Behavior in Organization

Behavior of Millennials at Workplaces

Submitted to: Prof. Pushpendra Priyadarshini

Section: A
Date of Submission: 4 September 2019

Submitted by:
Saloni Gupta – PGP35036
Pranjal Bangani - PGP35028
Mahima Jain – PGP35020
Aditya Kumar – PGP35004
Premsagar Dandge – PGP35012
Prathiv Suresh P N– ABM16008
Suraj Kumar Biswas – PGP35044
Dimple Singh – ABM15003
 Behaviour of millennials at workplaces | Behaviour in Organization

INTRODUCTION

By 2020, millennials will form 35% of the worldwide workforce, as indicated by a recent
Speaker report. With so many recent college grads joining the work environment, organizations
must work on creating the most conducive environments to maximise productivity and reduce the
current turnover rates. The departure of a millennial employee could cost the firm between
$15,000 to $25,000, and costs ascend with compensation and position. Steps towards reducing
the turnover rates could save firms hundreds of thousands in hiring costs.

OBJECTIVE OF STUDY

The objective behind studying the attrition rate of millennials is to analyse how long people are
planning to stay at their current job, their satisfaction levels, levels of initiative and motivational
factors on the basis of their age groups, type of organizations and position.
The objective behind the study regarding coworking spaces is to know people’s awareness about
coworking spaces, their advantages and disadvantages and whether they should be implemented
or not.

RATIONALE

By the means of this study, we wish to analyse and contrast the professional behaviour of
millennials with members from other age groups. We have attempted to gauge their feedback
and motivations on a variety of relevant parameters, and tried to gather insights from the
exhaustive data we have received. We have tried to understand factors behind employee
loyalty and current attrition rates.

Co-working spaces is a rapidly blossoming concept that is in favour with the millennials
thanks to its plethora of benefits. Hence, we have also considered the possibility of
coworking spaces as a factor which could offer all millennial employees additional flexibility
in terms of their working hours and place of work. We have tried to gauge their level of
awareness and their primary motivations to move to a co-working space arrangement.

Millennials today wish to work for evolving and progressive organizations. Hence, it is
paramount for organizations to keep an eye on their growth as a way of retaining their
millennial workforce. If organizations offer their outright support, with clear intentions, to
their employees, it can lead to increasing workforce’s involvement, satisfaction and
productivity at work, then such measures should be devised and executed. Organizations may
need to update some of their processes, environment and objectives to provide its workforce
with a safe and comfortable environment to enable them to fulfil their potential.

CHARACTERISTICS AND BEHAVIOUR OF GEN Y

As more and more millennials today are not only joining the workforce but also leading
organizations, it has become important to understand the millennial behaviour at workplace.

1. Achievement focused
It has been noted that Gen Y is highly goal driven and have a constant need for achievement.
They tie their perception of success to the goals and aspirations achieved. They have a need to
not only meet the goals and objectives set for them, but to exceed the same. For that they are

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 Behaviour of millennials at workplaces | Behaviour in Organization

willing to go to any extent to achieve their goals, even if it demands more effort than what they
are paid for.
2. Technologically savvy
Technology defines a major part of their life and has a huge influence on their lifestyle. They are
comfortable with the new technologies come emerging every day and don’t perceive it as a threat
to their job security at workplace. It helps them make faster and well-informed decisions with
easier and faster access to information from around the world.

3. Flexibility and Multitasking

They are not very rigid with their thought process and are open to learning new things from
people and situations. Being tech savvy and flexible also helps them in being multi-taskers.
Millennials have the confidence and capability to work out of their comfort zones and multi-task
at the same time. They want to be able to take ownership and be accountable for their work
without having to report every minute to a superior.

4. Work life Balance

They want to achieve great heights in professional life without having to completely lose their
personal life. They demand a work life balance for themselves where they have time to spend
with their friends and families, along with pursuing their hobbies and interests.

5. Independence along with team work

The generation Y has a constant desire to be independent in terms of their work. They want full
autonomy and responsibility for their work, which acts as a boost to their self-esteem. However,
at the same time, they also enjoy working in teams. They are easily adaptable to diverse set of
people and more tolerant than their previous Gen X. They see teamwork as an opportunity to
brainstorm on ideas and learn new things from different people.

6. Need for feedback and recognition

They are very open to criticism and want their superiors to critique their work and provide them
with insights on how to perform a task in a more efficient and effective way. At the same time,
they also have a need for recognition and want to be recognized for their achievements both in
terms of appraisals, monetary gains and designations to boost their self-esteem needs.

GENERATIONAL ANALYSIS

The current generational gap existing between Baby Boomers, Gen Y and Gen X can be seen as
the major factor affecting the difference in behaviour at workplaces. The highest attrition rate
among the three generational workforce can be attributed to Gen Y. This generation is looked
upon as disengaged, curious bunch and goal-oriented, according to multiple surveys.

The idea of settling down also affects the different generations differently as the Gen X and Baby
Boomers have been in the workforce for at least a decade and are settled in their social/familial
life. On the other hand, millennials aren’t yet settled and therefore not expected to shoulder the
financial burden of the entire family. Perhaps, this leaves a scope for Gen Y to take risks and
experiment with their career.

Attrition rates are affected by multiple factors. Millennials are strongly influenced by factors like
career progression opportunities, salary incentives, work culture, etc. They are ambitious and
enthusiastic. They are always on the lookout for better opportunities. This is in slight contrast to
the pre-millennial generation where the attrition rate is lower. This could be down to them living

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 Behaviour of millennials at workplaces | Behaviour in Organization

a settled life with a job that has evolved to satisfactory levels over time and reduced appetite for
risk.
CO-WORKING SPACES

Working spaces these days are not limited to buildings, it’s about locations and layouts varying
from ideal desk layouts to optimal conference room size. With technical advancements, the data
and tech advantage help optimise office space in order to increase productivity. Today the major
issues are related to commute and work flexibility. Co-working spaces solve both these issues,
helping employees achieve greater satisfaction and work-life balance. Moreover, there is a boom
of start-ups and freelancers who cannot afford huge investments in property. As per research,
over half (54%) of global respondents confirm that they work remotely 2.5 days a week or more.
However, among this 54% a major chunk doesn’t prefer working from home as it leads to a drop
in productivity. They would rather prefer a place with adequate technology infrastructure and
helps them in making useful business connections.

As studies have clearly concluded that businesses have started valuing employees on
performance and productivity rather than by monitoring their office timings, mobility is a great
advantage to lure and retain employees. Where millennials keep seeking for freedom, co-working
spaces give them a good platform to be free from administrative office responsibilities, helps
them to optimise their resources and reduce their assets thus, returning their liabilities.

METHODOLOGY

As part of our Behaviour in Organization course project on “Millennials at workplaces”, we

went out about conducting a comprehensive survey evaluating both team
members/employees and team leaders/managers on numerous relevant and subjective
parameters. Since we had different sets of questions for both sets of individuals, we
introduced sections to ensure that an individual only answered questions that were relevant to
his/her daily job and profile. In total, we received over 140 responses with 110+ of those
coming from millennials.

We segmented the respondents by the position they currently hold (team member or
manager) followed by further segmentation by age group – pre-millennials, millennials or
post-millennials – and then by the type of organization they worked at – MNCs, start-ups,
government jobs, etc. This helped us generate insights from a variety of perspectives.

We sought to seek the biggest motivations of the team members set for being in the position
that they currently occupy, by giving them a list of options to choose from. We asked them to
choose their best 3 from a list of 10~ options, which allowed us to gauge their best
motivations in a way that we would have just enough data to rank their priorities. Post this,
we sought their ratings on job satisfaction, initiatives, feedback mechanism, growth and
learning opportunities.

For respondents in managerial roles, we sought ratings on their experiences with millennials.
We also sought to gather their insights on what they believe are the motivations, areas of
improvement, complaints and reasons for attrition of millennials by providing them with an
exhaustive list of options along with an option to add any other factors that they deem fit.
This exhaustive questionnaire was administered via a Google form which was circulated
among our friends, family and former colleagues. We received a total of 144 responses,

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which have since been cleaned and analysed. The insights and summaries are presented in the
following sections.
RESPONSES OF THE SURVEY

RESULTS & ANALYSIS

UNDERSTANDING MILLENNIALS FROM MANAGERS’ PERSPECTIVE

We conducted a survey and asked managers about

improvement areas for millennial generation. As per
managers, millennials need to improve upon
professionalism at work. Millennials can opt for
professional dressings at workplace instead of
casuals. Millennials are more individualists at work,
hence should inculcate team work culture at work.
Millennials has tendency to keep the deliverables for
the last moment. Also, millennials need to be more
vocal and transparent for sharing the progress and
timely updates around assigned work. Apart from
professionalism, millennials should focus on improving productivity at work. The productivity can be
improved by tracking time spent on assignments and avoiding frequent breaks in office hours. Some
other important improvements aspects millennials should look work on are punctuality,
communication skills and respect for co-workers.

This survey reflects the perspective of managers on

what are the aspects the millennials complaint the
most about the work. According to them Millennials
are most bothered about the work culture of the
industry. They like to work in a relaxed ambiance
whereas in office they don’t find such conditions.
They are more result oriented than process oriented
and generally they don’t like to follow the
conventional strategies. Salary and appraisal structures
come the second most pain point for millennials at
workplace. Traditionally appraisals are not very
transparent which actually bothers the millennials. They are very competitive when it comes to salary
and remuneration, they tend to compare their pay scale with peers. Apart from the above 2 reasons,
work hours, quality of work and job profile are also significant when it comes to their concern points.

Attrition in millennials generation is important

aspect in industry and managers are taking it
seriously. Managers are trying different techniques
to engage millennials at work. As per managers,
challenging and quality work the top factors to keep
millennials motivated. Managers designing
innovative and challenging assignment for
millennial employees. Apart from challenging work,

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salary hikes and monetary incentive is also important strategy to keep millennials employees
engaged.

Millennials are active when it comes to switching

the jobs. According to a global survey, most of the
millennials do change their jobs in less than 3 years
of tenure. As per managers, better growth
opportunity in organization is a major factor for job
switching. The other major reasons for job switch
are work life balance, salary hike, issues with
management.

UNDERSTANDING MILLENNIALS’ PERSPECTIVE

As can be seen from the graphs, on a scale of

1 to 10 for the level of satisfaction in terms of
growth and learning, the post millennials were
highly satisfied with the growth and learning
at their work place. However, their learning
quotient was higher in start-ups as compared
to MNCs. The same trend was noticed in
millennials. Start-ups being in the early stages
of establishment provide opportunities to work
and learn in multiple functions and domains,
whereas MNCs have a structure and an
individual can mostly work only in the
function or role they are hired in, thereby
limiting the scope of learning and growth and
responsibility taking.
The survey results analysing the ideal duration
of their current terms at their workplace showed
that 80% of the start-up taskforce wish to spend
less than 2 years there. This could be a
reflection of the sizable fraction of people who
wish to gain domain experience and expertise
before moving towards MNCs which have
better brand value, offer higher pay packages
and more stability.
Over 60% of the employees at MNCs wish to
stay at their organizations for a maximum of 2
years. Further, upwards of 30% of the people
surveyed wished to stay for up to 5 years at
their organization. Only 3% were looking to
stay in their current organizations for 5+ years,
indicating their ambition and attitude to be on
the constant lookout for opportunities and the Page 6|9
concurrent low levels of job satisfaction today.
 Behaviour of millennials at workplaces | Behaviour in Organization

As we observed, all workplaces are a mix of pre

millennials, millennials and post millennials.
However, start-ups have a negligible percentage of
pre millennials because of the high dynamics of the
job. The pre millennials in government jobs seem to
be complacent to take new initiatives and future
generations are more likely to pick up new tasks. In
MNCs and start-ups, Gen Z takes the maximum
initiative as they like ownership and have the will to
explore and learn new things. Gen Y shows different
characteristics depending on their preference of
workspace. Their characteristics cannot be
specifically attributed to the type of company,
because their behaviours are dependent on several
other factors.

For millennials, the satisfaction level from

feedback is quite low in government jobs.
However, post millennials are highly satisfied
because of their low tenure of work. The
millennials are most satisfied with feedback
mechanism in MNCs because they have a well-
defined structure and parameters to evaluate the
performance of an individual. The satisfaction is
lower among pre millennials in case of MNCs
because as we move higher the structure of the
organization narrows leading to less percentage
of promotions and recognition.

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When asked about the top 3 motivation factors at workplace, monetary incentives, career
growth opportunities and quality of work emerged as the top expectations and motivations of
people at work. Monetary incentives were given more weightage by Post Millennials or Gen
Z as compared to Millennials. Quality or significance of work is highly valued by both
millennials and post millennials. They want to be involved in meaningful and challenging
work that enhances their learning graph. They are not looking for a comfort zone and
repetitive work and prefer to put themselves in challenging situations. They want to create
value in the organization and society. Career growth opportunities was also one of the top 3
motivations for millennials at work place. They look for growth in terms of learning,
opportunities for taking ownership and responsibility along with promotions and
designations.

CONCLUSION

As per the study conducted, we observed that majority of the respondents at managerial level
felt that millennials lack professionalism at workplace. They complain majorly about work
culture, salary/ appraisal structure and quality of work. Managers motivate their employees
by providing them with more challenging work that creates an impact along with work
flexibility and independence. In addition, monetary incentives and salary hikes along with
due recognition for their contribution motivates Gen Y to perform in an efficient and
effective manner. The reasons for high attrition rates amongst millennials in pursuit of better
growth opportunities, greater work life balance and salary hikes. Sometimes, issues with
management/ team also leads in job switch. Managers are unhappy with certain behavioural
traits of GenY like lack of punctuality, poor communication skills and low work productivity.

We observed similar results from the responses received from the millennials. The top three
motivational factors and expectations they had from their workplace were noted to be salary/
monetary incentives, career growth opportunities, and quality/ relevance of work. Value and
impact creation are an important factor for the motivation of employees.
When asked about the satisfaction with growth and learning, millennials responded with an
average of 6.5 on a scale of 1-10. This was lower than post millennials in the same type of
organisation. This indicates that in initial years of joining workplace the opportunities for
growth and learning are higher and as we proceed there is stagnation in growth and learning
opportunities which has led to dissatisfaction among millennials. It was also observed that
the level of satisfaction was higher in start-ups as compared to MNCs because of the diverse
range of work assignments.
It has been observed that majority of the respondents intended to stay in their current
organizations for not more than 2 years. This can be attributed to the constant lookout for
new growth and learning opportunities and salary hikes. The GenY wishes to gain sizeable
experience in as many domains and functions as possible and therefore tend to switch jobs in
2 or less than 2 years.

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