Last week, ICC’s resident millennial and research lead Kate Gilkison sat down with millennial panellists Pruthvi Shivaram (Cricket Australia) and Monique Dawson (EY) to talk about the findings from the 2020 research study: Australian Millennials in the Workplace. The study revealed some fascinating insights into the expectations, preferences and values of Australian professionals aged 23-39.
Some of the key findings:
Millennials want to be employed by their organisation long term. 88% say that ideally they would like to be with their employer for 2 years or more. 29% say 8 years or more!- When it comes to their salary and benefits package millennials rate flexible working hours as more important to their satisfaction than competitive salary. When asked to select the three most important factors, 63% said flexible working hours, 59% competitive salary and 33% regular salary reviews.
- 64% of millennials are already satisfied or very satisfied with their current salary, whereas, only 47% feel sufficiently challenged by their role.
- When accepting their current role, millennials were driven by the level of challenge or variety more than any other factor. The top drivers were challenge or variety (14%), salary (13%) and full time work (12%).
- 99% say job security is important. Pre-COVID, 1 in 10 felt insecure in their work situation, a number that has certainly increased.
- 98% say it’s important for their organisation’s values to align with theirs.
- Thinking about the physical working environment, millennials were asked to select up to three factors that were most important to job satisfaction. The top responses were workplace location (47%) and having an assigned desk/work space (38%).
Reach out to ICC for a copy of the research report.
During the webinar, we discussed these findings (and more) with our millennial panellists, exploring their significance through the lens of COVID-19.
We found that:
Nothing has changed, yet everything has changed. COVID-19 has really reinforced the study findings, particularly around the need for job security, increased flexibility and regular communication with our manager and colleagues.
Flexibility is more important than ever and, as the study identified, millennials value it more highly than competitive salary, especially now. For many millennials, working from home has worked really well, something that millennials would like to see maintained beyond the pandemic (at least a day or two a week).
Job security is also more important than ever and has taken place as the driving factor for staying in a role (or finding a new one). The panellists shared anecdotal evidence to support the idea that millennials who are still working are so grateful right now to have an income, even if hours and/or salary have been reduced.
Millennials are not a fan of hot-desking. We looked at the way that shared work spaces look set to change. As teams return to a shared work space, it seems unlikely that hot desking will be neither encouraged, nor endorsed from a health perspective.
The study showed that prior to COVID millennials strongly preferred face to face communication with their manager and with colleagues (with next to no preference for video calls). Now working virtually, we looked at how to maintain these relationships, through regular video calls with those in our immediate team and potentially social calls with those outside of our immediate team.
We discussed what makes a great leader: consistent communication, transparency and empathy. The panel agreed that great leaders will be remembered for their response far beyond the pandemic, with the reverse being true for leaders who do not step up to the coronavirus challenge.
While the webinar showed that millennials are largely fearful about their financial, professional and personal futures, we also found that there’s a certain optimism in the air. Our millennial panellists are hopeful about the positive changes to come from the pandemic, changes that will alter the way we collaborate, communicate and lead for the better.
Reach out to ICC for a copy of the research report.
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