How to Create a Millennial Approved Organizational Culture

One of the key takeaways from this post was that companies need to create a strong organizational culture that is appealing to millennials. A great company culture will attract top talent in any industry regardless of age or experience.

What Does a Millennial-Friendly Organizational Culture Look Like?

If you haven’t yet started to shift your recruiting focus to millennials, the above question is a good place to start. Millennials care more about just a good paycheck; they want a company that offers a strong culture and one where they can thrive.

So, what does it look like?

• They want real relationships with their leaders – they want to have a voice, have real dialogue, not a one-sided monologue
• They want the resources to be productive – they want up-to-date technology and a company that values innovation
• They want a sense of purpose
• They want to grow and have the opportunity to take the next step professionally
• They want flexibility – social work areas, flex time, and opportunities to work remotely on occasion
• They want a competitive salary – even though it’s not their top concern

Ray Gillenwater on Entrepreneur sums up what millennials are looking for in an organizational culture:

“Modern companies that are truly millennial friendly have an actual culture in place backed up by a set of core values, and make hiring and promotion decisions based on how well people reflect these values. At its best, a company’s culture helps create a special environment that fosters productivity, innovation and goodwill.”

Don’t Forget About Your Current Team

However, with the need for companies to shift focus and create a more millennial friendly culture to be prepared for the future, they also cannot just abandon the present. Companies are made up of executives, board members and management from multiple generations. You have:

• Millennials
• Generation X and Y
• Baby boomers

How Do You Create a Millennial-Friendly Work Environment Without Alienating the Rest of Your Organization?

“The millennial generation, born between the early 1980s and early 2000s, has a different attitude to work, adopting a more fluid, project-oriented approach compared to their seniors, for whom adherence to a nine-to-five structure has long reigned,” says Chloe Green on Information Age.

“For employers, this shift in behaviour must not go unaddressed. As the largest generation in history, millennials hold more power to effect change in the workplace than any other previous generation before them,” she adds.

To ensure that companies are able to attract this new generation of professionals without alienating their current staff, they need to find some middle ground that will accommodate both groups – a culture that connects those who like to hash things out in the office and those who prefer to work remotely and work collaboratively in an online environment.

What this middle ground will look like will invariably differ based on your company values, organizational structure and needs, but your culture does need to accommodate the present and the future to create a harmonious compromise.

“Building a strong and healthy culture can help your company attract talented workers and continue to grow… culture is what happens when you’re not around. It’s also what wins the war on talent and retention, and what makes employees fight a little harder and longer for you,” says Vivian Giang in The Secret to Building a Millennial-Friendly Company.