Job market: millennials without demands – good news?

Millennials won’t be making demands during a job interview any time soon. Relief? Absolutely not, and here’s why.

They called him the General. Robert Wood Johnson was one of the most avant-garde and eccentric business leaders of his time. He lived a fascinating life, building Johnson & Johnson into one of the world’s largest and certainly one of its most respected companies.

Before we discuss those twenty-somethings who demand a (paid) half-day every week to work on their dreams, and I mean that very affectionately, let’s look at one of Johnson’s core beliefs:

“…Johnson had the bold idea that businesses had certain responsibilities to society, and that the more a company lived up to those responsibilities, the better the sales and profits would be.”

From our point of view, 100 years later, it’s far from inventive! Johnson proposed this philosophy in the mid-1930s, when virtually all of industrial America was on the verge of bankruptcy. At the time, building architecturally attractive factories, planting flowers around them and offering competitive wages and benefits was nothing short of revolutionary. In fact, the majority of wealthy industrialists of the same era thought this was sheer madness.

By making these investments during the worst economic crisis of the century, Robert Wood Johnson attracted and retained the best talent, and his company created hundreds of products that changed the lives of millions of people. Today, Johnson & Johnson has a market capitalization of almost $400 billion.

But back to those millennials sipping vegan lattes. By the way, you can’t milk an almond, so it’s not almond milk, it’s an almond drink.

What creates commitment today is no different from what created it 100 years ago. What creates commitment has nothing to do with the health of the economy or big salaries. What creates commitment is the human factor: feeling useful, doing important work, authentic leaders who embody the mission, the alignment of one’s values with those of the company, the feeling of having a positive and profound impact on the world. Always has been, always will be.

The difference is that today, we have scientific studies at our disposal that have enabled us to understand the main mechanisms of engagement. That said, these studies have simply confirmed what was also true, albeit invisibly, 100 years ago. Secondly, until March 2020, we benefited from an economic context that created the lowest unemployment rate in decades, putting millennials in a position of power. When I was in my twenties, we found a job. Until March 2020, millennials were choosing a job.

In just two months, everything changed. So here are my wishes, with a view to maintaining or creating committed teams, during and after the crisis.

Resist the temptation to get rid of your CCO (Chief Culture Officer). What follows is inevitable: rising inflation, much more competitive markets and innovation that will become synonymous with survival. So, more than ever, we need strong cultures. The crop, like a plant, needs to be watered. Culture isn’t a ping-pong table in the cafeteria. Culture is the thoughtful, coordinated deployment of attitudes, behaviors and actions aligned with the organization’s purpose. Culture creates commitment, and commitment leads to performance.

Create workplaces specially designed for teamwork. We are currently confronted with the realities of teleworking, its benefits and certainly its challenges. In the light of this experience, I think it’s necessary to meet in the office, but perhaps not five days a week.

Occasionally, you may want to avoid wasting time in traffic and enjoy greater productivity in the solitude of your own home. But on other occasions, you’ll need social interaction, team building and group brainstorming. Since they will increasingly be used for these specific needs, our workplaces must be designed to fulfill this function.

Creating efficient, attractive and pleasant workplaces was one of the main pillars of the General’s philosophy.

Keep investing in people. Today, it’s not just products that have expiry dates, but also our expertise. Recently, many of you have been forced to reinvent your business model and modus operandi in a matter of days. Unfortunately or fortunately, such upheavals will happen again, that’s just the way it is. When this happens, we’ll need expertise, learning and caring cultures, well-stocked toolboxes and new skills to overcome these new challenges.

Rely on your social responsibility. Millennials challenge us. They are talented and intelligent, they have an intrinsic desire to make an impact, thanks to them we may save the planet, and they are extremely good at optimizing processes. Yes, I declare my love for them. Let’s give them all the room they need to flourish and create the world they want to live in. Our organizations will be all the more profitable for it. In this respect, Robert Wood Johnson’s thought was full of wisdom:

“We’re not only building the structures in which the men and women of the future will work, but also the models of society in which they will evolve”.

“We build not only frames of stone and steel, but also frames of ideas and ideals”.

A crisis helps us see who we really are. Traditionally, every company proudly displays its mission and values in its entrance hall. Consistency, a powerful word, between what is written on the wall and what is consistently embodied by all members of the organization remains, above all, what helps us get through a crisis.

Finally, let’s all realize that government emergency plans provide money that we borrow from our children. At the same time, the pace of post-Covid innovation will be frenetic. Robotization, AI developments and automation will accelerate, and thousands of jobs will be lost and replaced. The savings and profits generated by technology will in a way be the means by which millennials will be reimbursed. So, if it’s not too late to add a bold point, invest in technology.

Good luck!