MILLENNIALS are changing the workplace, and the world around us, and business must adapt to the culture change they are bringing in.
A packed audience at a panel discussion by TheBusinessDesk.com heard how the autonomy, openness and choice that the generation of under-35s demand is requiring companies to be more flexible and imaginative than ever before.
Jodie Cook, winner of Birmingham Young Professional of the Year in 2014 and founder of JC Social Media, said: “What [millennials] want is autonomy, more than anything else.
“They’ll be attracted to the companies where it looks like they will have their own take on things and where they are going to be able to change things.
“It’s one of the things we do which is really a small change but people can decide what time they come to work – so 8-4, 9-5, 10-6 – and it’s not a huge decision for someone to make but it feels like ‘I’m in charge of my time, I decide what time I get up in the morning and I decide when I do it’.”
Jennifer Appleton, operations director at ISO Quality Services and fellow Millennial, agreed.
She said: “One of the biggest changes in our organisation over the last six years is changing the flexibility around the workplace. People like to be able to choose what time they come to work, what they wear to work.
“For us one of the biggest things we have implemented has been personal development training, that isn’t just things like IT training, it’s actually how to manage themselves, it’s how to manage their own time, because actually I’m not going to tell you how to get from A to Z, I’m just going to tell you this is the result we want and it’s up to you how you get there.”
