Is your organization ready for the new age workforce ? (4 minutes read)

‘Time and tide wait for none’. Ultimately, it is us catching up with time, in order to reap the benefits of expedient opportunities.

‘New age workforce’ has wonderfully grasped this particular idea. Roughly speaking, the new age workforce refers to Millennials (born between 1981 & 1996). Now, what is it which they are doing differently from say for example, baby boomers and gen X?

Firstly, they are more aware, due to technology being omnipresent. They know what exactly what they want from their professional lives, and how to approach it. More importantly they know what they deserve and hence refuse to settle for less. Rather than following the traditional method of ‘toeing the line’, they prefer creating their own ways in which creativity and independence plays a major part. Studies show that 89% millennials prioritize benefits over pay raises, while 83% would change their job for better benefits. Not only the millennials realise the need to pursue their personal interests, they also understand the concept of mental health well. They don’t view it as a ‘come back later to’ task, rather they prioritize it.

With all these changes in the workplace, employers aren’t far behind. Given the fact that employee centricity is a non negotiable, here’s how organisations are making tailor-made changes for their employees:

• Increased Diversity- due to the open mindset of millennials and employers alike, diversity in workplace has become more accepting, where people of various ethnicities come together to build a sustainable organisation.

• Flexible working hours- With more emphasis on giving time to their families, today’s employers are making a shift from traditional working hours to suitable working hours for their employees.

• Encouraging Social Life- Millennials tend to maintain their work life balance in the sense where they can enjoy their social lives while being professionally satisfied. This the reason why companies like Make my trip offers rock concert tickets to its employees, Zomato provides heavy discounts on its ‘Zomato Gold Membership’ to its workers, etc.

• Feedback- Millennials are more achievement oriented rather than role or money oriented, hence they value feedback. This has led to companies following a method of constructive feedback which helps to improve the performance of the employees. 360 degree feedback is the order of the day. Gone are the days when it is only the boss who should give feedback.

• Horizontal flow of communication over Vertical flow of communication- ‘Hierarchy’ is a term that doesn’t go down well with the new generation. For letting their creative juices flow, it is crucial for them to find freedom in their working environment. That’s why start-up culture has become popularized in the recent years, where even big organisations try to build an open culture for their employees.

• Relevant benefits and allowances- With the professional eco-system changing there has to be more innovation in the area of employee benefits too. While healthcare, free meals, gift vouchers are the norm, there has been some innovation lately in the area of allowances too. Certain organizations offer “Dating Allowances” to their employees

• Moulding the definition of a “job”- The clichéd system of offering employees’ jobs as a long-term career, in other words, job security are bygone. Now a days an employer pays an employee for the task performed instead of paying a salary for hiring him/her. Contractual jobs, part time workers, gig workers, and freelancers, etc, have eased out the terms and conditions that earlier came with a job.

All these changes are here to stay, as people have started looking beyond the monetary aspect when it comes to their work life. Not only do they earn to survive, they earn to stay healthy and enjoy life.