The Millennial Mindset

They’re one-quarter of the U.S. population and over one-third of its workforce. They’re millennials, and they have diverging ideas about where they fit in business.

The U.S Census Bureau defines the generation as roughly 83.35 million people born between 1982 and 2000, but millennials have more than birth dates in common. In the workplace, where at the beginning of 2015 they numbered 53.5 million and overtook Generation X as the largest share of the American labor force according to Pew Research Center, millennials are noticed for having expectations and values different from generations preceding them.

For Wesley Scroggins, professor of management at Missouri State University, research studies and classroom experiences indicate millennials’ value of a flexible work schedule might be at the top.

“They like being able to strike that balance between different areas of life,” said Scroggins. “That’s not so much of an expectation for those older workers.”

According to a 2015 report on job satisfaction and engagement by the Society of Human Resource Management, 95 percent of millennials listed flexibility to balance work and life issues as an important determinant of job satisfaction, compared to only 86 percent of baby boomers.

“If you have a passion for a certain kind of work, that balance may give you the ability to pursue what you’re passionate about,” Scroggins said.

Tyler Headley, co-owner and chief operating officer at marketing firm Reachmodo LLC, knew he had an entrepreneurial passion in college. After three months as a part-time Lowe’s employee, he knew he would rather work on his own ideas. One was Goodwheel Co., an online retailer of discount tires and wheels, that Headley started in 2010 and continues to operate today. In 2014, at age 26, he joined then 29-year-old president and CEO Matthew Ennis to start Reachmodo.

“A lot of millennials are drawn to environments that will be able to challenge them and allow them to do more meaningful work,” Headley said, adding the ability to control the operations aspect of a business along with the potential to make more money also are reasons millennials explore starting their own company. “Startups in particular have those elements.”

The startup generation
Another shift in attitude prevalent among millennials is the value placed on growth opportunities. However, Scroggins said those opportunities are more focused on self-development and marketing rather than achieving longevity with one employer.

Separate surveys conducted in 2014 by Bentley University and consulting firm Deloitte found over two-thirds of millennials want to own their own business.

“In terms of commitment to an organization or an employer, I don’t think younger workers have it much anymore,” Scroggins said. “They’re more committed to their own career, making themselves marketable and creating their own opportunities.”

Jay Handy, CEO of SignalPoint Asset Management LLC and member of the Wisconsin Angel Network, the coordinating group for 19 angel investor groups across the state, said two common millennial characteristics ideal for entering startups are fearlessness and an aptitude for collaboration. To build a truly successful startup environment, however, requires a link to experience, capital and community support.

“The key is to bring that Venn diagram together with business plan competition, accelerator programs, angel networks or things like 1 Million Cups that create that overlap and excitement,” Handy said. “That’s something that takes place in an emerging economy that supports new businesses. Next comes the formalization of it with early stage funding.”

Being a self-made business also involves a great deal of self-funding, and even that is no guarantee of success. A 2014 study of startups by the National Venture Capital Association found 82 percent of startups are self-funded, with less than 3 percent finding financial assistance through crowdfunding and around 1 percent through venture capital and angel investments.

The Harvard Business School estimated 25 percent of startups fail within the first year, scaling up to 50 percent by the fourth.

“There’s a little bit of risk-reward there, to where if it pays off it could pay off big. But there’s a chance many startups won’t make it,” Headley said. “That excitement, along with the potential for reward and a chance to do something creative, is what makes millennials interested in these startups.”

A matter of (mis)perception
For all the creativity the next generation brings to the office, there are not altogether positive notions of millennials. Dubbed “The Me Me Me Generation” by Time in 2013, the U.S. workforce’s largest cohort also is referred to as entitled, impatient and self-obsessed.

“There are differences in expectations and how we think, which certainly lead to misperceptions of one another in the workplace,” Scroggins said, adding with three to four generations working alongside one another, conflicts in the workplace are to be expected. “Those generations are very different, and maybe sometimes the older ones might perceive these millennials as lazy or not wanting to work that hard.”

Headley said despite the label, he believes millennials are more likely to forego traditional opportunities with better pay in order to be part of the startup culture.

“People say millennials have a sense of entitlement or aren’t hardworking – that’s a myth,” Headley said. “They want to create and produce things that are meaningful to them. And if they can be a part of something they feel is bigger than themselves and have a significant role in it, they’ll work harder than someone at a 9-to-5 corporate job because they feel a sense of ownership.

“I think they would prefer to come in a couple hours later in the morning and stay later into the night.”

In workplace attitudes, Handy said it is important that support of millennials comes from those who invest in and advise startup entrepreneurs.

“Nothing happens unless somebody parts with money, that’s the end issue,” he said. “The older generation – the folks with the wallets – it’s important that they appreciate how the economy will always thrive if there are new ideas that are bubbling up in your own backyard, and then support them.”