Understanding Millennial Employees with Jeff Butler

Internationally respected keynote speaker, Jeff Butler helps bridge generational gaps between Millennials and companies looking for their talent and patronage. Butler has quickly built his reputation as a memorable presenter with tangible solutions for attracting, retaining, and engaging Millennials as employees and customers. Within just the past three years, he has spoken at three TEDx events and multiple Fortune 500 companies. He is a third-generational Silicon Valley entrepreneur and spent the first years of his career at some of the world’s fastest-charging startups and tech companies before launching his consulting company in 2016.

SPEAKING.COM: What does it mean to be a Millennial?

BUTLER: There are actually two definitions for what it means to be a Millennial. The authors of Millennials Rising, William Strauss, and Neil Howe, who incidentally popularized the term Millennial, define it as the generation born between 1982-2004. The other definition of Millennial, which is a sociological one, pertains to a young individual who is addicted to technology, naive, progressive and likes avocado sandwiches. The problem arises when that definition is erroneously associated with people born between 1982-2004.

SPEAKING.COM: What challenges do you feel Millennials face that previous generations did not?

BUTLER: Quite a few.

For starters, the concept of going to university and getting a stable job is a crumbling reality. Not only does a college degree not guarantee a job, on top of that, consistently increasing tuition gives rise to the question “at what point will college be too expensive?”

Along with changing financial realities, many Millennials experience the peer induced social media utopian realities. Essentially, peers can now filter their lives making them appear happy, successful and in control of their life direction giving people a distorted view between what life should be versus what reality actually is. Often, when younger individuals like myself enter the workplace, there is a massive reality adjustment waiting.

SPEAKING.COM: You mention record turnover and we hear a great deal about today’s “bull economy” and “low unemployment rates.” On the other hand, we also hear much about people living paycheck to paycheck (including teachers) and working multiple jobs to get by. Could you give us a more detailed picture of the high turnover you’re focused on? Is it confined to specific industries or regions?

BUTLER: This question can be answered many ways, but I think a good place to start is noting that low unemployment rates does not mean everyone is paid well. In addition, people living paycheck to paycheck spans all income ranges and regions. You can have someone working minimum wage jobs living paycheck to paycheck and also have a CEO who is barely able to pay the bills.

With that said, the ‘bull economy’ and ‘low unemployment’ rates are more of a macro view economic perspective. I originally thought that the low unemployment and the high turnover rates just pertained to industries like tech, but as I quickly found out, various industries like Underground Utility companies were experiencing the same challenges in retaining employees.

I don’t think the ‘bull economy’ and ‘low unemployment rates’ are affecting just a few industries; rather all industries are challenged, but in varying degrees.

SPEAKING.COM: Why is it harder for companies to retain Millennials specifically?

BUTLER: Companies struggle to retain younger employees for a variety of reasons but some of the most impactful ones are the lack of long-term obligations and ease of switching jobs.

In some of my talks, I would say the best way to retain an employee is house and spouse. There is a ton of research that shows that once someone has a house and spouse, they are much less likely to switch jobs, mainly due to stability reasons. However, as we push out buying houses and getting married to a later age, that lack of ‘long-term obligations’ frees us from being strapped down to a job. In other words, you will see a lot of employees being able to make rapid career switches because their lifestyle allows them to.

With technology also making it easier to switch jobs, a competing company has never had a better environment for poaching talent. To this day, I still receive emails from recruiters asking if I am interested in joining some disruptive startup as a software engineer. There are now dozens of sites that have hundreds of companies posting job openings every day. In conclusion, technology tends to bite back in unexpected ways; while it allows people to apply to jobs more easily, it also makes it harder to retain employees.

SPEAKING.COM: How is managing Millennials different from managing other generations?

BUTLER: Across the board, managing Millennials is extremely similar to managing other generations. I tend to encourage organizations to view younger employees as individuals so that managers avoid getting caught up in the generation stereotypes. Systems can handle stereotypes, but individuals should be managed individually.

Younger employees tend to differ in management on three points: patience, expectations and context.

When hiring younger employees who do not have much real-world job experience, it’s important for them to know the why behind something. For instance, why does it take so long to climb the corporate hierarchy. The system is a certain way for a reason and explaining that reason will really help younger employees understand how the workplace operates. Giving context when needed can really help younger employees manage their patience and expectations.

Because of the rapid changes in technology, there are many subconscious changes that take place in the minds of Millennials. When they enter the workplace, there is a good chance they have a completely different image of what is expected of them as an employee. I recommend managers take extra time to vocalize these issues early on. Some common areas where employee and employer’s expectations may not initially be aligned are work life balance, career development, communication protocols and workplace professionalism.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some ways companies can turn Millennials from “job-hopping” to devoted employees?

BUTLER: Employers need to understand that everyone including themselves will eventually move on from their current company. With that said, I recommend that employers maximize employee engagement with their younger employees. This does not mean buying fooseball tables and having Wednesday free lunches, but rather, developing an understanding of where the employee wants to go in their career. Once they know that, they can follow up with effective career development to increase engagement. Companies can receive a lot more value more from an engaged employee who refers their friends and writes positive reviews about the company than trying to force the employee to stay and neglect employee engagement.

SPEAKING.COM: You talk about “best practices of managing and retaining employees who are impatient, unmotivated and entitled.” Many companies or employee engagement experts recommend “Slow to hire, quick to fire” in order to avoid having impatient, unmotivated, and entitled employees. What are your thoughts on that?

BUTLER: I believe ‘slow to hire, quick to fire’ is a great approach to avoid hiring impatient, unmotivated and entitled employees. However, there has been much research on what factors determine whether or not an employee will be successful, and findings indicate that there is actually a less than 20% correlation between a candidate performing well in the interview process – regardless of what technique is used – and that same person performing well as an employee. Hence, I don’t think companies should be hiring that slow since there is little guarantee that they can avoid hiring entitled employees.

On the contrary, there are many interview questions that can show an employee’s level of entitlement and motivation. If readers are interested in learning more about this I would suggest checking out some of the strategies that Google uses in their behavioral interviews.

A few strategies to help with unmotivated and entitled employees are (1) quantify milestones and (2) set expectations.

Ultimately, employers should strive for employees to fire themselves. This is a simple tactic carried out by having clear expectations as a manager and vocalizing that if an employee drops in performance and that drop continues for a specific period of time, they will be fired. Hence, if they continue to drop in performance, and they are aware that they are not meeting expectations, they will consequently be fired.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some potential conflict points Millennials might have with other generations and what are some tactics to handle that?

BUTLER: Communication styles, dress code, work ethic, work/life balance.

As I mentioned above, setting clear expectations is the main solution. Most of the ‘potential conflict points’ are grey areas that are not explicitly written down in a policy or a manager. The goal is to turn the grey areas into black and white. For instance, let’s take a more difficult item such as work ethic; the current employer really feels that their younger employers don’t work hard while the employee feels the contrary. By the manager specifying when something should be complete, they can let the Millennial handle the assignment and check in when it’s due. Once the assignment is complete, both employee and the manager will know whether or not the employee meets the work ethic.

Unfortunately, this approach alone is not enough if an employee were to cut corners in order to make a deadline. In those cases, I would recommend that the manager use a checklist protocol to ensure that Millennials meet certain guidelines when delivering a result.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some ways leaders can improve cross-generational communication?

BUTLER: Converging communication policies. A great deal of the cross-generational communication issues arise when there is a discrepancy in communication. Again this echoes the importance of aligning workplace expectations. This includes things such as not using emojis in a report. Fun fact, I ran into a client from a state police department where their younger police officers would include emojis in their situational reports.

SPEAKING.COM: What is the most important lesson you have for younger Millennials that they probably didn’t learn in school?

BUTLER: Seek to understand before being understood.

I see with many younger employees including myself that when they first entered corporate, they wanted to change the system before understanding why the system was that way. When employees enter into new environments without asking why something is the way it is, they can easily come off as ignorant and unfortunately entitled when it comes to promotions.

To bring Millennial keynote speaker Jeff Butler to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com