TO APPROACH MILLENNIAL BRANDING FOR A CHANGING WORKFORCE
First of all, the point that should be understood is that the most critical communication rule is accepting the other person. Therefore, newly created approaches to the changing workforce should be built on this basis against millennials. In this way, the proper steps can be taken. However, nowadays, this mistake is made a lot, and we see everyone on the same level as ourselves, and we think they have the same thinking and performance-based approach as us. In this case, it paves the way for generational conflicts. Therefore, the shortest and most effective way out of this situation is to understand the generations and re-evaluate the situation from their point of view.
Understanding Generations: Millennials
Understanding the new generation should not be limited to the periods in which they were born; the society’s mentality, emotions, and experiences that make up the generations should be defined, restructured, and classified. Working styles shaped by their education, culture, beliefs, and the events experienced are the main reason for generational differences. In addition, each period develops what is right and wrong with its unique perspective and creates a road map accordingly. In this case, communication seems to be sufficient to form the objective basis of the problem.
However, each generation has unique features that show different ways of perceiving life and different communication styles and behavior patterns outside their current life and work habits. Their characteristic features, value judgments, attitudes, strengths, and weaknesses are differentiated from each other, just like the individuals in the millennial generation.
Separated from other generations due to the favorable conditions of the period they grew up, Generation Millennials grew up in a world where technological opportunities were also developed. For this reason, their world is more individual, technology-friendly, and corresponds to the era of globalization. Changes and transformations in living conditions have brought different expectations, hopes, and preferences of the millennial generation from other generations. While this generation, which shows behavioral patterns outside of their current working habits, adds different values to organizations, they have become a generation in which companies offer a cautious approach in the changing labor market.
The first striking feature of this generation is that they attach importance to work and life balance. They aim to get a lot done in a short time and save time. They prioritize talent and success rather than position. More than their salaries, they give more importance to the activities that will contribute to their personal development in the institutions they work for. This generation, which has a creative and innovative spirit, wants to be appreciated and to show up in areas that can produce more practical solutions in a shorter time. In this way, they aim to maintain the balanced order between work and life.
Another of the essential features of this generation is that they use social media actively. This feature is one of the main reasons why we consider them separately from other ages. Today, social media has become a part of our lives. The millennial generation quickly realized this situation and promptly expanded their fields in that direction. Now, work, life, pleasures, hobbies have become shared with the whole world through a single platform. In this case, it started to act as a pioneering bridge in terms of understanding employees. It is not difficult to recognize the millennial generation anymore; it has become easy to understand and learn many of its features with one click. From the music they love to the places they go to, the food they eat, their circle of friends, their work areas, their talents, etc., it is not so difficult to reach information about every subject. The companies in the sector, who turn this into an advantage, should not ignore these points while turning to the millennial generation in the changing labor market. Instead, they should reintroduce social media, like innovative millennials, in a shorter and broader context. This time, instead of leading the way, they must follow in the footsteps of millennials who will allow them to make discoveries.
Because this generation is a generation that loves to open new roads in unexplored lands, not the streets and roads that were previously visited.
