What you should know about hiring millennials

Where possible allow millennials to decide on the location, the environment, and even the pace of work, says Robyn Pearce. Photo / Thinkstock

Unless you're living in a cocoon, you'll probably have Millennials somewhere in your world. You might be a parent, grandparent, an employer or you work with one or more. Myself, I fit into 3 of the 4 categories, including helping Sam, my 18-year-old grandson, on his path to employment. He has been living with me for this last 6 months whilst his parents have been on an overseas posting.

Often we hear people complain about Millennials in the workplace (born in the decade leading up to 2000.) So I was very interested to discover that Rebecca Caroe, of Creative Agency Secrets, has a policy of hiring young marketing graduates as interns and training them up so they are ready for their first jobs.

Rebecca believes it's important to be a social entrepreneur as well as a business entrepreneur. This policy of hiring young inexperienced people is one form of her social entrepreneurship - giving back and/or paying it forward.

In an interview I did with her recently she shared many insights and useful tips on how to create a win-win environment for all parties.

Millennials are sometimes known as the 'Entitled Generation' but, according to Rebecca, the reverse is far more likely to be true. They have come through a major recession, a shortage of jobs, and zero hour contracts. As a result 37 per cent of under 30-year-olds are self-employed, some by choice and some by necessity. They've had to learn to take initiative, make do with less income in many cases, and diminished opportunities. As a result they have become quite resilient and entrepreneurial.

Also, many of them are driven by a strong social conscience. Think of the Student Army in Christchurch after the earthquake.

Tips for Employing Millennials:

• They will bring innovative thinking to your organisation. Encourage it.

• Because they are digital natives, they are extremely fast at picking up new technology or new systems. I contract out all my technology requirements to a fabulous young man, now in his mid-20s, who began making websites commercially at the age of 14. He's been doing work for me since he was about 16 or 17 and now self-funds his graduate university study.

• Of course young ones need coaching and training at the beginning but they respond very well to autonomy. Explain to them what you require, review and coach, and then, where possible allow them to decide on the location, the environment, and even the pace of work. For example, perhaps they don't need to be at the same location in the office every day. Maybe they could work from home for some of the tasks. Obviously this depends on the work involved but a lot of computer-based work does not need to be done in a traditional office.

• Let them make mistakes and be prepared to correct and guide them. They are very smart but they don't yet have our life experience.

• Give them clear guidelines and get them involved in expanding those guidelines. For example, Rebecca has a bank of Google docs with examples of the tasks she requires. Her interns have to look for answers there: if something isn't complete or doesn't give sufficient information, she asks them to add to the knowledge bank.

• When they leave, she gets them to write a leaving blog on 'What I learnt at Creative Agency Secrets'.

And there was much more. You can hear our interview on my weekly podcast for Webtalkradio.net

I was very encouraged in talking with Rebecca. Our world is in good hands.

Robyn Pearce (known as the Time Queen) is the MD of GettingAGrip.com, an international time management and productivity training company based in New Zealand. Get your free report 'How To Master Time In Only 90 Seconds' and ongoing time tips at www.gettingagrip.com