INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: MILLENNIALSMillennials believe that work should be fun and that dues-paying is...

INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE:

SUMMER 2008

MILLENNIALS

MESSAGE FROM THE CEOIT SEEMS THERE IS a shorthand for everygeneration. Baby Boomers are idealistic. GenerationX was defined by MTV; Generation Y by the Internet.But then you come to the Millennials, and theshorthands fall away.

Millennials believe that work should be fun and thatdues-paying is for suckers. They are willing to sacrificeconfidentiality for social connection. Although theycan seem shallow, noble causes motivate them. And despite the fact that some(generally older) people may be tempted to label them the “Slacker Generation,”they have a clear and purposeful sense of how they want to live their lives.

Understanding Millennials requires getting comfortable with conundrums andparadoxes, and being willing to accept that opinions Millennials hold may seeminitially to be in opposition.

If you really want to understand Millennials, you need to allow your mind tofreewheel. Be like the inventors of vaccines, whose breakthrough came in theform of a paradoxical concept: The way to prevent an illness is to exposepeople to it. Or think like the people charged with protecting the homeland,who realize that in order to devise effective safeguards against terrorism, it’snecessary to accept that terrorists are willing to die for their cause.

In the case of Millennials, the realization required is equally fundamental,especially for a Baby Boomer like me. And it’s this: Millennials don’t want tobe like us.

They do not strive for the things we have accepted as gospel. That everyonewants to get ahead at work. That work, in fact, is the means to a better life.That privacy is something to be held dear. It can be very hard, butunderstanding Millennials requires parking these preconceptions—and manymore—at the door.

This is a cohort worth getting to know, if for no other reason than thenumbers: In Europe alone, some 51 million Millennials are expected to join theworkforce in the next ten years, while 48 million Baby Boomers will retire.Beyond the numbers, however, it is the fundamental complexity of Millennialsthat makes them so interesting.

So set your personal worldview aside, temporarily remove the phrase “but ofcourse, everyone wants X” from your vocabulary, and get ready to take a deepdive into a generation that defies a shorthand. —GARY STOCKMAN

ContentsPORTER NOVELLI INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE:MILLENNIALS

Chris Bailey

Jim Barbagallo

Neil Bayley

Andrea Brancheau

Trevor Campbell

Sandy Chun

Tegwyn Collins

Christelle Coche-Dupeuble

Lisa Davidson

Lisa Dieter

Ed Dixon

Cassie DurandEllen FieldSuzanne GabrielMike GallagherChristine GerstleMarion E. GlickSherry GoldbergLinda HadleyWendy HagenJonathan HemusPeter HirschShoshana Hochdorf

John HollywoodAmy InzantiAlbie JarvisSandra Kleinburg Pam MaddalenaJohn OrmeNicole OsuchFrank PetersKeya RahnemoonMichael RamahBlair RileyShilpa Saul

Angie SchneiderBill SchreiberCharlie SimpsonJill SpiritusBetsy StephensonErica SwerdlowBalázs SzántóWendi Taylor NationsCarolyn TiegerStefan VadoczJulie WinskieDavid Zucker

I N T R O D U C T I O N :

4 Generation what?

B I G Q U E S T I O N 2 :

14 What happens to

confidentiality in an age of

radical transparency?


20 If being entertained is the

norm, what happens to work?


24 What does the world

of work and business

mean to Millennials?


6 How different are Millennials?

12 24 tips for managing Millennials

37 In conclusion


30 What stories are

Millennials telling to

make sense of themselves

and their generation?

S P E C I A L T H A N K S T O

INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: MILLENNIALS4

INTRODUCTION

GENERATION WHAT?

YYoouu’’vvee hheeaarrdd ooff Baby Boomers,you’ve heard of Generation X, andyou’ve probably heard of Generation Y,increasingly known as Millennials. Andif you have a questioning attitude, orhave tried to dig deeper, you may havewondered: Do these generations reallyexist as distinctive cohorts? Or havesociologists, marketers and journalistsconspired together to createsomething to talk about?

In some cases, identifying ageneration is easy. Take U.S. BabyBoomers. More than 15 millionAmerican servicemen returned fromthe Second World War in 1945, andsure enough, there were 399,499 livebirths in October 1946, compared to222,721 in January of that year,according to Wikipedia. By decade’send, about 32 million babies had beenborn, up from about 24 million in the1930s. Annual births surpassed 4million in 1954, and that rate lasteduntil 1965. By then, 40% of Americanswere younger than 20.

Although Baby Boomers are typicallydefined as adults born between 1946and 1964, generations tend to blur fromone to the next. In the post-war UnitedStates alone, people talk of Boomers,Generation Jones (a.k.a. late Boomersor Tweeners), Generation X, GenerationX/Y Cusp (a.k.a. the MTV Generation orBoomerang Generation) Generation Y(a.k.a. Millennials, Echo Boomers orGeneration Next), Generation Z andGeneration I. That’s seven generationsin just over 60 years.

Identifying a generation is meant tomake it possible to understand whatcommon influences shaped them andhow those influences translate intotheir attitudes, behaviors andpreferences. So are those sevengenerations in the United States, orcomparable generations in othercountries, truly distinct from oneanother? Do they have consistentattitudes and behaviors? Or do region,education level and socioeconomicstatus blur the differences?

What’s sure is that Millennialsare a demographic bulge, not justin the U.S. but throughout theWest. In Europe,Millennials

(defined as peoplebetween the ages of 14and 31) number morethan 186 million,compared with 160million in Generation X(ages 32 to 43). In theUK, Gen Y is 16 million,compared with 13million in Gen X. Thedifference is most pronounced in theUnited States, with more than 75million in Gen Y and about 40 million inGen X. What’s also sure is that they’redifferent from their predecessors insignificant ways.

Some of those ways are increasinglyconsistent across national borders. AsWestern culture and values are spreadingaround the world, and as the middleclass grows in countries likeChina and India, we’re seeingMillennials everywhere adoptingthe same traits. Some young adults inthese rising economies are starting todisplay a sense of entitlement,technology savvy/dependency, anexpectation of instant gratificationand admirable social activism.In traditional societies, this isan especially radical change.

But the full effects thisbulge will have oncorporate and consumerculture are yet to bedetermined. Millennialsare blurring theboundaries betweenpublic and private,personal andprofessional,work and play,and reality and

virtuality. Willthings return tobusiness asusual as theMillennialsmature? Is thisnew, casualattitude towardformality a passing fad? Orare we on the verge of a paradigmshift? We don’t know—no one does,really. But we do know that we shouldbe fostering Intelligent Dialogue byasking smart questions.

This white paper poses five centralquestions about these newest entrants

into theworkforce andincludesperspectivesfrom theirmanagers,their Gen Xcolleagues andMillennialsthemselves, aswell as a list oftop tips for

managing these workers. It exploresthe factors that have shaped ageneration of young people, the waysthose people are increasingly makingtheir professional marks and what it allmight mean for workplaces in theyears to come.


MMiilllleennnniiaallss aarree tthhee cchhiillddrreennof Baby Boomers, a generation whoseattitudes toward life were deeplyinfluenced by events of the 1960s: CivilRights, Women’s Lib, the rise of rock-and-roll and its rebellious icons, andwidespread questioning of establishedauthority. Baby Boomers were going tomake the world a better place and fixhuman beings. Their children were partof the project, even if Boomersoccasionally got distracted bythemselves. (Remember: Tom Wolfe’sseminal essay “The Me Generation andthe Third Great Awakening” waspublished about them in 1976.)

Millennials grew upsurrounded by technologyand entertainment.Even more than withprevious generations,screens have been(and continue to be)one of their mainways of interfacingwith their world: TVand movie screens,but also gameconsoles, computers andmobile phones. Millennialscame of age at a time when funand media savvy were becomingmantras for marketers, educators andanyone in the business of influence.

They were also the first generation tosee widespread consumer adoption oftime-shifting devices—voice mail,VCRs—that splintered the sharedcultural “moments” of the BabyBoomers and ended the era of sharedadult/child entertainment experiencessuch as Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-Inand Hawaii Five-0.

Perhaps more significant, they weregrowing up as prosperity wasspreading and globalization waskicking in. The Berlin Wall came downin 1989, and the Soviet Union wasdissolved in 1991—just as Millennials

were becoming aware ofcurrent events. The

capitalist-communistdivision of the world

was disappearingfast. This, coupledwith technology,meant thatproducts, media,ideas and moneywere moving more

freely acrossborders. Brands and

the multinationalcorporations that own

them were going global, ridingand helping to sustain a wave ofprosperity and plenty that continuedwith barely a blip for nearly two


SMART TALK

Pearl Harbor, McCarthy, JFK, nuclear

winter, the Munich Olympics, Watergate,

Berlin in 1989. What seems to set

Millennials apart is that the events

coinciding with their coming of age, such

as 9/11 and the Second Gulf War, failed to

produce a fundamental philosophical

divide about the kind of world they want

to live in and how to get there, compared

to the landmarks for previous

generations. In some difficult-to-define

sense, the ramparts for Millennials lie

within, erected to cope with social and

personal undercurrents—growing up

with divorce, redefining personhood and

purpose without the guard rails of

gender-based and prescribed

relationship structures. Sometimes this

seems to present as narcissism or self-

involvement. Should we be surprised?

—Peter Hirsch, Global Corporate Affairs Leader, New York

BIG QUESTION 1

ARE MILLENNIALS?

HOW different

decades—a wave that meant an entiregeneration that has known nothing butgood times and is accustomed togetting what they want.

How independent areMillennials?IInn tthhee 11996600ss,, “Don’t trust anyoneover 30” was a popular slogan.Teenagers and early 20-somethingBaby Boomers portrayed parents asuncool objects of scorn. Theychallenged authority. And some ofthem are still challenging figures ofauthority, but now they’re doing it asparents, on behalf of their children.Colleges, universities and evenemployers are reporting an increasingprevalence of “helicopter parents” whohover over their grown children.

A certain amount of thisprotectiveness might be expected inacademic institutions; the studentsmay be in their late teens or early 20s,but they’re still in school and happywith being treated as “adultescents.”Hyperinvolved parents are callingprofessors to complain about theirchildren’s grades and pesteringadministrators about their livingarrangements. With mobile phones,parents are always at hand (literally)

to console, reassure and even to fightfor their child against faculty or otherstudents.

What’s more surprising is how this iscontinuing into the workplace. BettySmith, a university recruiting managerat HP, told USA Today that parents arecontacting the firm directly and askingabout issues such as benefits onbehalf of their adult children—and theirchildren aren’t embarrassed by it. HRdepartments and managers areincreasingly confronted with parents’opinions about everything from careerprogression to business trips.

Dr. Paul Redmond, head of thecareers and employability service atLiverpool University in the UK, wrotean article about helicopter parents forthe Guardian early this year. Hereported that British universities havehired “family liaison officers” to helpparents “settle in.” And the hoveringcontinues after graduation: “Severalhigh-profile graduate recruiters havereported incidents lately where parentshave contacted them to negotiate ason or daughter’s starting salary.Others have had parents contact themto complain about a ‘child’ who hasbeen overlooked for promotion.... BobAthwal, graduate recruitment managerat RWE npower, says: ‘Once an offer of


?


MillennialssayI think older managers need to realize that we are used to doing a lot at

once. We really have mastered multitasking. Many of us went through school

texting/talking online with friends while studying for exams. . . . Our

generation really is full of excellent communicators. We have all grown up

using AIM, e-mail and cell phones with texting. There isn’t a day for most

of us where we aren’t using these tools to communicate with friends and

family. At PN I noticed that teams use AIM to communicate with one

another. Personally, I found this to be an excellent use of the tool to

work with associates quickly. I also think it saves time and helps work to

get done faster. —NICOLE OSUCH, Intern, Cabrini College, class of 2009

employment is made we are alsoaware that they the parents will decidealong with the children which offer totake. Therefore it is essential that westrive to be an employer of choice notonly for the graduates but also theirparents.’”

One corollary of this extendedparental involvement is that Millennialsare more likely than other generations

to need (or at least respondto) “parenting” byemployers and managers—coaching, mentoring,encouragement and lots ofpraise. According to MaryCrane, who specializes inhelping Millennials adjust tothe conventions of the non-Millennial world: “TheBoomers do need to hear

the message that they’re gonna haveto start focusing more on coachingrather than bossing. With thisgeneration in particular, if you just tellthem, ‘You got to do this, you got todo this, you got to do this,’ they trulywill walk. And every major law firm,

every major company knows, this isthe future.”

How significant is thedigital factor? SSiinnccee tthhee eenndd of the Second WorldWar, there has been no single eventthat impacted and shaped a wholegeneration on an international scale.But there’s one massive, if gradual,change that has arguably created agenerational chasm around the world:the arrival of digital interactivetechnology in the mainstream.

It’s hard to pinpoint the date whendigital interactive technology becamethe norm, because it’s been infiltratingfor the last three decades. The firstcompact discs carrying digitized musicwere released in 1982, and by thatdecade’s end, they had become thedominant medium for music. (At leastuntil MP3s came along in the late‘90s.) Video games hit the mainstreamin the 1980s. Personal computers(PCs) have been a fixture of everyday


SMART TALK

Millennials are very different, especially

vs. Boomers but also different vs. Gen

X’ers. Whereas many Boomers and Gen

X’ers live an “it’s all about me” existence,

Millennials are more about building

things up and not tearing them

down; more about unification

than an “I win, you lose”

approach to life, politics and

work. Interacting with each

other defines this generation

vs. the Boomers, who are more

heads-down in the workplace,

positioning themselves for the next big

opportunity. The collegial approach we

are seeing from many Millennials is

extremely refreshing.

—Jim Barbagallo, Partner, Managing Director, Boston

Jim Barbagallo

life since the mid-’80s, and Timemagazine named the computer itsPerson of the Year for 1982. A decadelater, many millions of ordinary peoplewere dialing up Internet connectionsand toting mobile phones.

The digital interactive tipping point,if there was one, was probably in theearly 2000s, when mainstreamconsumers adopted and integrated thetechnologies into their life: broadbandInternet, MP3 music, digital camerasand smart phones (BlackBerries etal.). People of all ages use thesetechnologies now, but Millennials,who’ve never known life without them,use them “natively.”

Do Digital Nativesthink differently? TThheerree iiss aa cceerrttaaiinn iirroonnyy thatwhile many Millennials need parentalhand-holding in the real world, in thedigital world it’s Millennials who tendto do the hand-holding. These Digital

Natives grew up using digitaltechnology, and they’re often acting asguides for Digital Immigrants—peoplewho entered the digital world asadults. While they may be adept atusing technology, they resembleimmigrants who learn the newlanguage but keep traces of theirmother tongue and culture.

While there are exceptions, ingeneral, Digital Immigrants seek textbefore images, video and sound, whileNatives seek images, video and soundbefore text. Digital Immigrants liketheir information delivered in a linear,logical sequence, but Digital Nativesprefer random access to hyperlinkedinformation—and in some cases have adifficult time constructing a rationalchain of consequence. Immigrants areprepared to accept deferred rewards,while Natives expect instantgratification.

Danny Devriendt, a director at PorterNovelli Brussels, has taken a specialinterest in the divide between DigitalImmigrants and Digital Natives. Hesays, “Lots of clients struggle to dealwith the Digital Natives among theirown workforce and struggle even moreto communicate with the Millennialcommunities that are slowly becomingtheir new customers.”

Peter Hirsch, head of Porter Novelli’sCorporate Affairs discipline, based inNew York, cautions that, “I do not

think we really have the faintest ideawhat the actual implications of theNative/Immigrant divide are. What wedo know is that Millennials have spenta lot more time than Baby Boomersinteracting with devices that are verystupid relative to human beings. Youhave to be very literal with devices tomake them work for you, and thisleaves very little room for nuancedinteraction. Devices also don’t haveemotional/psychological reactions—itis an “affectless” transaction. Doesthis change the way Millennialscommunicate with actual people?”


SMART TALK

I’ve seen that Millennials

are quite different from

our generation (I’m 42)

both on a personal and

on a professional level:

• Their long-termplanning is really ashort-term scope of vision, most of thetime several months, one year at most.

• It’s a Me, Me, Me generation, wherethe most important target is

themselves in all aspects of life,including time management,

spending and overall priorities.The sense of belonging is veryimportant if they choose tobelong to a certain group or tribe.

• Friends are one of the mostimportant influences Millennialshave, and being “cool” is a must,understanding “coolness” as anattitude that reflects lack of

complications, “traveling light”through the journey of life.

• Millennials do not believe theyneed to start at the bottom of the

pyramid and work hard to earn abetter position. They believe theorganization owes them more andmore over a very short period oftime: better positions, bettersalaries, more responsibilities andLOTS of recognition. Millennialsneed and expect far morerecognition than our generation.

• Millennials have very little

tolerance for frustration.

—Sandra Kleinburg, Managing Partner, Martec Porter Novelli, Mexico

Sandra Kleinburg


MillennialssayOur generation grew up with encouragement and that is what the young

adults of this generation expect from their working environment.

Companies need to focus on creating a healthy working environment, one

that does not overly criticize, but that gives constructive criticism and

recognizes achievements. —SHOSHANA HOCHDORF, Intern, University of Florida, class of 2009

1.Demonstrate (frequently) how what they’re doing contributes to a larger

mission and adds value. Reinforce their needto have a sense of purpose, to make adifference. —Wendy Hagen, Partner, Director,Planning & Integration, Washington DC

24 TIPS FOR MANAGINGMILLENNIALS FROM PN SENIOR MANAGEMENT

3. 9.Be patient with the iPod/earphones multitasking. It’s the Millennials’ way of life, and they are much better team

players than we ever were. —Ellen Field, EVP, Health and SocialMarketing, Washington DC

2.Millennials believe they can run the show better than

you can. Great! Harness their belief in their ability tolead by giving them projects they can run with. Empower them totake it where they think it should go—or at least to put their ownpersonal imprint on it. They’ll feel like they’re a critical part ofthe mix and will be more likely to push themselves to deliver thevery best they’ve got. —John Hollywood, SVP, New York

10.Work has to be engaging, fun andflexible. It should not be overly

repetitious and must allow for work-life balance. Weneed to regularly celebrate modest, as well as big,successes. —Marion E. Glick, SVP, Health Care MediaRelations, New York

5.Meet face-to-face when giving an assignment and set clear

expectations of when the next checkpointswill be—literally putting them in yourcalendar with them in the room. Knowingwhen feedback will come seems to help agreat deal. —Angie Schneider, SVP, Seattle

11.Be prepared to explain that success and privileges will

not happen overnight; add that you know thisis frustrating but it’s the way business works.—Sandra Kleinburg, Managing Partner,Martec Porter Novelli, Mexico

12.Millennials want responsibility. Give it

to them, along with the permission tofail, but make sure they know theyhave you (their manager) as a safetynet. —Mike Gallagher, SVP, CreativeDirector, Washington DC

6.Give them plenty of committees and teams—they are very social, like to

work with “friends” and place great stock insense of community. —Linda Hadley, EVP,Erica Swerdlow, EVP, Charlie Simpson, SVP,and Wendi Taylor Nations, EVP, Chicago

Wendy Hagen

Albie Jarvis

7.Know your audience (that is,

your team member)—and thatmeans get to know them, their motivatorsand their goals so you can provideguidance, projects and feedback that ismeaningful to them. —Lisa Davidson,Partner, EVP, Health Care, New York

8.Give them room to stretch beyond their job specs.

Remove some of the traditionalboundaries to higher-levelperformance opportunities. —BillSchreiber, Managing Director,Sacramento

Lisa Davidson

Bill Schreiber

Marion E. Glick

Sandra Kleinburg

Angie Schneider

Mike Gallagher

Linda Hadley


The Millennial lifestyle feeds off constant communication.

Managers need to stay connected withMillennials by providing regular directionand on-the-spot feedback so they feel astrong bond with the manager and theteam. —Albie Jarvis, SVP, Boston

4.Don’t fall into the “parent trap.” A wise mentor beat into me that work is not the

same as group therapy. If you treat people like children, you get what you deserve. Everyone, regardless of age, needs to know what is expectedof them, and what the consequences of not doing it will be. —Michael Ramah, Partner, Director of Strategic Planning, New York

Michael Ramah

13.Working below and above your title is not only good for business, it

also shows that no job is beneath anyone. If payingdues is an issue, seeing a senior staffer stuff mediakits can be a good reminder that with client service,hard work at every level is key. —Trevor Campbell,President, Porter Novelli Canada

14.Nurture the Millennials’ confident self-image.

Encourage their “conquer the world”approach to life. Put challenge afterchallenge in their path. —Jim Barbagallo,Partner, Managing Director, Boston

15.Acknowledge and harness the benefits of Millennials’

tendency toward somewhat impulsive action(or immediate fix): Assign projects thatinvolve overlapping multitasking skills andconsider tighter deadlines so they don’t getdistracted. —Betsy Stephenson, SVP,Washington DC

16.

17.This is a bright, fearless generation.

They’re technology savvy and used toa 24/7 environment. Use theirstrengths to the agency’s competitiveadvantage by providing them withcompelling challenges, clarity andregular feedback. —Chris Bailey,Creative Director, London

18.Get comfortable with Instant Messaging. Millennials may take

hours to get back to you via voice mail, but willrespond instantly to IM. —Christine Gerstle, SVP,New York

19.Millennials have heavy school debts to repay. They respond

well to money! —Pam Maddalena, SVP, TalentAcquisition, Boston

20.Consistently look for and provide opportunities for learning and growth above and beyond the

everyday assigned work. —Lisa Dieter, SVP, Health CarePractice, New York

21.Millennials love to ask “Why?” and work

most productively when they fully understand the end goal of a project. Millennials seem much more engaged and deliver a better product when

they clearly see how assigned tasks contribute toaccomplishing a larger goal, especially if it is one theypersonally believe in. —Carolyn Tieger, Partner,Managing Director, Washington, DC

22.

23.Remember to jolt them out of their default world of electronic communication from time to time. It’s

great to see the realization among Millennial colleagues about howmuch more can be gained from a well-planned face-to-face meetingas opposed to a series of e-mails or IM exchanges. Our business isabout relationships, the richer the better. —Neil Bayley, Director,Porter Novelli UK, Banbury

24.Respect and value the fact thatMillennials come to the workforce with

real experience and genuine content knowledge garnered from their long résumés filled with travel, internships, community service and, of course, from their constant interaction with digital devices and media. Give younger workers a real seat at the table by activelyseeking their input and giving meaty assignments. —Suzanne Gabriel,Partner, Deputy Managing Director, New York

Jim Barbagallo

Chris Bailey

Betsy Stephenson

Carolyn Tieger

Suzanne Gabriel


Set them free: Career tracking is about building a meaningful portfolio of professional

experiences for them, and at the speed of light. Lose therhetoric about how to progress through the organization. If aMillennial needs to take a detour to build that portfolio,embrace that—even facilitate it. The dividend will be moreenriched “boomerang” management candidates down the road.—Julie Winskie, President, Chief Client Officer, New York

The boundary between professional and personal doesn’t exist. Get

to know the Millennial personally without fallinginto the “friendship trap.” —Peter Hirsch, GlobalCorporate Affairs Leader, New York

Julie Winskie


BIG QUESTION 2

TO CONFIDENTIALITY INWHAT happens

SMART TALKMillennials are different from the Xgeneration: 9 to 5 mentality, social life isimportant/work-life balance, high salarydemands, managementdemands (coaching by thebest senior people) andconstantly looking for newchallenges.

—Frank Peters, Managing Partner, Amsterdam

TTwwoo ddeeffiinniinngg aanndd mmuuttuuaallllyyreinforcing characteristics of Millennialsare their focus on friends and theirintense use of digital interactivetechnology to stay in contact. In thepre-digital era, people relied on letters,

telephone calls and face-to-facemeetings to stay in touch. Thesetook time and effort, and werelimiting in place. Now people(especially Millennials) have amuch bigger range of options thatare instantaneous, very easy andindependent of location: mobile

phone calls, text messages, InstantMessaging, social networking sites, e-mail, blogs, Flickr and Twitter.

These new communicationstechnologies have two othercharacteristics that may be lessbeneficial: They can be reproduced andspread rapidly and widely, and theircontent can hang around a long time.This means that hastily composed e-mails, rashly expressed blog posts orFacebook photos of drunkenindiscretions may turn up on hard

AN AGE OF Radicaltransparency?

Frank Peters

drives, servers andcaches years later, atan inopportunemoment.

In other words,the more peopleinteract on theInternet, the morerisk they’re exposingthemselves to—especially if they’re usinganything less than a lawyer’sdiscretion. Faced with theprospect of beingrevealed to anyone andeveryone, some peopleadopt a deliberately low-profile“stealth” approach. But that’s muchrarer among Millennials. They grew upwith US Weekly and TMZ—they’re usedto warts-and-all celebrity coverage—and with web passwords rather thanpadlocked diaries. Millennials considerit normal to be “real” on the Internet,even if, according to a Pew survey inthe U.S., 72% think that theirgeneration posts too much personalinformation online.

Millennials have grown up in an eraof radical transparency. The nature ofdigital content, and the deep reach ofdigital media, makes it virtuallyimpossible for anything in digital formto be kept private. Whether or not theyare concerned about their own onlineactivities catching up with them,Millennials are less likely than previousgenerations to be shocked by otherpeople’s online behavior. (Besides,after the online exploits of Paris Hilton,Tila Tequila and lonelygirl15, whatcould be shocking?)

How does employees’online behavior affectemployers? MMoorree tthhaann aannyy of their forebears,Millennials live out a significant part oftheir lives online or through digitalinteractive technology. For them, theline between private and public isincreasingly blurred. This raises anumber of concerns for employers—and for the employees themselves. Ifthey look hard enough, they’re almostcertain to find things out about currentor prospective employees.

In pre-digital days, wouldcompanies have runexhaustive and intrusivebackground checks onprospective employees?Probably not. Yet now

they can sniff aroundwithout much effort. In

a growing number ofindustries, googlinga job candidate isde rigueur, as is

viewing his or herMySpace and Facebook

pages. Should employersdig up this online dirt onpotential hires? Well, if

they don’t, chances are someone elsewill. In any case, employerswould be wise to assumethat sooner or later, delicateinformation will turn up.Consider the case of JessicaCutler (a.k.a. theWashingtonienne), a 26-year-old Congressional aide whowas fired in 2004 afterblogging about hersimultaneous affairs withother Hill staffers and a chief of staff ata federal agency and gleefully assertingthat some of them paid her for sex.

What are the ramificationsfor professional confidentiality? EEmmppllooyyeeeess’’ ppeerrssoonnaall rreevveellaattiioonnssand transparency in the digital mediaspace may be their own business. Butwhat happens if they bring the same spiritof radical transparency to their work?

Gossiping about coworkers in a baris one thing, and people have done itfor decades. Discussing them online isanother matter; now, for the first time,there’s a virtually permanent,


SMART TALK

We recently hosted a media event at our

London office attended by 30 senior

communications executives from blue-

chip companies. Many

were shocked to hear the

extent to which

journalists use images

and information from

social networking sites

and other online

resources.

Understandably, reporters see any

information on the Web as “fair game”

and use it to bring human interest and

texture to stories much more quickly

than would otherwise be possible. The

implication for companies is that they

are totally exposed to the comments and

opinions of any employee, customer or

other stakeholder who has a view on

their organization, and that this can be

especially challenging when the

organization is in the news for the wrong

reasons. This also means that senior

executives need to be aware of how their

personal postings may be construed. For

example, the CEO who lists yachting and

supercars as his passions on Facebook

can find himself receiving critical

coverage when he announces that

hundreds of his staff are to lose their

jobs as the credit crunch tightens.

—Jonathan Hemus, Director, Crisis and Issues Specialty Leader, Banbury, UK

JOnathan Hemus


Gen X’ers sayI think Digital Natives can process a lot of information from dozens of sources

at a time, but at the same time, I think they can be (for lack of a better term)

a little ADD. Digital Natives, particularly in PR, should be leveraged for

knowledge of emerging technologies/techniques of communication. These things

are moving so fast now: Friendster in—Friendster out; Facebook in. It feels

like overnight. Texting. IM’ing. Twittering. YouTube. Hulu. BlackBerries.

iPhones. It’s just SO fast. —AMY INZANTI, Senior Strategic Planning Manager, New York

endlessly forwardable record. Yet forMillennials, the distinction isn’t soclear. To them, digital technology isjust another way of hangingout with their friends; onthe new continuum ofpersonal communication,there aren’t separate rulesfor in-person and onlineexchanges—even if there aresometimes separateconsequences. As reported inthe Salt Lake Tribune, HeatherArmstrong was fired in 2002after blogging about hersuperiors and her “attemptsto slack on the job,” settinga precedent for others tobe terminated for online

misbehavior and coining a new verb: todooce, meaning fire an employeebecause of his or her blog.

She has lots of company.According to a 2007 survey bythe messaging security company

Proofpoint, as reported inblog post (what else) on

Wired.com,“Nearly ten

percent ofcompanieshave firedanemployee

for violatingcorporateblogging or

message board

policies, and 19 percent havedisciplined an employee for the sameinfractions. Almost a third ofcompanies ‘employ staff to read orotherwise analyze outbound email.’... Aquarter have fired an employee forviolating corporate email policies.Twenty percent of the companies andalmost thirty percent of companieswith more than 20,000 employees hadbeen ordered by a court or a regulatorto turn over employee emails.”

Intellectually, Millennials may wellunderstand that the prevailing businessworld expects employees to treatcertain business matters asconfidential and handle others withdiscretion. But can that override theinstinct for transparency?


PRESSURE BUILDS: DIGITAL IMMIGRANTS VS. DIGITAL NATIVES

Source: Ian Jukes and Anita Dosaj, the InfoSavvy Group, Gartner


MillennialssayOlder managers should not be afraid to show a more affable side to their

employees. This will allow their young talent to be comfortable in contributing

to the team from the very beginning. A younger employee who can feel a certain

sense of comfort around his or her older managers is happier and ultimately

more productive, while still respecting the manager’s position and authority.

—KEYA RAHNEMOON, Intern, State University of New York–Binghamton, class of 2009

Similarly, employers may well expectemployees of any age to treat theirwork confidentially. But how realistic isthat assumption when youngeremployees’ conversations are held inthe (semi-)public digital space, andwhen this rising generation of workersexpects to have no secrets? Shouldcorporations try to prevent employeesfrom doing anything in their privatelives that might discredit theorganization, or should they try to buildemployees’ loyalty by better aligningthe workplace with workers’ privatelives. This is a fundamental conflict,and they can’t have it both ways.

How can employersharness Millennials’online habits? TThhee wwoorrlldd iiss iinnccrreeaassiinnggllyy goingdigital and interactive, and that’s the“language” that Millennials “speak”fluently. Any brand or corporation thatwants to stay connected with theworld needs to learn that language,too. One of the best ways for anybusiness to get up to speed is to putits own Millennials close to the heartof the digital action.

For hiring, too, corporations need tohang out and connect where theirpotential new employees are hangingout and connecting—online. Forexample, in the United States, AT&Trecently added a “Work With Me”Facebook application (in which thecompany uses its employees’Facebook networks to push jobs), andplans to launch a new recruitingwebsite with animated navigation,employee video profiles and a previewof the company’s new products. “Some74% of U.S. Internet users view videoonline, and we’ll tap into that interestto give prospective job candidates aglimpse of what our jobs entail,” saysScott Smith, VP of staffing for AT&T.“Our online recruitment strategies arerapidly evolving, and there is noquestion that we will continue to seeincreased use of these types of tacticsas we, out of necessity, become morecreative in how we attract talent.”


SMART TALK

Even the most

careful online

participant leaves

an easy-to-follow

trail of activities

that are accessible

by friend and foe alike. There’s a two-

sided debate going on, in particular in

Asia: portability of information from one

social networking site to another vs.

privacy concerns. The issue will not be

resolved quickly, and there will likely be

a radical, divisive split between those

who want mobility and those who want

confidentiality. This could result in two

different social networking models—one

for each camp, with the Millennials

falling to the side of transparency, for

better or worse.

—Ed Dixon, Managing Director, Porter Novelli Singapore

Ed Dixon


BIG QUESTION 3

IF BEINGentertained

WHATHAppenS

TO WORK?

IS THE NORM,

OOnnee ooff tthhee Baby Boomers’ legaciesis the notion that any activity shouldinclude some fun and entertainment.This line of thought is a standard ployin marketing, with “fun-size” packages,entertaining advertising and high-touchretail concepts. It’s mainstream ineducation, started by Sesame Streetand present in thousands of interactivelearning games; it’s a must-have incars, with on-board computers, DVDplayers and TV screens for the kids.(Even New York City taxis have TVsthese days!) Even more serioussegments of journalism are feelingincreasing pressure to include livelygraphics, mood music and

dramatizations; it can sometimes takea second to discern whether you’rewatching CNN or MTV.

In Silicon Valley, the Americanheartland of the Millennial generation,companies have to compete forMillennials’ typical talents: digitalsmarts, creativity and a “randomaccess” hyperlinked approach toprojects. And tech companies are atthe forefront of snagging talent byoffering Millennial treats in theworkplace: casual dress codes,massages, ping-pong tables, puttinggreens, games facilities, bean-bagcorners, in-office happy hours andregular social events.

Typical of the Valley ethos isSmugmug, a successful subscription-only photo-sharing site now in its sixthyear. The privately owned site, foundedand run by father-and-son team Chrisand Don MacAskill, prides itself on itsfun approach. Staff still work incubicles, but they’re given anallowance to decorate them any waythey want—a growing trend. The effortof Smugmug staffer Mark MacAskillwon the 2008 Coolest Cubicle Contestrun by the tech blog Lifehacker.Commenting on his cubicle, which hedecked out with camouflage, like amilitary bunker, he told Lifehacker:“The war on terror is second only tothe war on boredom. And my cube was

MillennialssayDigital Natives can be a challenge to managers because the ease with which work

can be done digitally can instill a particular laziness that arises when tangible

work needs to be done. This could mean that nondigital work is done slower than

it should be done or that there is a resentment and lack of motivation when doing

tangible work. Digital Natives are a managerial opportunity because when digital

work is required, it can be completed extremely efficiently and with the least

possible error. Digital Natives can best be leveraged for their ability to rapidly

communicate and acquire information. Also, they can be a good internal resource

by teaching those who are not Digital Natives how to feel comfortable with all

things digital. —CASSIE DURAND, Intern, Wake Forest University, class of 2008

definitely boring before I transformed itinto a weapon of mass destruction.”

How does Millennialemployees’ need for funimpact more traditionalbusinesses? FFuunn aanndd ppllaayy are conducive tolearning and creativity. Upping the funquotient makes sense for businesseswhere creativity is high in the mix,such as technology, media, fashion andentertainment. But what aboutindustries where method, process andrigor are more important? Howcomfortable would you feel knowingthat your defense attorney, surgeon orair traffic controllers have a lot of funat work? If you’re much older than 30,you may not feel all that great aboutit. At the very least, you may wonderwhether it’s appropriate. If you’re aMillennial, you’re more likely to wonderwhy anyone would object to peoplehaving fun at work.

Is creating more fun forMillennials at work acop-out, or is it a wayto harness untappedsmarts? TThhee ttrraaddiittiioonnaall command-and-control approach to work certainly gotthings done for decades. But did it make

the best of employees’ capabilities? Ordid it fall short in harnessing theircapacity to learn, innovate and makevaluable contributions?

These questions are the subject ofmuch debate. A segment last year onthe American TV program 60 Minutes,titled “The Millennials Are Coming,”prompted a flurry of heated onlineexchanges. One post made thiscomment about the old style ofbusiness: “Grandpa’s work ethic was tokeep the assembly line runningregardless of reality. Chrysler filedbankruptcy under that work ethic—200,000 finished cars rotting at theend of an assembly line going full-speed, 3 shifts. Great work ethic—bustyour butt to crank out automobiles thatwill rust in inventory.”

By contrast, engineer-turned-entrepreneur DavidHall, chief executive of HFLLtd. in the UK (and aBoomer), believes thatplayfulness and creativityhave a vital role in theworkplace, even when itcomes to seriousbusinesses. He took aBritish government-ownedlaboratory with a monopoly in drug-testing racehorses and turned it intoan innovative and award-winningprivate company. Along with his “dayjob,” he consults widely on fosteringplayfulness and creativity to generatemoneymaking innovation.


SMART TALK

Having fun together is one of the

Millennials’ objectives, so “management

by fun” is clearly essential. Employers are

paying more attention to location: Is the

place central? If not,

employers have developed a

range of services to

facilitate life in the

workplace. PN in France is

opening a sun bar—a

”luminotherapia” area

where people are going to

be able to have a break and take their

daily quota of “sunlight” even in winter.

Music has also entered the office with

the Internet and iPods. Nevertheless,

having fun at work is not something you

can demand or even advise. It’s only

something top management can

facilitate, sometimes provoke, and for

sure let spread by itself.

—Christelle Coche-Dupeuble, Managing Director, Porter Novelli France

ChristelleCoche-Dupeuble


MillennialssayWhen managing younger people, it is vital to remember what competencies we

bring to the table. I have felt at many jobs that my abilities are greatly

underestimated and that older managers do not realize the full potential of

their younger counterparts because they are so far removed from their own

experiences at that age. Today an internship is not the only means to

experience valuable work; in the classroom, applicable projects, including

those interacting with real business clients, are available. Older managers

must realize that there are many students and recent graduates that can be

made useful and can be relied on for important accounts and client work.

Though it is important to gauge younger interns and employees to their skill

level and work with them to better their abilities, the majority of students

have much more experience in their specialized field than managers realize,

and in some cases, older managers fail in their attempt to find out just how

worthwhile interns can be.

—BLAIR RILEY, Intern, Virginia Polytechnic Institution and State University, class of 2008


EEaacchh ggeenneerraattiioonn hhaass its owndistinctive perceptions of work andbusiness. People who lived through theDepression were glad to have a job.Most hoped that their jobs would bestable and long-term; they gave theirloyalty and diligence in return for life-time employment.

The Baby Boomers had a morecomplex set of attitudes. Asadolescents and young adults,many of them were rebelliouswith liberal/left-wingtendencies andquestioned the norms ofbusiness. Yet manyturned out to be hard-driving workaholics—itwas this generation whoearned the nickname“yuppies.” And somenotable business icons, suchas Richard Branson and SteveJobs, mixed both elements.

Generation X grew up in the shadowof the Boomers and initially rebelledagainst their hard-driving ethos. Intheir formative years they were seeingbusinesses shedding staff to raise

profitability and drive up shareholdervalue. Looking for their first jobs duringthe recession of the early ’90s, whileat the same time confronted byincreasing globalization andcompetition from lower-cost countries,many adopted a nihilistic attitude.(Remember Reality Bites?) But as theymatured, Gen X buckled down and

ramped up their work ethic—or at least adopted a

defensive, politicalapproach in hopes

of surviving anylayoffs thatmay be intheir future.They gave upon the idea ofhaving one job

for life.

Millennialsgrew up in a time

of prosperity—and inmany cases grew

accustomed to their parents makingand spending lots of money—but areentering the workforce at a time whenthe global economy seems to be losingits footing. Work now often means long

SMART TALK

Millennials don’t see

people in the workplace

as aspirational—they

don’t aspire to be

anybody other than

themselves. Thus the

coaching a manager provides is often

less about them and their actual work

than about their lives. It’s often less

about the “workplace us.”

—Lisa Davidson, Partner, Head of New York Health Care

BIG QUESTION 4

AND BUSINESS MEAN TO MILLENNIALS?

WHAT DOES THE WORLD OF WORK

Lisa Davidson

hours and uncertain long-termprospects for most, and Millennialsare struggling with the conflictbetween their expectations ofeasy money and the realitiesof entry-level jobs circa 2008.

Now they’re alsoincreasingly confronting thespecter of outsourcing. NewYork Times columnist ThomasL. Friedman wrote in 2004,“When I was growing up, my parentsused to say to me: ‘Finish yourdinner—people in China are starving.’I, by contrast, find myself wanting tosay to my daughters: ‘Finish yourhomework—people in China and Indiaare starving for your job.’”

In any case, the traditional careerpath increasingly looks like a road tonowhere. In the past decade or so,Millennials have also seen a fewunorthodox, relatively youngentrepreneurs strike it very rich, not byclimbing the corporate ladder but bysetting out on their own with a big,bold idea (Larry Page and Sergey Brinof Google, Mark Zuckerberg ofFacebook). Millennials have also seenother young hopefuls competingagainst each other for high-poweredjobs in shows such as The Apprenticeand pitching business ideas inDragon’s Den, both of whose formatsare widely franchised around the world.

These role models never (or briefly)paid their dues in an entry-level job,and Millennials often assume theyshouldn’t have to either. “Give memore responsibility” and “Let me workup to my abilities” are commonrefrains from young employees. At thevery least, they want to understandthe big picture. A recent LeadershipIQarticle dubbed them Generation Why,explaining that they grew up withparents who encouraged questioningand now “want to know how they, aswell as their work, fit into the whole.They want to know how the tasksthey do affect the department,organization, field or world as awhole. They’ve grown up wanting theirlives and work to be meaningful, andthey want to see how meaningful itwill actually be. Generation Y workershave little patience for tasks that arerote and, as they see it,meaningless.”


SMART TALKIt’s difficult to find a balance between the

staffing needs of a company and the

personal needs of a Millennial. They also

are very impatient, and many are focused

on status—we actually had a Millennial

(an account manager with four years’

experience) leave because he wasn’t

promoted to account director in six

months and “wasn’t consulted on the

strategic direction of the agency.” Those

who have strong accomplishments (or the

communications skills to make you

believe) have power and find it very easy

to find a new, though from a traditional

perspective not necessarily “better” (more

pay, higher position), job within days.

—Balázs Szántó, Chief Operating Officer, Noguchi Porter Novelli, Budapest

SMART TALK

To Millennials, the world of business means boredom, captivity. I think a

lot of Millennials want very little to do with the world of business. Thus

the onus is on organizations and managers to ensure as challenging and

interesting a workplace experience as possible for Millennials, for as long

as they care to work with us.—Helen Ostrowski, Chairman, New York

Helen Ostrowski


Gen X’ers sayYounger people are looking for mentors and coaches, not necessarily bosses.

Also, it is of critical importance that managers have integrity and follow

through on commitments. Younger people enjoy working with their peers, not

entirely losing the hierarchy of the traditional work environment but

creating more opportunities for cross-team or intra-level project work.

Finally, younger people are focused on a career path—they want projects

that are challenging or contribute to their development. Of course, not

every project is “challenging,” and there are often ones that are outright

boring (the “pay your dues” type) but still necessary. Younger people aren’t

interested in paying dues, so it’s the older manager’s job to present this

assignment in a way that aligns it with the younger person’s development

goals. . . . —TEGWYN COLLINS, Vice President, New York

What do Millennialssee as the “deal”between them andemployers? AA ffeeww ddeeccaaddeess aaggoo, the deal wasmutual commitment for the long haul,with no big surprises and no greatexpectations. Is there such a thing

now as a “job for life”?Does any employer dare tooffer such a thing? And doMillennials even want it?

Millennials grew up witha surfeit of options—everything from cablechannels to Starbucksbeverages—and theyexpect ever more choice.

They’re accustomed to being wooed bybrands. They’ve seen that thingschange fast, and that once mightybusinesses can quickly decline. Theyknow that employees expect to changejobs many times through their careers.And they know that in many sectors ofmany developed countries, there aremore jobs than people to do them.

The result is that many employersfind themselves adjusting to a newrange of attitudes among their youngeremployees. One of the most importantdifferences between them and their

live-to-work predecessors is that theyexpect to have a life outside work; infact, some expect their work toaccommodate the timetables of theirpersonal life.

They also want their work time itselfto be pleasant. A 2006 survey of1,250 executives in 16 Europeancountries conducted by ForresterConsulting found that “Some of thekey elements that Millennials arelooking for at work that will allow themto be most productive include:

• A flexible work environment andwork schedule, one that allowsfor work/life balance.

• Teamwork and a collaborativeculture.

• Up-to-date technology.

• A forward thinking, responsive,and innovative company.

• Streamlined business processes.”

Sometimes they want a lot morethan that. While stereotypes andgeneralizations are specious, mediadepictions of Millennials are telling. Inthe most extreme cases, Millennialsare portrayed as spoiled prima donnaswho expect to be praised andappreciated just for showing up—a


SMART TALKIs there a corollary with conscious

consumerism? Conscious employee-ism?

Aren’t Millennials looking to work for a

company that values social responsibility

as much as financial outcomes? I know

one recent Wharton grad, brilliant guy,

who chose to work at a clean-

tech VC firm called Good

Energies, not because that’s

likely to be the most financially

lucrative choice for him but

because he sees them as

primarily values driven. The

trick is for companies not to

jump to painting themselves as values

driven if the commitment is not highly

credible and visible. Millennials will see

right through the hype. Make it real and

engaging. Make sure they can help shape

how these values are expressed, and help

them to be involved according to their

own interests and schedules. That’s what

will be most attractive to job seekers who

are conscious employees.

—David Zucker, Partner, New York

David Zucker

legacy of the noncompetitive,“everybody’s a winner” environment of1980s and ’90s childhoods. The mostcontroversial reports describe them asneeding managers who are able tonurture them and act as a surrogateparent at times.

According to Porter Novelli CMOMarian Salzman, speaking on 60Minutes, “You do have to speak tothem a little bit like atherapist on televisionmight speak to apatient. You can’t beharsh. Youcannot tellthem you’redisappointedin them. Youcan’t really askthem to live andbreathe thecompany. Becausethey’re living andbreathing themselves, and that keepsthem very busy.... These young peoplewill tell you what time their yoga classis and the day’s work will be organizedaround the fact that they have thiscommitment.... How wonderful it is tobe young and have your priorities soclear. The flipside of it is how awful it

is to be managing theextension, sort of, of theteenage babysitting pool.”

Less controversially,there’s no doubt thatMillennials expect tolearn at work. They knowthat things are changingfast, especiallytechnology, and that

continuous learning isessential. More than any

earlier generation,Millennials have had

nurturingparents, andthey expectthat

nurturing, andthe personal growththat results, tocontinue. They seek

the “three C’s”:change, challenge

and choice. They want to be closelymentored and to be given opportunitiesto develop new skills. Many watchedtheir parents remain loyal to acompany only to be made redundant inthe 1990s recession. They’re eager tomake themselves employable andmultiskilled.


SMART TALKToday’s work environment looks a lot

different than what it was 20 years ago,

and today’s employers are making the

necessary adjustments. Back then, going

to work meant getting to the office by

8:30 a.m., working in an office with

basic furniture in satisfactory condition

and mingling with colleagues at the

lunch table, holiday parties or summer

outings. Today, going to work means

getting to the office without an exact

start time, working from a space

addressed to your needs (e.g.,

adequate lighting, comfortable

chairs and cool architectural

design elements to inspire

creativity) and socializing with

colleagues at impromptu happy

hours, team-building events

and elaborate holiday and summer

parties. Employers are responding to two

key challenges: recruiting and retaining

talent and scheduling more fun and

entertaining activities to foster a

collaborative work environment.

Technology is great, but we rely on it too

much when colleagues who sit near each

other communicate via e-mail. Twenty

years ago, you used to see a lot of people

around the watercooler catching up on

current events, but today you’re lucky to

run into one person getting a cup of

coffee or water.

—Sandy Chun, Senior Vice President, Director of Administration, New York

Sandy Chun


MillennialssayI feel that most “older managers” just accept the fact that the standard for

young people is to not stay in a particular job for very long. However, they

don’t realize that one of the main things that young people are after in the

job market as well as in life is long-term stability and that we can be

extremely loyal when these objectives are met. We want to be assured that we

are on the right path and that “paying our dues” will eventually lead us to

an opportunity to grow and prosper. There are many things that managers can

do in order to make my generation content enough to stay loyal to a

particular company or job. I know from personal experience that relationships

between managers and young talent are key to successful growth in a job.

Also, work-life balance is extremely important to most young people. Being

able to work through telecommuting, flex days and having a manager who

understands that you have a personal life and obligations will contribute to

a much better work environment. —JILL SPIRITUS, Research Assistant, New York


BIG QUESTION 5

ARE MILLENNIALS TELLINGTO MAKE SENSE OF THEMSELVES AND

THEIR GENERATION?

WHAT STORIES

MMiilllleennnniiaallss mmaayy feelbad about themselveswhen they hear about

how previous generations hadto make do with less, workharder or be moreindependent earlier, and howearlier generations were morerespectful, adventurous orappreciative. But they feel a

certain pride at being adeptwith all things digital. Othergenerations respect theirtechnological smarts, even ifthey may complain about how

Millennials are too reliant ongadgets. Millennials are also awarethat they are much more adept atmultitasking and pulling togetherinformation from diverse sources.

However, for the moment, it seemsthat the stories they are telling aboutthemselves and their generationaren’t yet properly formed andarticulated; they’re more likely toplay back what others are sayingabout them. As a prosperous,relatively content generation growingup close to their families—and oftenstill living with their parents—theyhaven’t yet completely differentiatedthemselves from other generations.As a Pew survey on Generation Nextin the United States put it, “Whilemost Gen Nexters see themselves aspart of a unique generation, they arehard pressed to come up with a wordor phrase to describe theirgeneration. In fact, they had an easiertime describing their parents’generation than they did their own.”

The big role of technology inMillennials’ lives has promptedconcerns that it’s making them lazyand too accustomed to instant,effortless gratification. The problemscould go deeper. Britishneuroscientist Susan Greenfield toldthe Sunday Times of London that she’sconcerned thatMillennials riskthe “NobodyScenario,”

in which they don’t develop a clearsense of identity. “By spendinginordinate quantities of time in theinteractive, virtual, two-dimensional,cyberspace realms of the screen, shebelieves that the brains of the youthof today are headed for a drasticalteration,” the article said, and wenton to quote her saying: “They aredestined to lose an awareness of whoand what they are: not someones, oranyones, but nobodies, eh!”

One positive consequence ofMillennials’ online socializing is thattheir friends are no longer limited bygeography. Young adults todayinteract with people all over the worldin their social networks, and theytake diversity as a given. Whereasyoung adults 20 years ago wereimpressed enough by images ofmulticultural youth that Benetton wasable to build a successful adcampaign around them, today’s youngadults increasingly take those sortsof scenes for granted. They want adiverse workplace (and White House,as evidenced by the strong youthsupport for U.S. presidentialcandidate Barack Obama). This isn’tjust a function of living in the digitalworld but a reflection of the realworld as well; populations everywhereare becoming more mixed.

Are Millennials thefirst EnvironmentalNatives too? TThhee eennvviirroonnmmeenntt hhaass been agrowing concern since the ’60s butfor most of the past four decades it’sbeen the domain of “tree huggers.”That’s changed, of course, in the pastfew years, as the worrisome findingson climate change have becomeimpossible to ignore. The environment


SMART TALK

Millennials in China—the one-child-per-

family digital princes and princesses who

grew up being given everything their

families can afford—have evolved in an

unexpected way. They enjoy great

freedoms unimaginable to their parents

and grandparents: relatively high

disposable incomes, an avalanche of

international brands to buy, an explosion

of media channels, numerous interactive

relationships around the world and a

sense of political openness and change.

Given these freedoms, they have created

an unusual social model—brand-literate

consumers with a strong sense of

national pride and unity. This has been

demonstrated in recent months with the

response to international criticism of

China’s attitude to Tibet and the Olympic

torch relay, and to corporate and national

reaction to the Sichuan earthquake.

China’s Millennials have responded not to

criticism of the Chinese government but

to criticism of the nation and people of

China. These new digital patriots turn

their fire on anything that offends their

sense of new China-ness—and they have

become world leaders in turning Net fury

into action on the street, as shown by

recent boycotts of the French retail chain

Carrefour, Sharon Stone at Cannes and

companies and countries seen to be

miserly in their donations to earthquake

relief. These are lessons to be learned by

the world’s big brands—and they must be

learned quickly.

—John Orme, President, Shunya International, Beijing

became the cause du jour just atthe time manyMillennials werearriving on collegecampuses—historically centersof activism.

There they wereable to persuadeadministrators totake all kinds ofgreen actions:replacing plasticutensils with ones made fromcorn, abolishing cafeteriatrays so students wouldn’tbe as likely to take more foodthan they could eat, developingrecycling programs, constructingenvironmentally friendly buildings andpurchasing renewable energy. Whywould anyone expect that spirit ofadvocating for change to end atgraduation?

As Business Week put it in anarticle last year, “businesses thatwant to attract the most qualifiedcandidates say they must appeal tostudents’ environmentalsensibilities. “They’re the futureleaders of our company, thefuture investors, and futureconsumers,’ saysLorraine Bolsinger,

vice-president for GE’sEcomaginationstrategy. ‘Gen Y folksthink that theenvironment is twice asimportant as theeconomy. We absolutelyhave to think about theirconcerns.’”

The environment hasbecome a mainstreamconcern and hotpolitical issue at a timewhen substantialnumbers of Millennialsare making theirpresence felt. Could itbe that the environmentwill be at the heart ofthe story thatMillennials increasinglytell about theirgeneration? Will active, mainstream concern for

the environment be the issue thatdefines Millennials’ sense of identity?

It’s not just the environment thatmotivates Millennials. Having grown upin a rampantly interconnected world,this generation has a higherawareness, and concern for, othersaround the planet. They care aboutsocial responsibility, whether thatmeans buying fair-trade coffee or, income cases, seeking employment thatwill do good.

An article on Millennials inthe April issue of the

journal Sciencediscussed these highideals: “Compared withprevious generations,‘they are driven andmotivated by different

things. It’s not moneyand material things like a

car,’ agrees Avril Henry, ahuman resources management

consultant in Rozelle,Australia. Rather, ‘thesense of doingsomething worthwhile,[or] a noble cause,motivates them,’ [Paul]Redmond [head of thecareers andemployability service atthe University ofLiverpool in the UK]says. Consequently,‘employers realize that ifthey want to tap into thetalent, they have to tap


SMART TALK

Millennials will change the business

model of Internet commerce. Today’s

business model is

oriented from business

to consumer. The

Millennial generation

will turn it opposite.

They will group

themselves with others

with similar buying interests and create a

model from consumers to business,

which will be beneficial for both parts of

the transaction—better prices for

consumers and better forecasts for

suppliers. They are more technologically

savvy, more ecology aware and more

family oriented. It is very hard to get

their interest. There is a lot of stimulus

around them, so they try to use

technology for organizing their life more

effectively and rely on family to guide

them through the emotional feedback

labyrinth that’s created by their

addiction to iPods, Xboxes, Facebook...

—Stefan Vadocz, Managing Partner, Neopublic Porter Novelli, Slovakia

Stefan Vadocz


MillennialssayDigital Natives are a managerial challenge because face-to-face

communication has become almost extinct. We rely completely on technology

to communicate (texting, Facebook, e-mail) and therefore may lack

interpersonal communication skills. Digital Natives are a managerial

opportunity because they can teach older company members the tools to

becoming more technologically savvy. Digital Natives can best be leveraged

by utilizing their strengths, technological know-how, as well as providing

the tools to stay connected with today’s global world. —ANDREA BRANCHEAU,Intern, Michigan State University, class of 2009

into corporate social responsibilitiespromoting their values.’”

Similarly, global research completedlast year by the Kenexa ResearchInstitute in the U.S. found thatcorporate social responsibility is astrong motivator for workers in Brazil,China, Germany, India, the UK and theU.S. “Participating in corporate socialresponsibility (CSR) activities providesmore benefits to an organization thanjust giving back to the community and‘doing the right thing,’” Kenexaannounced in a press release. “Thelatest research suggests that anorganization’s active participation incorporate social responsibility effortshas a significant influence onemployees’ engagement levels andviews of senior management. Amongthe six surveyed countries, theresearch indicates that working for anorganization where employeespositively view CSR efforts has asignificant, favorable impact on howthey rate their pride in theorganization, willingness torecommend it as a place to work andoverall satisfaction.” The geographicdifferences are noteworthy, with olderemployees in China and India havingthe most favorable views of CSR andyounger employees in Germany, theU.S. and the UK valuing it the most—auseful reminder that Millennials arenot always the same the world over.


SMART TALKMillennials are committed to doing

something meaningful, making a

difference—because it’s important to them

personally, not because

it’s important to the

company they work for.

Teach for America saw a

big spike in applicants

this year. Millennials are

more comfortable with

technology as a utility or like oxygen—it’s

no big deal; they take its presence and

functionality for granted.

—Wendy Hagen, Partner, Director, Planning andIntegration, Washington DC

Wendy Hagen

Gen X’ers sayI wish older, more traditional managers would understand that the rules have

changed. We need to adjust our management and workplace to meet the needs and

desires of Millennials. If we keep doing things the same way we did 5, 10, 20

years ago, not only do we get stale in business but we won’t have any junior

employees. This younger generation is dedicated, hardworking and driven like

none other, and we should embrace and learn from them. —SHERRY GOLDBERG, VicePresident, New York


MillennialssayI think there’s a real need to recognize talent for what it is, and not “by

numbers.” What I mean is that the playing field is changing and team

players are judged on experience, ability and attitude. This goes across

the board, though, so older folks won’t just get respect because they’re

older—they’ll need to earn it! If younger people feel they are being

treated “like a kid” as a result of their manager talking about “how long

they’ve been in the business yada yada,” then they won’t perform as well. In

today’s workplace, age is just a number. —SHILPA SAUL, Associate Director, London

TThheerree’’ss nnoo ddoouubbtt that Millennials are shaping the way business is done.Their disinterest in professionalism andexpertise, their loss of faith incertifications and, perhaps mostsignificant, their lack of interest in privacyare not trivial matters. While someemployers and senior colleagues may hopethese changes are temporary, there’s nodenying that at least some will have lastingeffects. The question is, Which ones?

It’s possible that Millennials will callthe shots from here on in. Throughoutthe developed world the demographicbulge of Baby Boomers is moving intoretirement, and Millennials will be takingtheir place. In Europe alone, 51 millionMillennials are expected move into theworkforce in the next ten years, and 48million Baby Boomers will retire.

In many sectors and many regions,there are now more jobs than people tofill them. This balance of supply anddemand makes it an employees’ market,

and the prospective employees are,increasingly, Millennials. Employers maynot like this situation, but they’d be wiseto pay attention to it. Now the messagefrom employment consultants and HRspecialists is that employers will have toadapt to meet Millennials’ needs, or elsethey’ll walk out and find other jobs.

As Porter Novelli senior vice presidentIya Davidson puts it, “Unlike the ‘me’generation prior, they strike me as the‘you for me’ generation. In other words, Ifeel they put a lot of onus on us to createconditions and accommodations thatmake them comfortable and fulfilled.”

Perhaps the most significant problemis a lack of understanding all around. TheForrester Consulting survey cited abovereported, “Strong differences existbetween the responses of older andyounger [European] executives regardingtheir understanding of the Millennials andwhat they think their companies aredoing to encourage productivity andinformation sharing.” Specifically, the

research found, “Ninety-one percent ofexecutives across Europe said that theyrecognise the different working styles ofthe new generations, and 73% said theircompany had responded to theserequirements. However, of the smallnumber of respondents who fell into theMillennial age group, only half thoughtthe company they worked for hadresponded to their needs.”

In the spirit of Intelligent Dialogue, webelieve the best course for navigatingthese new intergenerational waters iscommunication and questioning. We—employees and employers, subordinatesand managers, Millennials and Boomers—should be asking ourselves and each othersmart questions. What can we learn fromone another? How can we work togetherto create an environment in whicheveryone thrives and business gets done?Rather than resorting to snap judgmentsand generalizations, we believe ongoingconversation—sometimes even debate—isthe basis of understanding.


IN CONCLUSION

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PICTURE CREDITS


WHAT PORTER NOVELLI UNIQUELY offers can be

summed up in two words: Intelligent Influence. The basis for

Intelligent Influence is Intelligent Dialogue. As yesterday’s mass

media morph into today’s interactive media, people expect to talk

back at journalists and opinion leaders. Yesterday’s way was set-

piece monologues broadcast to passive audiences by powerful

brands and media owners. Today’s way is fluid, evolving dialogues

conducted across multiple, linked channels. Ongoing dialogue is

now possible and is truly the best basis of dynamic long-term

relationships. Easy sound-bite answers are seductive; they give a

comforting but illusory sense of resolution. Instead, we need to

cultivate open, questioning minds that ask smart, creative

questions. Smart questions spark Intelligent Dialogue, open up

thinking and tap into the power of many minds.

The Porter Novelli INTELLIGENT DIALOGUEPrinciple

PORTER NOVELLI was founded in Washington, D.C., in 1972 and is a part ofOmnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com). With 100offices in 60 countries, we take a 360-degree view of clients’ business tobuild powerful communications programs that resonate with criticalstakeholders. Our reputation is built on our foundation in strategic planningand insights generation and our ability to adopt a media-neutral approach.We ensure our clients achieve Intelligent Influence, systematically mappingthe most effective interactions, making them happen and measuring theoutcome. Many minds. Singular results.

CONTACT: Marian Salzman, Chief Marketing Officer, Porter NovelliWorldwide, 75 Varick Street, 6th floor, New York, New York 10013, 212.601.8034

Porter Novelli Worldwide75 Varick Street, 6th floorNew York, NY 10013

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