David Milliken

August 2011 - TD Magazine

While much of the nation has been fighting to survive the recession, Booz Allen, a strategy and technology consulting firm, has faced a different challenge: unprecedented growth. With an increased focus on business delivery and utilization, new hires need to be equipped with the knowledge, tools, and resources to be en...

Poised for Discovery

(By David Masters) Millions of working days are being lost every year as Britain's long-hours culture afflicts employees with work-related stress, depression and anxiety.According to research by Aviva Risk Management Solutions (ARMS), 13.5 million working days were lost in 2007-08 due to work-related mental health problems.ARMS believes the problem is set to heighten as businesses stretched by the recession put additional strain on employees.Read the full article.

Workplace stress notched-up by recession

Most of us are aware of the growing presence of Millennials in the workplace. This Research Week post discusses some of the research from ATD and other resources on Millennials at work, their skills, and preparing them to become leaders.Who Is a Millennial?The Millennial generation is projected to become the largest generation in the United States workforce. Millennials are defined roughly as those born between 1977 and 1997. Other generations often view Millennials as those who “want a fast-track to the C-suite, constant recognition and validation, and rewards whether they necessarily earned them or not,” according to the ATD Research report, Leadership Development for Millennials: Why it Matters.What Skills Do Millennials Bring to the Workplace?The 2015 Millennial Majority Workforce Study, from online workplace Elance-oDesk and Gen-Y consulting firm Millennial Branding, found that almost 70 percent of hiring managers believe Millennials possess skills that previous generations do not, including fresh ideas, adaptability, and tech-savvy. Because of these skills, and the fact that two-thirds of Millennials feel it is their professional obligation to stay current with the latest technologies, Millennials may be the answer to the current technological skills shortage in the workforce. Finding, Retaining, and Training Millennials With the skills that Millennials possess and the sheer fact that they will make up a large share of the U.S. workforce, it is imperative to know what Millennials want and need. But how easy is it to find the right Millennial for the job and keep him or her at the job?According to the same study from Elance-oDesk, 53 percent of hiring managers say it is difficult to find and retain Millennials, and only 14 percent indicate it is easy. Meanwhile, the Leadership Development for Millennials report finds that the average tenure for a Millennial at an organization is just two years, compared to five years for Generation X and seven years for Baby Boomers.  Some insights into how to attract and retain Millennials can be found in a recent report from Deloitte, Mind the Gaps: The 2015 Deloitte Millennial Survey, which finds that 60 percent of respondents feel a sense of purpose is part of the reason why Millennials decided to work for their current employer. Likewise, Deloitte reports: “Among businesses where Millennials say there is a strong sense of purpose, there is significantly higher reporting of financial success, employee satisfaction, and recruitment.”In addition to knowing how to attract and retain Millennials, knowing how to train them to become effective leaders will be critical for organizations as this new generation begins to dominate the workforce. According to the Leadership Development for Millennials report, most organizations don’t currently offer leadership development programs specifically for Millennials, even though many lack leadership skills. However, organizations that devote resources specifically to training Millennials (for example, having rotational development programs for millennials) have more success in developing their leadership potential than those that do not.More on Millennials in the WorkforceTo learn more about how organizations are preparing the millennial generation to manage and lead effectively now and into the future and how organizations can appeal to millennials, the full research report Leadership Development for Millennials: Why it Matters is available here. ATD Members have complimentary access to the whitepaper version of the report.

David Milliken

About