Encyclopedia
Millennials are individuals born after 1980 and before 2000 and have interesting characteristics that make it pertinent for organizations to desire to attract and retain them in contemporary times. Whilst these attributes are relevant to employment in contemporary times saddled with COVID-19, they tend to increase turnover intentions. This study provides a case of the Banking industry in Ghana and offers recommendations for the management of millennials.
- Millenial
- Turnover
- Banking
- Organization
- Ghana
1. Introduction
Since the formal coinage of the term Millennial by William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book Generations: The history of America’s future, 1584 to 2069 the classification of generations and the exploration of their characteristics have been fascinating [1]. Characteristics of generations portray significant behaviours at the workplace that provides human resource management insights. Looking at the characteristics of generations from the Trait Theory perspective, the theory explains that individuals have certain characteristics that can enhance their ability to be successful leaders (or followers) in organizations. Millennials are individuals born after 1980 and before 2000 [1]. Millennials have interesting characteristics that make it pertinent for organizations to desire to attract and retain them in contemporary times. Millennials are technologically oriented and due to their reliance on the internet, they are not limited by office space [2]. Furthermore, they are self-confident and express their opinions freely. They are also creative and sociable. They can also help in the development of a good corporate brand from the extra efforts they can make in leadership and or followership positions in organizations [3]. Some characteristics of millennials enhance turnover intentions whilst some other characteristics do not matter in turnover intentions. Good human resource management practices require that the characteristics that enhance turnover intentions be addressed.
Turnover refers to employees leaving an organization and being replaced successfully. Turnover intention gives a measurement of the plans of employees to leave an organization. Addressing employee turnover is important for small and large firms because each employee has a unique contribution to the firm. Also, the firm's expenses, productivity and overall performance may be affected when employees with experience exit the organization and there are new replacements. The longevity and sustainability of a firm partly depend on the retention of existing employees and hiring younger generations of labour force participants. Consequently, the turnover of Millenials is a threat to firm sustainability and requires an investigation. The Ghanaian Banking industry presents a peculiar case in Sub-Saharan Africa. The industry is competitive, having gone through considerable reforms for the past three decades. The industry persistently exhibits market power and labour supply also determines the price of labour. Coupled with competition for human resources, there is a tendency of higher turnovers as labour moves across firms in the industry [4].
2. Characteristics of Millennials in the Banking Industry
The structure of the workforce in the Banking Industry is changing as there is a shift caused by the upcoming generation of millennials. In order to retain millennials, there is a need to have knowledge and understanding of their attributes. Senior Executives in the Banking Industry with rich leadership skills and several years of managerial expertise, express their views on the attributes of millennials through in-depth interviews. These Senior Executives have also managed Baby Boomers (individuals born between 1946 and 1964) in the past as well as Generation X employees (individuals born between 1965 and 1979). Their views on the characteristics of millennials and how these characteristics are related to turnover intentions are presented in this case. Exhibit 1 below presents the characteristics of millennials in the Banking industry.
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Exhibit 1 – Millennial Characteristics Millennials belong to the generation born between 1980 and 1995. They can be classified as “techy babies” who have been pampered and over-protected (Banking Executive 1). Millennials are the young generation of people below 40 years. They are always on their phones and they know everything techy (Banking Executive 3) Millennials are digital savvy, social media addicts, impatient in career, entitled mentality, passionate and freedom. Millennials are the younger generation who [are] born in the 90’s and early 2000. They are very fascinated about “electronic and digital technologies for their interpersonal communication and may sometimes use a combination of face to face and computer-mediated communication. Millennials are seen as individuals that “enjoy learning in teams and don’t like to stay on one role for long. (Banking Executive 3). Millennials can be seen as people who are inquisitive, adventurous and have a great love for technology. As a result of their addiction to technology and the internet, Millennials turn up with an intuitive understanding of technology. Millennials can be said to be ambitious and would usually be found breaking the rules and challenging the norms. This notwithstanding, when Millennials are properly focused and well-managed their intuitiveness and adventurous nature can be harnessed for strong corporate governance (Banking Executive 4). Millennials can also be seen as quite ambitious, restless and impatient with a great sense of entitlement. They like to work in teams or share information and will always want to challenge the hierarchical status quo. Millennials will always want to develop relationships with their supervisors. They can be seen as open and adaptive to change. Millennials can be seen to place more value on tasks and not time with a great passion for learning, free-thinking and creativity. (Banking Executive 5). They challenge the status quo. They want more freedom which is sometimes difficult. Employee turnover might be high if they think their careers are not progressing quickly. They sometimes find it difficult to separate work from personal activities (Banking Executive 6) Millennials do not want an annual review but an ongoing conversation. Millennials are not concerned with improving their weaknesses but developing their strengths (Banking Executive 7) Millennials do not really seek job satisfaction, but the possibility of developing themselves on the job through learning new things, new skills, new perspectives, getting to know more people, taking advantage of opportunities related to the job, etc. (Banking Executive 8) |
Senior Banking executives have a diverse notion of the characteristics of millennials in the industry, but the common strand that stands out is the technologically savvy, adventurous and ambitious attitude, open-mindedness, creativity and the desire to learn and work in groups. These attributes make it easy to work with millennials as they are able to apply creativity and technology to solve problems in their organizations.
3. Challenges of millennials in the banking industry
Despite the strengths of millennials, they present some negative attitudes that make it challenging working with them. Exhibit 2 shows the challenges faced by Senior Executives when working with millennials. Some of the negative attributes include laziness, distraction, inefficient time management, disrespect to authority, lack of discipline and the like. These are attitudes that need to be managed to enhance productivity.
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Exhibit 2 – Challenges experienced in working with Millennials Some Millennials feel entitled and always need to be pampered in one way or the other to get work done. Some can be lazy when they want to and can be easily distracted on the job. This may be due to their technology savviness and their orientation of working smart and not hard. Millennials generally enjoy using technology and getting work done faster. Once there are effective sanctions in place, these behaviours are kept in check as they are compelled to conform to laid down procedures and policies (Banking Executive 1). Millennials can be seen to waste a lot of precious time on technologies during working hours and may find work boring when they have to follow guidelines. However, they have to be showed who is the boss to get them to comply and exhibit some level of patience with firm processes. This behaviour sometimes affects team dynamics (Banking Executive 2). Although Millennials do not often adhere to policies and guidelines and always seem to be in a hurry, they love to be included in projects and activities as they are ambitious and adventurous and are always seeking new challenges (Banking Executive 3). Millennials have work attitudes that suggest instability in organizations and require the need for extra efforts to retain them (Banking Executive 5) |
These attitudes may pose problems when there is a lack of a good working relationship between Senior Executives and millennials. Millennials love freedom and flexibility in the work and find it difficult to follow rigid and complex procedures. A lack of appreciation of this may be interpreted as disrespect to authorities. A good working relationship is important to ensure harmony between millennials and Senior Executives. The nature of work relationships is changing these days and is shaped by the changing composition of the workforce and rapid innovations in technology. Work relationships are also becoming embedded with reciprocity and the knowledge of this will enhance the harmony between millennials and Senior Executives [4].
Another interesting attribute of millennials is the mindset of working smart and not necessarily working hard. The matter of overworking in organizations is becoming an interesting topic these days. The DealBook of The New York Times recently published a newsletter on overworking in organizations. In 2013, a group of first-year analysts at Goldman Sachs protested against long hours of work and this resulted in the banning of work during weekends [5]. Now, the Covid-19 pandemic has made work time and non-work time blurred and fluid due to the flexibility of working from home and the use of technology. It is important to take a break from work even though one is working from home. Millennials love to achieve their targets with the use of technology and devising easier and faster ways of doing things without spending too much time on a particular task. This must be encouraged post-Covid-19 to make room for a break for rest.
4. Managing Millennials to increase productivity
There is a need for constant monitoring and coaching to improve the productivity of millennials. A conscious effort in coaching them in the area of their jobs to develop the necessary skills is important. Coaching in the area of management of stress and balancing work-life is also needed. Although millennials are impatient, they are willing to learn and explore and this makes it easier to teach them. A good working relationship grounded on reciprocity will make coaching easier. Millennials need to be taught to focus on long term goals rather than short term goals and to avoid “cutting corners” to solve organizational problems. They must be involved in decision-making as this makes them feel part of the team or organization. They must be given projects that allow them to express themselves and use their initiative. Above all, they like to be celebrated and appreciated so organizations need to consciously include open recognition days in their calendars.
A congenial work environment that supports sociability with colleagues and opportunities for growth will motivate millennials and increase productivity. A work environment that embraces flexibility at work in terms of working remotely or running flexible schedules will also be useful to enhance the productivity of millennials. It is important to note that a flexible work environment also enhances retention. A millennial would not mind quitting an existing job to take up a new offer, simply because it affords a flexible work schedule that could afford time for going for walks in the morning or engaging in childcare and reporting at work late, and staying late at work. Balancing work-life is increasingly becoming important to millennials and this is gradually changing work culture [6]. Such flexibility accompanied by systems of monitoring performance increase productivity. The Covid-19 pandemic has really presented the need for such flexibility in work. The challenge for managers and employers is the lack of appropriate systems of reporting and tools to monitor performance. This makes it difficult to offer such flexibility.
5. Millennial characteristics and turnover intentions
Senior Banking Executives recount how millennial characteristics relate to turnover intentions. Exhibit 3 presents some of their views.
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Exhibit 3 - Millennial characteristics and turnover intentions They find it difficult to cope with stress. They have limited coping mechanisms. They always want to belong and once they feel they are not making an impact they get stressed and change jobs. Some are lazy and can’t keep up with the pace. They are very much sheltered. They are highly educated and feel they can always earn more. Besides they like flexible environments. Sometimes you just know they’d prefer to chat all day – Banking Executive 1 When the work environment is stressful and Millenials in the Banking industry are not meeting the performance targets they get stressed up more and have intentions to quit and eventually change jobs. Others are not able to meet their targets out of laziness and decide to quit. Others also have greater salary expectations and decide to quit when their expectations are not met. Yet, others who have an affinity for flexibility at work will quit their job and take up flexible jobs [6]. Slow career progression, lack of road maps to their careers and low compensation. Lack of work-life balance, Lack of Growth and Opportunities and Unfriendly Office Environment- (Banking Executive 3) No clear career path. Murky unclear roles. No or little no opportunity to learn. Stress in the financial sector is driving the turnover. (Banking Executive 5) The ambitious and impatient nature of millennials makes it difficult to accept work conditions of slow career progression where there are no road maps for mobility and opportunities for growth. Consequently when this happens, coupled with low wages, they tend to quit the job for other jobs that seem to be attractive. In addition, inflexible work conditions that do not support sociability with colleagues breed turnover intentions among millennials in the Banking Industry. Working in the Banking industry is very demanding and millennials, loving flexibility and comfort find the work unattractive at a point in time and decide to quit. Boredom – When millennials find themselves in roles that are not challenging and does not provide room for them to use their imaginations to create new things, they are likely to quit and seek opportunities in other firms/industries that allow them to use their creativity more. Unfortunately, due to the numerous risks associated with banking, the bank industry tends to institute very firm rules and policies and ensure compliance. These could prove to be disincentives to millennials. Millennials love adventure and challenging tasks. They also love exploring and trying new ideas. Working conditions that offer routine tasks and prevent innovation and exploration of new ideas result in the boredom of millennials. This leads to turnover intentions. Many tasks in the Banking industry are guided by rules and procedures to avoid risks and fraud. There are also strong controls to ensure compliance. Furthermore, audit systems are in place to sanction non-compliance. Consequently, the Banking Industry may be boring to millennials. In order to retain millennials, conscious efforts must be made to educate them on the need to follow laid down procedures and the benefits of such procedures. In a quest to solve housing needs, American Financial Institutions engaged in subprime lending with adjustable interest rates. As mortgage default increased, innovative (but risky) measures were taken to ensure homeowners are not thrown out of their homes. The lowering of due diligence standards and risks taken contributed to the financial crisis of 2008 [7]. Millennials need exposure to the consequences of risk-taking and careless adventure and innovation such as financial loss. |
6. Conclusion
The study finds that the dominant attributes of millennials include the love for flexibility and creativity in work, technological orientation, ambition, adventure, a desire to learn and develop skills etc. These attributes have a tendency to breed negative behaviours. The love for flexibility and creativity may lead to the development of resistance to laid down rules and regulations, which affect teamwork and work relationships. Similarly, the love for ambition and adventure may result in the display of negative behaviours such as impatience and restlessness, especially when working environments are not challenging and do not create room for exploration. These negative behaviours when not managed, result in turnover intentions. The technological orientation also results in unproductiveness and lack of concentration as millennials tend to be busy on their mobile phones at the expense of official activities [8][9].
7. Lessons to Managers
- Managers need a better understanding of the characteristics of millennials.
- A good working relationship built on reciprocity is congenial to increase the productivity of millennials
- A conscious effort to appreciate millennials (and employees in other generations) by organizing open appreciation days is needed.
- A well-planned coaching and mentorship program is needed to educate millennials on the importance of due diligence and values in the Banking Industry.
- Flexibility in the work schedule must be encouraged. Reporting time may be flexible as far as the employee works for the required number of hours. Control and monitoring systems must be in place to check on employees. Also, an effective reporting and feedback system must be in place.
- Technology that facilitates work must be provided.
- Managers must create opportunities for growth and offer challenging tasks to millennials.
- Corporate Social Responsibility activities that involve creativity and adventure must be tasked to millennials. This will give them a break from the routine banking activities.
- Managers must include some fun activities on the organization’s calendar since millennials love having fun and working at the same time. All other generations may love fun days too.
References
- W. Strauss and N. Howe, Generations: The history of America's future, 1584 to 2069., William Morrow and Company, 1991.
- L. Caraher, “Millennials and Management: The Essential Guide to Making it work at work,” Brookline: Bibliomotion Inc., 2015.
- S. A. DeVany, “Understanding the Millennial Generation,” Journal of Financial Service Professionals, vol. 69, no. 6, pp. 11-14, 2015.
- K. Adjei-Frimpong, C. Gan and B. Hu, “Competition in the banking industry: Empirical evidence from Ghana,” Journal of Banking Regulation, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 159-175, 2016.
- E. Heaphy, K. Byron, B. Ballinger, J. H. Gittel, C. Leana and D. Sluss, “The Changing Nature of Work Relationships,” Academy of Management Review, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 1-12, 2018.
- C. Purtill, “Companies Can't Stop Overworking,” New York Times DealBook, 2021.
- C. C. Miller and S. Yar, “Young people are going to save us all from office life,” New York Times, 2019.
- J. D. Geanakoplos and S. P. Koniak, “Mortgage Justice is Blind,” New York Times, 2008.
- C. L. Giltinane, “Leadership Styles and Theory,” Nursing Standard, vol. 27, no. 41, pp. 35-39, 2013.
