Today, there are more than 600,000 consultants in the United States, which will grow as more young professionals launch their careers. Millennials now serve as the single largest generation in the workforce, with more than 92 million in the world born between 1980 and 2000. Courtesy of low start-up costs to enter the consulting market, little overhead expenses for the firm and lower entry-level pay expenses, employers are attracted to this travel-ready generation to expand their consulting firms. As consulting verticals change, however, what are some other reasons employers should take the chance on these less experienced hires? Here are four key points to consider:
1. They are more educated. In 2016, four-in-10 millennials held at least a bachelor's degree, which is almost double the number of baby boomers with the same level of education in the workforce back in 1985. Rates of education are higher for millennials across the spectrum of racial, ethnic and gender diversity as well. Forty-six percent of female millennials held a bachelor's degree in 2016 versus just 36 percent of Generation X workers in 2000. The same generational comparison found 7 to 10 percent more millennials earned bachelor's degrees across Asian, African-American and Hispanic groups. Employers should note that millennials can transfer this earned wealth of knowledge into their work and company cultures, which delivers dividends far beyond billable hours.
2. They are ambitious. Millennials want to learn and grow with and for their employers, making them loyal investments. According to the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler School of Business, 52 percent of millennials seek career progression with employers, while 65 percent stay with their current jobs because of professional development opportunities. In a similar study, millennials were twice as likely to value "meaningful work" than managerial counterparts. In the competitive consulting world, it is easy to be enticed by a higher salary offer. But with the millennial generation, workers are more likely to stay when their professional ambitions are fulfilled.
3. They are eager and flexible. Despite being mislabeled as the entitled generation, millennials are eager to prove themselves in the consulting world. Their desire to impact their organizations pushes them to volunteer for projects and contribute more of their time when they feel they are contributing to something meaningful. This energy teamed with their flexibility make them ideal travelling consultants. Unlike older generations, they typically are not tied down to mortgages or personal responsibilities, so they are likely more enthusiastic to travel for client work and prove themselves.
4. They know their market. Each year, brands shell out millions of dollars trying to grasp how to strategically target younger demographic groups. Millennials are an important audience because they spend more than $65 billion each year while influencing almost $1 trillion in total consumer spending. Who is better at understanding this massive buying force than millennials themselves? Contrary to traditional marketing, however, a strong brand is not significant to millennial buyers, according to Goldman Sachs. Companies need millennial consultants to successfully win over this potentially lucrative market by creating perceived value and quality.
As firms increasingly recognize the power of millennial consultants, it is vital to understand how to professionally connect with and motivate them. In order to mold the next generation of consultants, millennial mentors should facilitate trust, feedback, an environment that embraces technology, as well as flexibility in both work schedules and location.
Mentorship and Feedback
Millennials seek trusted professional relationships with support and meaning to help them thrive. To cultivate this workplace culture, enable meaningful mentorships by pairing young professionals and new hires with senior consultants. Mentorships can shed light on career advice, travel tips, industry best practices, reporting processes, effective workflow, and company or client work culture, while fulfilling millennials' desire for connectedness. When millennials trust their mentors and management, there is a lower tendency for employee disconnect and turnover.
Millennials also thrive on feedback, more so than older generations. Accustomed to instantaneous response from technology and parental upbringing, they crave comment and assessment. However, only 19 percent of millennials say they receive regular feedback.
Annual performance reviews are not enough. Project communication and collaboration tools, as well as verbal affirmations of extraordinary job performance are essential. Millennials and overall employees in general should receive routine communication from managers at least once a week mixed with informal daily connects, such as emails, internal instant messages, phone calls or brief face-to-face interactions. Doing so improves employee morale, team mentality and the ability to proactively respond to client issues while transitioning from a culture of annual box-checking to real-time performance assessments.
Embracing Technology
Technology is intuitive to millennials, comprising a significant portion of their education and upbringing. They spend an average of 19 hours on smartphones each week and are even willing to leave a job if there is substandard technology.
Millennials will quickly adapt to any IT upgrade, often serving as super users to improve technology workflow and training. This is especially helpful when consulting in the healthcare industry as more physicians and health systems drive to increase patient engagement and optimize electronic health record systems.
Empower millennial employees by allowing them to use their preferred technology for work when possible with proper cybersecurity protocols in practice. Supporting their technology choices can often lead to increased reporting and analytics capabilities for client work. At the same time, give millennials a sense of purpose by having them train others on the nuances of new tools and applications.
Flexible Work Structure
In today's advanced business world, technology frees employees to work more efficiently outside the traditional 9-to-5 office environment. Now, the millennial workforce and new employment models push for flexible scheduling or remote work to maximize productivity.
Human resources trends are catching up with demand. Two-thirds of employers have adopted flexible work arrangements while the number of millennials conducting mobile work in 2017 increased by 21 percentage points over 2016. Contrary to initial management fears, schedule and location flexibility leads to improved performance and responsiveness. Seventy-seven percent of millennials say flexible work hours makes them more productive, while 89 percent regularly check and willingly respond to work e-mails after hours.
Flexibility can result in employer cost savings on overhead expenses, such as office rental, printing and utilities. Consultant turnover can decrease as well. Millennials are more likely to remain with firms granting flexible work hours instead of switching to a company that just offers a higher salary. Under flexible work hours, employees are less likely to take sick days, while reporting satisfaction in work-life and mental-health balance. Directly impacting project work, clients gain energized consultants who are driven by passion, not strict structure.
Revitalize the Workforce
Although millennials are mislabeled as an entitled and lazy generation, these young professionals are eager to bring value to their consulting roles and client engagements. By strategically utilizing their education, energy, ambition and consumer experience, consulting practices can elevate their workforces in the evolving marketplace. Facilitating meaningful relationships allows knowledge transfer across generations, bridging technology gaps while raising employee morale for a more cohesive company culture.
Sheri Stoltenberg is the founder and CEO of Stoltenberg Consulting, a healthcare information technology (HIT) consulting firm.
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