies score the lowest in that exact spot. It's always around personal professional development.

Lauren: Yeah. Cause they're going outside [the company] obviously to get that need.

Lindsay: Yeah, exactly. They might want to leave because of that.

Lauren: That's a good reframe because I think a lot of managers that I work with, so gen X or boomers, they can label that sometimes as entitlement. Knowing that this eagerness is a result of this fast clip, just knowing where they came from. That makes perfect sense. Great advice.


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