The labor market has been weak this year. But the outlook for 2008 college graduates is improving. That's because the baby boomer generation is reaching retirement age, and corporations are preparing for the impact.
By 2010, an estimated 31 million Millennials will be in the U.S. workforce, outnumbering Generation X and filling the jobs left by retiring boomers.
"Millennials" is a term sociologists use to describe people raised in the sensory-inundated environment of digital technology and mass media at the millennium. Unlike Gen X, which refers generally to people born in the 1960s and 1970s, this generation has yet to carry a name popularized by mainstream culture.
Susan Ascher of the Ascher Group, a provider of contract human resources professionals, says Millennials bring a unique set of characteristics to the workplace.
“Growing up, their parents told them, ‘You can be anything you want to be,’” Ascher said. “They were coddled – told they were special for no specific reason, received trophies just for participating. Their parents never let them fall on their face and find their own solution to problems.”
How should managers prepare to deal with the Millennials? Ascher says managers will be playing more of the roles of therapists and diplomats with this new generation of workers. She says bosses will have to learn to be less harsh, and act more like a coach.
“Provide positive feedback,” said Ascher. “Tiny rewards pay big dividends.”
Merrill Lynch, Ernst & Young, IBM and Disney are just a few of the big companies working with consultants to help them meet the challenges that accompany generational differences in the workplace. Some are trying to make their work environment and corporate culture more fun and flexible in anticipation of the influx of Millennial employees.
– By Ed Coury, senior editor and Midwest bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal Radio Network, Dow Jones & Co., and a reporter for WWJ Newsradio 950.
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