Meagan Johnson - Generational Speaker

Solve Your Challenges and Bridge the Gap between Generations at Your Multigenerational Workforce

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Millennials and Money

Let’s discuss Millennials and Money, as well as what help do millennials really wish for when it comes to working in your organizations.

Financial stress can cost organizations up to 250 billion. That’s billion with a B! I don’t think I ever learned to count that high. Two hundred and fifty billion dollars in lost wages, according to a Mercer report.

The number one generation worrying about their financial situation you think are baby boomers, right? Baby boomers – because they’re getting close to retirement. Or Gen Xers. We should have started saving sooner. No, none of the above.

Millennials and Money

It’s Millennials. Millennials worry more about their financial situation when compared to Gen Xers or baby boomers.

If you haven’t heard of Millennials, you’re living under a rock. They’re the 80 million people born after
1980. They’re the largest living generation in the United States. In four years, they’ll be 40% of the workforce and by the year 2020, it’d be the largest share of the workforce.

Millennials spend more time worrying about their financial situation when compared to any other generation. Sixty-seven percent of Millennials feel that financial stress interferes with productivity at work. What are Millennials worry about?

Understanding Millennials in the Workplace

We see organizations doing crazy things to get their attention, keep them on board, entertain and engage them.

Millennials graduated during the Great Recession. Therefore, stalling the beginning of their career or forcing them into lower paying jobs. The average millennial makes $10,000 less than their baby boomer parents did at the same age.

And the biggest difference is that Millennials have student debt! Millennials have more student debt than any generation previously. The average student loan is $37,000. They can expect to have that paid off by age 35.

40 percent of Millennials feel that worrying about their student loans interferes with their health.

So what can companies do?

The obvious answer is to help them with their student loans.

Millennials and Financial Health

90 percent of Millennials said that they would commit to a job for five years in exchange for assistance with their student loans.

Keep in mind, three years is the average job stay for a millennial. They are looking to their employers for help with their finances. Many Millennials feel that education did not prepare them to handle their finances once they graduated. They are turning to their employers.

What do they want to help with?

They want help with investing, how to do their taxes, saving for a home, and of course, student loan debt. What can a company do? They can offer a variety of financial wellness tools!

Some organizations have a financial professional on staff to assist Millennials in planning for their finances into the future and to provide education training tools. They are helping the Millennial understand their finances. Not only is this good for the organization but it also helps build a foundation that Millennial will stand on for the rest of their lives!

Helping Millennials with Money

A lot of people get close to retirement and the big thing they say is ‘Oh, I should have started saving sooner! ‘ So what can organizations do?

Show Millennials where they can save.

What’s interesting is that they tend to save for more short-term goals like a vacation. It’s the long-term goals that they really want to help with. Save for retirement.

The average American worker spends three thousand dollars a year on coffee and lunch breaks at work.
However, the run to see their barista to get their favorite cappuccino or double latte fizz is what costs companies twenty-four billion.

Twenty-four billion hours of lost productivity!

Here’s a win/win offer:

Offer in-house meals, healthy sacks and save the Millennial money. Save your organization productivity hours!

Understanding What Millennials Want from Employers

For the first time in history, Millennials, the younger generation knows more about something we need to know. So, what millennials want from employers is not always clear or visible to us. At least not on the surface!

What does this mean to you, as an employer or a boss?

Most baby boomers learned to use computers at work.
Gen X’ers – we learn to use computers at school.

But Millennials?
As many of you know, they grew up with technology. We call them ‘native digital’s’ because it almost seems like technology comes naturally to them.

Understanding what Millennials Do in the Workplace

As a business owner, I love this because it means that my Millennials can assist me in the world of technology. I’m always one step behind when it comes to technology – apps, social media, etc, so I depend on my Millennials to guide me through.

I had a Millennial say to me recently that her boss does not understand the complexity of her job. Not understanding what she had to do, her boss underestimates the effort she had to put forth. She felt undervalued.

This was an eye-opener for me because sometimes I don’t really express my gratitude enough to my millennial employees.

I know with their help we’ve sidestepped some website and web-based disasters.

What Millennials Want from Employers

What Millennials Want from Employers

So first off, be aware that your Millennials are doing things that might be just a little bit more effort than you give them credit for or that you really think they’re putting forth.

And secondly, just ask them how time-consuming is the thing that you are asking them to do.

Sometimes these little steps really help strengthen our relationships with our millennial employees and co-workers.

Millennials Versus Gen X

Millennials vs Gen X… so what’s up with the Millenials and why everyone makes fun of them? What is the difference and how can millennials positively tap into their power? It is what we’re discussing today…

Millennials Versus Gen X

This episode starts off with 7 minutes of Simon Sinek – fantastic observations about the millennials. Starting at about 17 minutes into the podcast, I will discuss the generational gap in the workplace with Liv.

Let’s get to it…

Millennial Boss: How to Give Corrective Feedback to a Baby Boomer

How to Give Corrective Feedback to a Baby Boomer, when you are the Millenial Boss? Yes, a much younger person trying to lecture to an experienced one?

I’m talking to my dad, professional speaker Larry Johnson. He is a co-author of the best-selling an absolutely fabulous book ‘Absolute Honesty’.

When a Millennial Is Your Boss

Recently I had a Millennial audience member ask me about how to best give an honest feedback to somebody she was managing. Somebody much older. Old enough to be her dad. She felt a little awkward giving the corrective feedback.

I thought I’d asked my dad, who is also a baby boomer and a co-author of the best-selling book ‘Generations Inc’.

Giving Negative Feedback to Baby Boomers

“How best should this millennial give honest feedback to this person she’s managing?” And I think we’re safe to assume that it’s a corrective feedback. It’s not a compliment but rather that she wants the person to change their behavior.

I think it kind of depends on where the other person perceives this younger person’s area of expertise.

In other words, the baby boomer may question what right does this person have to tell me how I should do anything? I know as a baby boomer, I really appreciate the younger person who coaches me on how to better use my software, how to use my computer, or how to use social media.

How to Give Corrective Feedback

Baby Boomers Working with Millennials

We get into some tricky territory when the younger manager is going to coach me about something I think I know everything about.

It’s very important that you preface whatever you’re going to say to this person with some acknowledgment of her experience.

Say: “I know you’ve got a lot of experience in this area of dealing with customers who are upset. However, I’m concerned. When you said to the customer ‘don’t worry your pretty little head’, it could have been considered offensive.”

The Millennial that’s giving the feedback needs to voice that it is not appropriate. It could almost be interpreted as sexual harassment. It could be considered offensive.

How to Give Corrective Feedback

I would say in that case that you pose it in terms of how it might be experienced by the customer or even by the Millennials.

Describe the effect of what he’s doing okay and maybe make a suggestion on how he might approach it differently.

The Generation X Management Style – What You Need to Know

Recently a reporter asked me about the Generation X management style – what type of managers are Gen Xers?

What is the Generation X Management Style?

I thought to myself: “Gen Xers as managers? What? No way! We’re too young to be managers! We can’t be managers! We’re still too new. We’re too young or we’re just getting our feet wet. You can’t put us in charge now?”

Gen Xers are managers. In fact, we’re in our working prime. In a survey, they found that over half of executives believe Gen Xers are the most engaged generation. We have a unique Generation X Management Style!

Gen X Managers

So what type of managers do we make?

Well, I think Gen Xers are in a really good position because they are open to change.

Especially when it comes to technology. We began using technology in school before we entered the workplace. Many baby boomers began using technology in the workplace after their careers were already established.

But Gen Xers? We started using technology before we began our careers. When Millennials approach us to try a new technology, we’re open to it.

I think about my own business in the past, when it came to running credit cards.

I would write down the credit card number while I was traveling. Then took the written credit card number back to my assistant. My millennial assistant would then enter it into the little box we were given by the bank and processed the credit cards. She approached me about this thing called ‘Square’ at the time. It reinvented the way that I handled credit cards. Many of you know and use square today.

Generation X Management Style

Gen X Leadership

Despite our unique Generation X management style, here’s where we might stumble.

We were ‘latchkey kids’. Came home from school and we had a list of chores on the kitchen counter. It was up to us to decide when we wanted to do the chores and how we did those chores. We just had to get them done before management, ‘aka mom and dad’, returned home.

As managers, sometimes we think we want to manage people the way we wanted to be managed.

When I first began my career, I wanted a manager who would listen to my input and then let me do my thing. You know? Give me what I need. Then tell me what you want to be done. Give me the tools and training to do it and then just leave me alone.

Gen X Engagement

However, with this new super engaged millennial generation that many of us are working with today as Gen X managers, we may need to step out of our comfort zone and engage with the Millennials with a little bit more frequency.

We may feel this as ‘hand-holding’, but I don’t perceive it that way. I perceive it as engaging the younger generation. Also, that engagement helps to transfer that knowledge between Gen Xers and Millennials. That is our Generation X Management Style!

I look forward to seeing you next week when we talk about the ever-changing generations in the workforce in the marketplace today.