×

Millennials seek purpose, flexibility, collaboration, and innovation at work. To help build and nurture their organizations’ young talent—while fostering an environment that can benefit employees of all ages—CIOs and their C-suite counterparts can focus on improving four areas.

Today’s companies include a growing number of millennials, and their organizational influence continues to grow. The oldest members of this generation, now in their mid-30s, are moving into positions of authority. The youngest are—or soon will be—entering the workforce. Yet despite the increasing presence of these employees, most corporate cultures have not yet shifted to represent millennial values.

For example, according to Deloitte LLP research, two out of three millennials say their organization’s purpose is a reason they choose to work there; in organizational cultures without perceived purpose, only one out of five is satisfied at work. While they believe the pursuit of profit is important, less than half think it should be the most important achievement of a business. Combine those opinions with the fact that most millennials believe current leadership and organizational cultures are too traditional and inward-looking, and we begin to see a desire to revolutionize our organizations’ cultures.

Beyond pursuing purpose, millennials seek to invent new ways of doing business and solving problems; create flexible careers and avoid being limited to one aspect of a business; collaborate openly, using tools to innovate; and leave behind the “this is the way we’ve always done it” mentality. Many are hungry for a culture of work that allows them to expand their thinking in the service of better projects, brands, science, and technology. They show interest in rotational programs that expose them to different areas of a company, and in global assignments that give them access to new experiences and ways of living. Even relatively small initiatives—such as placing a millennial leader in a foreign office for a month-long project—can have a significant impact.

CIOs can help their organizations bring these values to life by improving the following four areas to facilitate millennial-friendly work cultures and, by extension, bolster business performance:

Technology. Millennials are comfortable with technology and quick to adopt the latest tools. In the 2015 Deloitte Millennial Survey, more than a third of respondents indicate they develop mobile apps outside of work, nearly two-thirds report they use their businesses’ social tools or networking applications for instantaneous collaboration, and nearly 80 percent agree that as technology develops further, their work lives will become more fulfilling.

Yet in business cultures where responsibility for technology falls squarely on the shoulders of the CIO and the IT department, employees lack technology flexibility. They are unable to develop—and in some cases, even select—their own applications or integrate new software with the organization’s infrastructure. Instead of segmenting technology into the IT organization, CIOs can develop frameworks that allow technology to be deployed freely throughout the business, while continuing to safeguard and monitor key information and assets. This brings flexibility to work product creation and enhances work connectivity.

Skill alignment. Our research finds that only 28 percent of millennials believe their organizations are making full use of their skills. Furthermore, 42 percent of respondents say they will not be able to learn the skills and gain the experience they need to achieve their career ambitions in their current organizations.

Rather than accepting turnover as inevitable, organizations can attempt to shift their cultures to better develop young talent. To close the gap, companies can evolve roles and responsibilities to enable millennials to use their skills, foster mentorship opportunities with older colleagues, encourage cross-functional collaboration, and establish immersive development opportunities.

Innovation. In both the 2014 and 2015 Deloitte millennial studies, millennials indicate they value learning innovative strategies and incorporating them into their work. However, only half say current business cultures encourage employees to come up with better ways of working, and only 23 percent think their senior leadership prioritizes developing new and innovative products and services. More than a quarter of 2015 respondents say the main barrier to innovation is the attitude of senior management, and more than a third cite financial barriers, including a lack of investment in R&D.

To drive innovation, CIOs can work with other senior leaders to permit flexibility in developing new processes and approaches to solving problems. Even if their companies cannot invest large sums of cash into R&D, CIOs can lead this effort by focusing on enabling innovation through collaborative strategies, tools, and technologies aligned with strategic business outcomes. Millennials will likely seek to innovate through purpose-driven opportunities, and these do not necessarily require a significant corporate investment.

Empowered well-being and work-life fit. In Deloitte’s 2014 millennial study, respondents in Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Mexico, the U.K, and the U.S. list “flexible working conditions and work-life integration” as the No. 1 way organizations will have to change if they wish to improve retention.

For many millennials, concern about work-life balance has increased as they have become parents. Most companies, especially in the U.S., are culturally unequipped to provide support, and productivity is negatively affected. The sooner organizations become comfortable offering flexible work arrangements—without sacrificing the achievement of business goals—the faster they will likely see returns on their investment in talent.

*****

As the number of millennials in the workplace continues to climb, the division in cultural preferences between older and younger generations is getting wider. To effectively motivate the best talent, organizations can focus on narrowing the gaps between senior mandates and junior points of view, profit and purpose, and established processes and new innovations. They will likely find these efforts benefit not just their millennial employees, but all employees.

—by Christie Smith, managing principal, Deloitte University Leadership Center for Inclusion & Community Impact, Deloitte LLP; and Stephanie Turner, manager, Deloitte Survey Research & Analytics Center, Inclusion Center of Excellence, Deloitte Consulting LLP