Facilitated Discussion With Alysia Kehoe, Kehoe Consultants
Diversity Matters
Diversity has been a hot-button issue in the wake of last year’s protests against social injustice. Millennials’ concerns go back further. A 2018 survey by Deloitte found that Millennials and members of Generation Z said diversity was key to workplace loyalty, with 69 percent agreeing that they would stay at an employer for five years or more if they perceived the workplace was diverse.
Millennials are now the most diverse adult generation in history, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Generation Z is more diverse, but the oldest members of that generation are 24 this year and don’t yet make up a significant part of the workforce.
Some suggest that Millennials’ diversity will naturally smooth the path to a more inclusive workplace. It’s too soon to say if that will be true as Millennials push further into management, but Millennial-founded companies such as Facebook and Lyft have been criticized for their lack of diversity. Only 8 percent of Lyft’s employees are Black, while 9 percent are Hispanic. Black and Hispanic workers each account for 4 percent of Facebook’s employees.
Millennials of color don’t buy that generational heterogeneity alone will result in more-diverse workplaces. They have faced too much discrimination at work to believe that.
“Diversity has to be intentional,” says Alex Tremble, chief culture officer at the American Conservation Experience, a nonprofit that recruits and trains volunteers for restoration projects on U.S. public lands. “This doesn’t just happen.”
Many companies have hired chief diversity officers lately, though a lot of the efforts are “fluff” due to these individuals’ lack of power and influence with management.
How to improve diversity within the organization; what programs needed to be instituted, and how do we need to think about this differently.”
Big Hint / Idea from Alysia # 1
How to bring in more diversity? Get a diversity approach– think of a funnel and widen the mouth of the funnel, in every aspect of advertising, recruitment, and networking in the community. Remember ‘diversity has to be intentional’ so you need specific diversity activities to attract people into the funnel.
The Power of Voice
Showing Millennials that their ideas are valued is key to keeping them.
Some Millennial employees raised concerns about how dealing with COVID-19 was affecting individuals’ mental health. A mental health committee, at a company ; was formed as a result, and the company added new tools such as webinars to help employees cope with stress.
“That was an important initiative, and not just for Millennials,” says Seema Bhansali, executive director, corporate affairs, and co-lead of diversity and inclusion at the maker of medical supplies and equipment. “They were the ones to stand up and say, ‘This matters to me’ in a way that I, as a Gen Xer, never would have done.”
Other added benefits to retain its Millennial workers, such as paying up to $5,000 in adoption benefits and providing four weeks of paid parental leave. Additionally, the education allowance has been raised to $5,000 from $3,500, and plans are underway to create a permanently hybrid workforce.
Career development is very important to Millennials, and Henry Schein also has become more intentional about training, includes talent planning.
Companies have been identifying skills gaps in the workplace as it discusses career aspirations with team members.
Deciding how much effort to put into training Millennials is tricky, RainmakerThinking’s Tulgan says, because “development is an investment paradox. You have to develop people because that’s what they want.” However, the training also makes them more attractive to competitors, he adds, so “you have to calibrate your investment and identify high-performers who are more likely to stay—[and] plan to help them stay longer.”
Big Hint / Idea from Alysia # 2
Do your own Competencies Grid so you are able to show your strong skills to your management. “We want to synthesize these,” she explains. “We just don’t want to throw classes out there.”
Career Changes
Some Millennials, longing for purposeful jobs, change careers rather than just positions.
Amit Paley is on his third career, and no one is more surprised about it than he is. The 39-year-old says he had wanted to be a journalist since he was a kid and was thrilled when he landed a job at The Washington Post.
“I thought I would never leave,” Paley says. But after covering the Iraq War and the Great Recession, Paley was burned out and opted to attend business school. He also volunteered at the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for youth.
“It made me think about what gave my life meaning and purpose,” Paley says. No longer content to only volunteer, Paley became the Trevor Project’s CEO in 2017.
Big Hint / Idea from Alysia # 3
Become a Career Coach. To attain a certificate in Coaching, attend Helen Horyza’s Career Coach Entrepreneur Academy (CCEA) program. Horyza conducts several programs throughout the year. Click here to learn more about CCEA.
Big Hint / Idea from Alysia # 4
Praise each generation at your work location pointing out what strengths each brings to the table. Showing that their voice and Ideas are valued is key to keeping the team and organization going in a positive direction.
Theresa Agovino is the workplace editor for SHRM.