Bay Area tech companies are reportedly hiring $25k/hour 'Millennial experts'

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Bay Area tech companies believe they have a Millennial communication problem, and they're willing to go to great lengths to solve it.

In a recent report, the Wall Street Journal names a handful of large corporations — several of which are in the Bay Area — as organizations that employ what they are calling "Millennial experts" to help them better understand the goals and motivations of young workers born in the '80s and '90s, which now make up the largest age group of people currently in the workforce.

Each company's goal in hiring such an "intergenerational consultant" is simple: to ensure the happiness of their organization's Millennial workers.

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Lisa McLeod, one such expert named who has advised Google, reportedly charges up to $25,000 per hour for a keynote address. The bill tacks on an additional $5,000 for the attendance of McLeod's millennial-aged daughter.

Oracle, on the other hand, hired Sacramento-based Jessica Kriegel — a Millennial herself — to advise them about how to better connect to their young workers. As a result, the company is now offering free food and scheduling movie outings and other team-building activities to help attract and retain employees.

Is it worth the price tag? Sounds like it. Although both LinkedIn and Oracle had not responded to our inquiries at press time, an Oracle data architect told WSJ that taking the advice of these experts "benefits our bottom line."

So there you have it. The consultants prove it — you can reason with Millennials, all you need to do do is give them free food and movie tickets!

Alyssa Pereira is a staff writer for SFGATE. Follow her here on Twitter.