Getting Millennials Back to Work
Claudio Rivera
Claudio Rivera, MBA, PhD, associate
professor in leadership at RTU Riga
Business School, and director of the
University of New York at Buffalo/BI/
RBS bachelor’s program. He is also the
lead of the Foreign Investors Council
Education Work Group and holds
several board positions. Claudio grew
up in Argentina, but has been based in
Latvia since 2004. Claudio has a long
track of experience in teaching, public
speaking, consulting, and research. He
has also successfully founded several
social ventures such as GoBeyond
and Agenskalns Student Hall. As a
professor, Claudio has been teaching
in several countries in Europe, Latin
America, and Africa. He has published
extensively, including five books as
author and coauthor. His main areas of
interests are youth development, social
entrepreneurship, servant leadership,
and poverty alleviation through
management education. For more
about Claudio, visit: https://www
.linkedin.com/in/claudioriverabaiocchi.
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Abstract: This article outlines how to attract, retain, and
develop extraordinary talent among the ­representatives
of the so-called millennial generation. The author
­focuses the text on how companies can make ­attractive
their organizations, processes, career prospects, and cul-
ture to a generation that is characterized by high level of
entitlement, lack of patience, and desire of autonomy.
This article starts with an introduction to the m­ illennial
generation and the challenges it poses to corporate
environments. Furthermore, the author ­
­ describes in
three sections specific practices for attraction, retention,
and development. Finally, there is a closing section with
an optimistic outlook on how millennials could con-
tribute to companies, thanks to their purpose-driven
­behavior and their openness to innovation.
Keywords: engagement, innovation, millennials, talent
attraction, talent development
Introduction
The millennial generation is currently one of the main
concerns for managers, teachers, and directors of edu-
cational institutions. It’s a concern for everyone in a
position of responsibility in private or public organi-
zations. Every generation has its own virtues, its own
weaknesses, and its own specific characteristics. In that
sense, the millennial generation is not unique.
There is something, though, in the millennial generation
that makes it so special. This is the first generation ever to
have a substantial degree of power in society when it is still
at its early stage. The reason is that it is the first generation
that has a voice and has independence in its very infancy.
The millennials are the first generation that can influence
millions over the Internet. It’s the first generation that has
easy access to speak face to face with leaders. It’s the first
generation that has the capacity to push its own ideas with-
out the approval of the incumbent generation.
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 Getting Millennials Back to Work
Both early independence and voice
make this generation so special. Every
generation depends on the technological
development, the historical context, and
­ looking to hire millennials or to retain or
the ideological background of its time. The
previous generations have been impacted
in the West by the Second World War, the
Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, etc.
The millennials have been impacted by
­globalization, the expansion of the ­Internet,
the development of democracy all across
the Western world, and the evolution of the
social contract.
This “democratic” expansion of t­ echnologies
has made a big difference. It has granted a
voice. We usually say that every generation
is the child of its times. The same is true
about the millennials. But the difference is
that they are children ­supposed to behave like
adults. In the previous generations, people
were supposed to wait till they can climb
the ladder and get into influential positions
in order to handle the pan.
These are the two first facts I want to
point out: The millennials are what they
are because they have been affected by the
historical characteristics of its age. The big
difference with the previous generation is
that they can exercise influence very early
already. The impact of this difference is
that the millennial generation is forcing
the structures of companies, governments,
and societies in order to adapt them to its
own values and own ideas. These values
and ideas are not better or worse; they are
­different in many respects. The fact that
this influence came so early has brought
many challenges: the millennials got
power and voice before they got the experi-
ence to use them
For managers of the early ­twenty-first
century who are looking to create s­ ustainable
organizations, to shape stable ­structures, to
revive innovation, this can happen only if
you manage to keep the millennials on your
side. At the end of the day, you are looking
for stability, engagement, and d­ evelopment
of collective ­intelligence in your organiza-
tion. The reason for this article is to offer to
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you some key and ­practical ideas on how
to manage the ­millennial generation. They
will hopefully be useful for you if you are
develop them. If you are dealing with high
turnover in people between 18 and 25, this
is your topic, and it’s a crucial topic.
I never believe on exact dates for when a
new generation starts. Academicians locate
the beginning of the millennial genera-
tion during the beginning of the 1980s. So,
we are talking about a life span of roughly
20  years, with the last representatives of
this generation joining higher education
right now. This also means that the oldest
millennials are close to 40 years old, and,
therefore, many of them are already host-
ing management position and certainly
running start-ups.
This article focuses on those millenni-
als who are in the late teenage years up
to mid-20s. The reason for this ­ decision
is that those millennials who are in their
30s  ­ currently are getting married, are
leading more stable careers, etc. Any new
­generation is a challenge for the previous
ones meanwhile it doesn’t comply—there
is a moment of noncompliance in each
generation. This is the period when a
­generation uses its own specific values and
characteristics actually in order to “rebel”
against the existing system.
Before finalizing this intro, let me
­remind you that according to HR theory,
the p­ erformance of every individual is the
function of three factors: attributes, work
effort, and organizational support. This
means that all sort of intervention should
take into account that any improvement in
performance will imply the contribution
from all sides (corporation and individuals).
Let me summarize this introduction. Who
should be reading this article? First, people
who are hiring, retaining, and d ­ eveloping
millennials in the age cohort between 17 and
25. Second, is anything ­special about the
millennial generation? In my ­opinion, there
is nothing ­extraordinarily special about this
generation. Meaning, it is different than the
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 Getting Millennials Back to Work
previous ones (X, baby boomers, etc.), but
actually, it’s just “a child of its own age,”
nothing special on this. However, this is the
first generation that very early gets voice and
independence. Hence, its influence comes
as too early, just when its representatives are
barely exposed to any life experience. Third,
due to its differences and its early power, this
generation is challenging the management
status quo as no previous generation has
done before.
A final recommendation as an educator.
Nobody comes to an educational institu-
tion if he or she doesn’t need to grow or
improve. In this sense, I always try to keep
a growth mind-set. Lewis (1943) said that
“the task of the modern educator is not to
cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.”
This should be our approach with millenni-
als: Build on their strengths and d ­ ifferences
rather than forcing them to comply with
our own “old styles.”
Characteristics of This Generation
This article is for practitioners. So, I don’t
have the ambition to create an ­exhaustive
academic publication about this g­ eneration.
I will fundamentally highlight my own
­understanding of the millennials’ character-
istics mainly based on my own experience.
This Is a Generation of Constant
Change
If we look at other generations, we can see
that they have lived in more ­stable “worlds.”
The future of previous ­generations was more
predictable than the ­future of ­millennials.
Previous generations had more l­imitations
of choice (studies, ­ relationships, location
for living). The number of options at the
level of mobility has i­ncreased and the
­access to those choices is much ­friendlier
than it used to be.
The globalization process brought an un-
precedented rhythm of transfer of ­values,
doctrines, and technologies ­ between dis-
tant geographies. The transfer and access
to knowledge grew, but it doesn’t mean
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that we became smarter. We certainly now
have huge inflow of data but, without re-
flection, we don’t grow in culture.
If you put all said together, you have to
recognize that this generation is facing an
apparent reality of constant changes. Just
look at the medium of communication
they use. For example, the largest social
media in existence (Facebook) just started
in 2004. Then you see that another giant
­media as Twitter is not anymore a default
social channel. The same happens also with
relationships; this generation is clearly
procrastinating in building stable relation-
ships. They are getting used to a­ctually
lacking stability on every dimension of life:
communication, relationships, etc. This
culture of change is deeply e ­ mbedded in
the mind-set of millennials— Life magazine
labeled it: the “throwaway living” culture".
This first characteristic is a senior chal-
lenge for managers trying to build stable
and long-standing cultures and structures.
The fact that this generation is getting used
to uncertainty makes any try on stability a
real challenge.
This Generation Has an Allergy
to Suffering
As a manager of millennials, you will
experience often resistance to any sort
­
of criticism. This is apparent when you
observe how they express their regrets,
­
complaints, etc. This generation e ­ xpresses
itself more than the previous one. What
is important is whether they have a
­feeling of frustration because such a feel-
ing, ­ expressed or not expressed, ­ creates
internal barriers for further collabora-
tion. The background of this allergy to
­suffering might lie in the fact that we have
­accustomed this generation to quite high
living standards, certainly not on their
­
own merits. They have been certainly
overprotected. This is a generation that
got the mobile phone way too early, that
could call mum and dad as soon as some-
thing ­ happened without ­ going through
­regular channels. This is a generation that
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