Welcome to the inspire people impact lives podcast. This podcast is for people who are looking to get more out of life by making an impact on those around them. Each week we bring you local influential business and community leaders delivering powerful messages to help you live a more inspiring and impactful life. Coming to you live from Northwestern Mutual Middleton. Here's your host, Josh Kosnick.
Welcome to another episode of Inspire People, Impact lives. Today, really excited to bring to you the topic of attracting and inspiring millennials. As millennials continue to join the workforce in droves, companies must be ready to work with these young people whose values differ greatly from the generational predecessors. In order to maintain employee retention and productivity.
While improving companies services, businesses must understand the importance of the millennial generation workforce. The roughly 80 million millennials individuals born between 81 and 97 that is have become the most diverse generation the country has ever seen. Additionally, millennials hold more college degrees and more college debt than those that came before them. By 2025 they will comprise 75% of the workforce.
This impending majority calls for greater attention to the generations wants and needs to keep employee turnover low. Here today to talk with us about attracting and inspiring millennials in the workforce is Steve Bench, CEO and founder of Generational Consulting. Steve, welcome to the show.
Hey guys, good to be here. Glad to have you. So before we start, I got to put this out there. Steve and I haven't talked in over 10 years, but we used to work together at the KK College Club downtown. Shout out to Jordan Meyer and the crew. Uh, what was that 16, 17 years ago
Sounds about right. I wasn't sure if we'd be allowed to bring those up, bring that up. I'm glad that's out there now, I'm equally as proud of it and uh, yeah,
So bouncing and bartending alumni at the KK. That's right. That's right. So, but beyond that and getting to catch up with an old friend, really excited to talk about generational differences and in particular, uh, attracting and inspiring millennials. So Steve, how did you get into this line of work?
Sure. So it's kind of a cool story. I've been working with kids for a long time. I coach a lot of basketball and uh, I've Kinda got a background in what I do for work with a kind of business education for high school, middle school aged kids. So I see a lot of kids, a lot of families and I kind of get access to kind kinda study them a little bit and how they get along and how they learn and how they work and how their parents raised them and how they're taught in the classroom.
And um, after a couple of years of working with kids, I was asked by one of our program sponsors to come and speak to their management staff and tried to help them understand their younger employees, millennials, we're kind of coming into the workforce, as you mentioned, in droves. And that's certainly continuing today.
And people are really woke up to the issue of how do we kind of work with this younger generation that might have some different expectations about work life balance and how they're motivated at work and what's important to them. So they kind of got asked to speak at a few events and it went very well. And it's kind of grown from there. People kind of really are into this message.
You know, you and I talked briefly before that everybody really identifies with this material in a pretty strong and meaningful way. There's generational differences stuff and, and the millennial thing especially. So that's Kinda how it happened.
I find it super interesting. As I told you before, it's just one of those things that I don't know how just just trips my trigger. But for you, what was, uh, what was the tipping point that just drove you with his passion to learn more, teach and make it a business now?
Well, everybody kind of has heard about millennials now. Millennial culture, millennials are different, right? And there's all these stereotypes out there. Well, I was, I'm kind of an older millennial, but, but I very much grew up in the culture that, that kind of raised millennials. So I played on the travel sports teams, I won trophies. I kind of got praise from the adults in my life, my teachers and parents and coaches. And to me it just seemed normal.
Like that's how we raise our kids now we're like sensitive and we're emotional and like we pay a little more attention to how kids feel than our grandparents did. I think that's a good thing. Um, but it definitely led to some negative stereotypes. And once those kids started to be young adults showing up to work, now it's like, okay, we've got some differences here and maybe some problems we've got to work on because we were all raised very differently.
And I think that's why we identify so strongly. You know, we think back to how we were raised. That's kind of fundamental to who we are and we all have very strong feelings about that one way or another.
Oh, absolutely. So let's talk about those stereotypes. What stereotypes, and I think probably everyone listening can think of their own, but let's, let's call a few of those out on the carpet, what stereotypes are going around about millennials at this point?
Well, there's lots of them out there. I don't know. Do you guys have, have, what are some of the ones that come to your mind? I've heard that, that they tend to be a little bit, uh, and committed and aloof about, uh, the adult responsibilities of work and maybe unrealistic about how long it's gonna take to get to the position they want or to kind of get the recognition that they think that they deserve. You know, maybe they're not as patient as some of the older generations at work.
Yeah. So what you just said, there are two key ones that I've heard a lot, the inpatients and I think there's just how technology has evolved. There's a lot of stuff there that we could attribute that to. But also entitlement I think is one that we've heard a lot. And then the participation trophies I think has been attributed to it. I still don't know if I'm a millennial or not. Born in 1980 for every different thing I read as a different spread.
We mentioned 81 to 97 but I've seen 79 to, 94 I've seen whatever.
And I usually do 80 to 95 and sometimes it's just, you know, it used to be a kind of like a 15 year window. Gen X is like 60 to 80. I'm, excuse me. Yeah. Um, what would that be up to 1980. So 65 to 1980 and then some people then say millennials 80 to 95, but we kind of can go back and forth on where the cut should be and we pull so many different traits from different generations. Right? So birth order, this is when we didn't talk about but birth orders big too. I grew up in a big family.
I had older brothers that were Gen Xers and I kind of imprinted on a lot of that culture from that generation. Right, right. But I had millennial friends that were only children and they were there definitely this theory that they are the millennial stereotype. Um, so that kind of depends, you know,
millennial stereotype or being the only child stereotype. With the entitlement possibly.
Well, I think where you get into trouble is in the millennial culture. If you are an only child, you are definitely getting plenty of attention from your parents and everybody in your life. Yeah. Hopefully. Yeah,
No, that's good. So were any of those stereotypes we want to dive into further right here?
Well, you know, I think the entitlement one is something that, that is a, I can see how people feel that way. Uh, I think that that is kind of a millennial thing, but in some ways it's a, it's an everyone thing now that we kind of have this culture where we, we advocate for our own interests and we, we're, we're ambitious and I don't think that there's anything wrong with that, that we kind of have high goals. You know, we encourage kids, one of the millennial things is dream big, right?
You can be anything you want when you grow up. And maybe we just weren't quite aware of how much work it's going to take to get there. But nothing wrong with being a dreamer and working really hard and, uh, you know, kind of being driven for success. Even if you know, your coworkers might check you a little bit. And so you need, you need to wait your turn and earn your keep and uh, you know, and it'll happen. But
no, that's, that's really good. I think the impatient one. I want to talk a little bit about sure. Because I think it's natural. I've taken enough personality profiles to know that I'm impatient as it is. So I didn't have to be in, I think if I was born in the 1920s, that's how I'm hardwired. So bottom line is I want to make sure that we talking about kind of technology and how everything's evolved nowadays. For sure.
Sure. With that being said, back in the 1980s, you and I, growing up, we had to wait for our favorite song on the radio to turn on in the cab or cassette tape ready to hit record as quickly as we possibly could. Now today we can go on our iPad or Ipod, iPod, iPhone, or if you're a Samsung user, uh, whatever, and pull that up right here. Right now. Uh, same with movies.
We were not to wait for the VHS to hit record or wait for that to come out or even wait for it to come out of a movie theaters onto video. Now we can go on Netflix. We, we, so we have this immediate gratification because technology's involved. So how could now kids that have grown up with us, how could they not be impatient even if they weren't hardwired wired like me? How, how could you not be impatient, which is all the advances that we have as a society.
I think you're totally right. And I think that that impatience, it's a millennial thing. It's an everybody thing. I think smartphones have a lot to do with it. And the way that we get our information, technology's changed so much. So you hit it on the head. You know, it used to be a television screen. We are all crowded around one television screen, right? And we got our news from a trusted source and we kind of put our faith in a higher power.
So maybe that was the newsman on TV or, or our doctor. Now it's like we go on web MD and it's like, well, Geez doc, I know you went to school for a decade and this is your life's work, but I read something on Web MD and now I'm the expert. Kind of challenge new, right? So like we're, the experts. Yeah. But we're the expert. We're the authority. We've got that smartphone in our pocket and it enables us to do so much and without having to wait for it, right. Your favorite song comes out.
You have to wait for it to play on the radio and now you go on Spotify, you play it whenever you want. We used to all watch television together and the family room and now we go to different rooms on different screens. We pick what we want. Uh, it's this very me first culture. I think that even circles back to the, to the first stereotype we talked about to where it's kind of, it's me first attitude now. Um, millennials and everybody, right? I mean, I don't think it's just millennials.
No, I don't think so either. I, and I always think it's funny that when I hear a baby boomers talk about the kids these days, and by the way, isn't it a thing where every generation grows our kids these days?
Absolutely. Right? Absolutely. I mean, the boomer is, at one point, the boomers were the ponytail pot smoking hippies, right? I mean, that was like some of the Woodstock people and now they're, they're the ones that come in on Saturday morning to get a little extra work done. I mean, boomers are hard workers. They get, they have a reputation that very positive. You know, one of my boomer friends told me that, go get some work done on a Saturday morning. What are you talking about?
Get a of sleeping, like, get a life. And this guy is a way better life than me. He like ruts, basketball. He does a million things. And I'm laughing at him for, for working hard, you know? But maybe that's the millennial in me.
Well, either way, I just find it even more ironic that, yeah, so kids these days, but why weren't you, there are parents,
yeah. Who bought the trophies for the millennials, right? Call them millennials, the trophy. K You got a trophy for everything, right? It's like, well, who bought it? Oh No, we didn't buy participation ribbons and uh, you know, make a collage out of them for your scrapbook, right? Those are the parents proud parents. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I mean, it got out of control and they'll participation ribbon thing is a problem.
But I think it's a good thing that we encourage our kids and we celebrate them. We're, we're trying to give them confidence to go out there and try something, you know?
And I agree. I liked, let's shift to business now. So we've called out some of those stereotypes we've talked about kind of humorously. You know, the people that are making fun of them are probably the people responsible for how they are today. But let's talk about how that transitions to business. So why is talent attraction such a big issue?
Well, we talked a little bit about the beginning, about how many millennials there are, right? I mean around 80 million depending on what studies are looking at. And the baby boomers were pretty massive generation as well. I'm not quite as big as the millennials, but, but a big generation in the 70s, I think 70 million plus, well they're all retiring now. Um, it's great that we have them still working.
They have all this tribal knowledge, I like to call it where they've been working for the long time. They've seen it before. They, they're great mentors. They, uh, they've got the experience set, but they can't work forever.
And a lot of companies now, and a lot of the companies that all get hired to speak to their, they're doing successfully, they're doing great, but they're looking around, they're executive meetings and they know that their retirement in the next five to 10 years are gonna be a lot of faces that are going to be gone and they don't know who their next leaders are going to be. And this talent issue is all across the industries, all across the country.
I like to joke about you walk into a business now when, when's the last time you didn't see a now hiring sign in the window? And I was in Ohio killing some time before a presentation that's walking through the mall. I stopped counting at 15
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So there's this demographic turnover where I'll huge generations retiring and we're going to need to replace those roles. And the boomers and the millennials work so different. They, we were raised so differently. And a lot of times we don't see eye to eye and larger companies, uh, have resources where they're able to do a lot more. But sometimes smaller family companies struggle with this stuff cause it's been dad's way or GRANDPA's way and we've been successful for 50 years.
So why should we be the ones to change? Right? Why should we be the ones to be more friendly? So, so that's kind of the issue. That's kind of where it comes from that, that there's all these boomers retiring and we're co economy's expanding and growing. Right. And we need people to fill those new roles. So, so talent attraction is huge right now.
Yeah. And you're right. And then this economy that's growing so well currently the unemployment rate is at its lowest point in about, I believe in history, but uh, if not very, very low. So everyone that I talked to her in business, um, from, you know, looking at it very highly compensated jobs to, to my mom's smoothie came at, you know, was a very, very small,
I was going to ask about smoothie king.
Rigorous issue is finding people that'll, that'll still work. I believe that. So the, so from, from an hourly job to, to a high paying job that that good I provide here like w it's a talent thing. We're looking for talent all the time. Yeah.
And I think when that's the case then retention programs, like how do we onboard new hires, how do we make them comfortable? How do we engage them so that they stay those retention things. That's more, more important
than ever. Yeah. Cause it's hard to find good people. Yeah. Yup. Yeah. And then
that's the other thing is turnover, right? So is how do you, how do you retain them and, and you can't just sit there and say, well it's a stereotype or that they're all, they're all just going to stay two years because that's what they're told to stick on a resume. No, you've got to do things to, to keep them retained.
I don't think you can put your head in the sand and just ignore these things and think that we're not going to need to change how we do things a little bit to, to kind of be prepared for the next generation of talent. Uh, I couldn't agree more. Yeah. So, so what's the main difference between gen x baby boomers and the millennials to now? I think it's delayed adulthood. So millennials are delaying a lot of the traditional stages of adulthood. Um, my parents were baby boomers.
Um, so by the time they're 25, they had already gotten married, started a family, had I think two or three kids by the time they're 25 a mortgage, two car payments. I mean they had put down roots in their community. So that's what got my dad out of bed in the morning to go to work. I mean, he had a family, he had real responsibilities. Um, and I think millennials are delaying a lot of those life stages.
So my dad's decision profile, if you will, involved kids, a wife, a mortgage, a job that he, if he didn't, even if you didn't want to go in that morning, you know, he had to. But I'm a millennial, so no kids, no wife, no mortgage, still taking selfies, not changing diapers. Now I'm way more living for me then. Then my dad was living for his family's or Sophie game strong? No, I don't think so. I think so, but I don't work in that really more selfies than diaper changes.
You know, I'm worried we're diaper. I think I made taken to two selfies and my life as a joke. Uh, but lots of diaper changes with four kids. So I hear you man. I hear you. So, so what gets you out of bed in the morning? What's your decision profile? I think that's a lot different than millennials and excerpts in boomers.
I think gen x, we haven't talked about them too much yet, but I really empathize with gen x is having it the hardest of all the generations because when they were young adults, when they were kind of coming online, it was a boomers world. So they had to play by the boomers rules. Nobody was doing retention programs to make the Gen Xers feel included and accepted and like valued at work. All these, some of these things that we now stress for our millennial hires, you know, to empower them.
Gen Xers are like, nobody did that for me. Right? So they're, they're kind of caught in between these two worlds. Um, but I, and I think that they kinda did things that boomers way cause it was a boomer world and now the millennials are so different. Um, because we were raised differently.
You have different expectations and all those things and there's a lot of gen x or is that our business leaders and bosses and hiring managers and all that right now that are going through these struggles there we're talking about here. So, uh, you and I were talking about Jason Dorsey ahead of time ahead of the show. And for those that you don't know, Jason Dorsey as d, O r s e y look him up. Uh, Steve was telling me he's like the king and this is the guy man. He's the guy.
So I got to hear him speak a couple times. I want to read a couple of things that he mentioned as cause you were, you were alluding to earlier
on average, uh, the millennials, they're six years old or when they start their first job. So when we in the audience and he was talking to us, he was like, all right, so thinking about your first job and out for me, I was 11 years old and it was a paper route and there's 363 mornings a year. I got off Christmas and New Year's New Year's Day, New Year's Day and Christmas are my two days off. Demira Sec, nothing.
Like I had a little, uh, I had a knapsack that went over my shoulder for the weekdays and I pulled a like radio flyer wagon for the weekends for the heavier payment. Right. So, uh, so 363 days a year, 11 years old. So, so if the, and I can't remember what the average was for for gen x or whatever, but for, for millennials, it's about 17, 18, 19 whoring after college for some people. But for they're getting that first job and that's part of it.
And then, and then furthermore, there, uh, I dunno what the ages are now, maybe you know this, but we've all read, I think there's even a Wall Street Journal article recently that talked about how they're millennials are delaying marriage, which was Delaine kids, which was the lane home purchases where people like all these different things and how the effect on the economy and the drag on that is just much different.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's so unfair to hold against millennials. I mean, if, if, if we, if we look at the facts, which is, I'm not married yet, I'm not having a family yet. I don't need a house in the suburbs. That sounds like a great place to live on time, ready to have a family, but I'm not right. That's not the life stage that I'm in. So it's just funny to me that we kind of, not everybody, but that's the negative stereotype, right? That it's Hawaiian millennials grow up.
Why don't you buy that House and get married? Um, but I think it's a reflection of our culture that we're just, we have different lifestyle, uh, chased for pursuing different things, right? That, that whereas my parents wanted the house, the marriage, the family by 25. That's really not what a lot of millennials kind of live for and worked for. Um, and I think that's a big part of what drives what we do at work and kind of what our attitude about work is.
Here's another thing that he talked about that, uh, that I thought was really interesting because perception, right? So we say or think that millennials are really tech savvy. He says they're not know since there are tech dependent and if you think about it as gen x, the created all the technology, right.
Or even maybe the tail end of the baby boomers that created computers created all this, uh, from the iPads and all that stuff, which by the way, just a couple of days ago, the iPad turned 17 years old or iPod first. IPOD came out 17 years ago, so June next created all this technology. Gen Y is just utilizing, yeah, yeah,
yeah. I mean when something breaks, we just Google it like Google how to fix it. Like we don't necessarily know how anything works. We're just addicted to it. She was talking to her like when anything breaks, like throw it out and buy a new one at Walmart. I mean, I hate to say that, but that's kind of a reflection of our culture too, that we don't take things to the garage to fix them anymore. You'd it out or no, we recycle it.
If you're a millennial and you recycle it, but then you go buy a new one, you know, that's just gone. Unfortunately that's kind of a culture too. But you're right. I totally love that gen x built stuff. Genex knows how stuff works.
That's right. So let's go back to the workplace. What are some strategies that are business leaders, business owners can utilize to engage their millennials at work?
Sure. So I think one of the things before, before you get to like, okay, so now what is, it's some of the generations have a hard time getting on board with why should I do things differently? We've been successful. Nobody did any of this for me. I think we've got to start with that. It's, this is, uh, a nut, inevitable demographic shift that we need to get a new generation of young people on board with work culture and we raise our young people fundamentally differently.
So you can think that it's a shame that millennials and kids today are coddled and kind of, we're kind of, we kind of look out for them a little bit more and we kind of in some ways shelter them and encourage them more than the older generations got. But the reality is is that's how we parent. That's how we teach in the classroom. It's how we coach on the sports field. So these are the young professionals you're going to get. So you need to get on board with it.
I mean, you've been successful for a long time, but we all need to look in the mirror and say, how can I change a little bit to cater and cater to this young generation? And we need to look at how they were raised. They were raised with more support and encouragement. So mentorship is huge. There's this negative stereotype on millennials will, they need so much feedback, they need somebody to hold their hand.
It's hard to manage a group of them because they're asking all these questions and they're very, and they're very high, high needs at times. Well, the reality is is that every teacher, every coach, every parent, that's the authoritarian figure that we're used to. That's how we're used to relating to our managers, our teachers, our coaches. So we kind of expect that. So mentoring is a huge one, right?
That's the thing that you flipped that thought they need so much question. They they need some, any question answered. They, they always ask why all this stuff. That's a good thing. They're engaged, they want to be engaged, they want to, they want to know why they're doing what they're doing so they can do a better, right? Like what? Like flip that thought and
I think it was kind of, it was born out of this old rule of the workplace that no news is good news. That if I'm your manager, I'm not going to come around every day and find something nice to say to you and make sure you feel good about working here. Right. And we make you feel important. I'm going to come around. If there's a problem, we'll fix the problem and we'll move on. That's kind of how business was done in some ways.
While the millennials are the total opposite of that, we're used to being supported. We're used to being supervised, right? We're used to having constant feedback. So if I don't hear from you as my manager, I'm not going to assume things are going good. I'm gonna assume something's wrong. Why aren't, why aren't you talking to me? Do you not like me? And if the only time we interact is one I goofed up, then I'm going to think I'm incompetent or incapable or that you don't.
Again, you don't like me. So you need feedback. You need to put the patients so that you build up that trust and build my loyalty and my kind of more loyal to the job to you as a manager. And then ultimately, if I do trust you and I am loyal, you can criticize me because one of the other knocks and my generation as you can't criticize them, you can't tell them how it is. You had to treat them with kid gloves. They're too sensitive to everything.
You know, they're too hyper, hypersensitive to criticism. And I don't think that's true for the ones you've built up trust with.
Yeah. And built up a rapport with, well, I've always been taught that feedback without a relationship as harassment. Hmm. I love that. Those are our business coach and I had back in it. That's great. Yeah, I love that. That's what it is. And if you think about it, that you give someone feedback that you don't have that trust and that relationship worth, it does come across that maybe you wouldn't use the word harassment, but you'd be like, oh yeah, it wouldn't feel good.
So the thing about whether you were best friend and they're like, you know, I've been observing you, uh, in this this way lately. You know, like just been a dick or whatever. It may be something going on, I can help you with. Like, you're not going to take your friend calling you a dick bad because it's your friend. You have that trust built. You could skip towards someone else though. You know, you call someone a random stranger, a dick in the street. Like then they're going to have an issue.
So it's just one of those things were, just remember that quote, because it's always stuck with me is that feedback without a relationship as harassment. So I, I, I love that there. And feedback is such a valuable thing. The thing about that your employee wants to get better, wants to do good for you and the company and has a loyalty to it or wants to have a loyalty to it. Those are all positive attributes, right?
Not just saying this is as good as I can do or here, here it is. They're saying, what, what does a pause look like? Right? What, what would really impress you? Kind of show me where the bar is set.
Yeah. Yup. The other thing I will stereotype wise is the teamwork thing and a, in a, in a positive way. They want to work for a team and win for a team, uh, versus trying to stand out individually. So, but I think gen x and baby boomers were really taught to stand out individually. And so I think that's a difference with the touring the generations we didn't really talk about.
But that's something I've noticed as I brought in more and more millennials is in, in, especially in my world where we're coaching financial advisors and they're running their own practices. It's a very individual thing. We've had to really build teamwork stuff and a group accountability and pure to pure feedback stuff because of the millennials attraction to working in teams, even though we're in such a fiercely independent business model.
So that was something we didn't cover, but it just came to mind about a, I thought I'd throw that out.
No, I, I, I love that because one of the interesting things that I think is wrapped up in there is how do we kind of hold information, how information used, used to be held. You know, it used to be the teacher at the front of the who had all the answers and and boomers and gen x or sat in a classroom and you waited and raised your hand. And it's who, who knows the answer to this first and who can come up with at first? Well now information is held in our palm of our hand and our smartphones.
So the first one to know, so we can Google it the fastest. And kids today are used to networking on everything, right? You have a question, you group text your friends about it, right? I mean, they communicate openly about everything and information isn't held at the top from the CEO or the teacher. It's not this top down chain of command anymore. It's the network, right? So how do I, who do I need to meet and connect with so that I get my voice heard or that I get my answer?
Questions answered, those types of things. Whereas, you know, the boomers especially, it was a more authoritarian top down. I mean, look at the org chart, right? I mean the org chart is, it's a hierarchy. It's top down and that's what built America, right? And those are the boomers. They're like, wait, why should I change for these millennials? Because the millennials are used to not waiting their turn. They're used to getting the answer or working with a friend and a team project in school.
Everything was a collaboration for them.
So feedback for leaders, business owners, stuff of that nature. If you're struggling with this at all, with the individuality because that's how things have worked out. The Org chart, stuff of that nature. Figuring out ways that they can work in teams. It may not to this day, it makes sense to you why they don't want to stand out. They don't know. Again, I'm speaking in generalities. There might be something to do.
Um, so everything we're talking about today is in generality, stereotype stuff of that nature, but it's, it's in order to help. A lot of the teamwork stuff that we've done here has seen and saying, looking at a group goal versus an individual goal. Even though we're in an individual business, we've seen some great traction with it because they're more bought in to helping each other succeed versus just standing out and being on top of everyone.
[inaudible] [inaudible] and you know, and in general for people who are maybe from an older generation that are in a management role or family owned businesses where they see all this change happening and they see so much more that they now are like, okay, I'm on board. I know we need to do some different things differently, but it's very overwhelming. How am I going to do all this when this isn't my generation? I don't quite really get it.
I get that we need to work on it, but it's, it's, it's foreign to me. Well, don't do it alone. Make it a team thing. Empower the young people who work for you to help with some of these things, right? There's one guy that was so overwhelming and we'd have no social media. We don't have any of this. I know the customers that come through my store. I want to engage them on Instagram. It's like you got teenagers, you've got Gen z kids and millennials working for you.
Put them to the task, give them some empowerment and let them take the lead on a project. That wraps into all the things we've been talking about on how to engage millennials at work is empower them. Give them a little opportunity in a little responsibility and, and I think you'll be impressed with the right tools to help them succeed.
As we were talking about this, I was thinking about their cohabitated space the businesses are doing nowadays.
Uh, so, so for family businesses listening, stuff of that nature, if you've heard of hundred, if you've heard of the spark building downtown Madison, a Northwestern mutual does put in cream city labs, uh, in, in their new building, which is not going to how's Northwestern mutual people, but it actually houses these young tech startups and we're talking to one of our Home Office employees yesterday and he's had some hand in that and I, you know, good friend Joe Sweeney has been with 100 state and
stuff of that nature and needs to talk to me about the eye ideation that comes out of these things. They're totally separate companies, totally separate entrepreneurs. Been there working on this cohabitated space and all of a sudden be one person will be working on a problem in a totally separate entrepreneur comes over and be like, Hey, I can tell you how we solve that about six months ago.
Isn't that the perfect representation of millennial culture now and all of our culture, how we work together to solve problems, how we share resources, how we share information. Absolutely. It's an amazing building. I got chance to be down at spark. I think you're speaking there next week. Yup. Awesome. And we had to be there looking at more Tuesdays from robbery, two Tuesdays from now.
Perfect. Yeah. So we're actually a excited for that. And um, that building and that was the for Chad and I got to go down there as was first time I'd been there cause I live in on the far west side. It's hard. I used to live downtown and was able to, to uh, see all that development but growing down there, you know, say every other month or something else, I think what I get downtown, I'm like, it seems to change every time.
Yeah. It's been awesome to watch that whole east wash corridor kind of come to life on the recession was hard. A lot of the project slowed down but it's really kind of like the ground zero for millennials now in Madison. There's cool stuff going on. It's really cool to see. Yeah, so
what about older generations who might not be thrilled to get on board with the millennial friendly work culture, I guess, do you think that's the case or do you think that there'll still be some change there, do you think? Or have you had any speaking opportunities that they just, they were having
a real hard time with it? Well, I think that there's some hesitation to say, if nobody catered to my needs when I was the young professional, why should I go out of my way? Or why should I do things differently to help the younger generation, especially when some of those people feel like they need to be a little more mature, they need to, they need to take work a little more seriously. They need to work a little harder. They've had it too easy.
I had to work harder than, and all those things are true. Right? But the world's changing, right? It's not going backwards. One of the things I like to joke about is in another 20 years, we're going to be living in their world. They're going to be in charge. Right. So, so you can't just dig your feet in. You can't put your head in the sand. Probably won't be. No, I would probably be much less than that. Right.
Um, you know, so, so we've got to work on it and it's undeniable that we now teach kids differently at school and raise them differently at home and we empower them in a way that, I've heard some millennials joke with me, they said, I felt like I had somebody holding my hand up through high school. And then even in college, there's a good support network. And then I graduated and it was like, you're on your own. Right. And some people just expect you to just grow up and be able to handle it.
But for the people who make the extra effort for the people who are a little more patient, and one of the other things I'll say is give somebody a little more help, a little more patients, a little more explanation and more context. And somebody gave you at the same age because we don't bring the same level of experience, you know, by the same age that boomer x or it probably worked a lot more than that millennial, you know?
So you're going to need to help them a little bit more than somebody helped you. And it's worth it because we all want to have success at work and if we don't figure out a way to leverage different generational strengths, then we're not going to be successful. So there was a time when you could say, don't hire a millennial. They're not worth the trouble. One of the groups I spoke to joked about that. So there are too much, too much baggage. They did. They just don't. They're wired differently.
Oh, I don't know how good they're doing nowadays, but probably not so hot. I mean, there's no getting around it.
Not unless they change that attitude as you're speaking there. I don't know if your dad ever said this to you, but it's like the classic Dad Til I was like back in my day. I used to have to walk uphill both ways. He's 10 feet of snow. I don't know how many times I heard it. Yeah. Yeah. Dad, it was harder for you get it s if you stay in that mode, right, like you're not evolving and you've, you either evolve or you die. I mean, look at toys r us and some of the retail chains.
All you see, you evolve or you die. So if you said, if any of you are out there and sitting in this motive, no one did the stuff for me when I was a new hire. Why are we catering to them? Why we're spending money here? If you're stuck in that mode, that is your ego talking. That is your pride. Get over it. Yeah. You might've had it harder. The world's changed. If you want your business to continue to thrive or even potentially even take it higher than what it's been, let's move forward off.
I thought I liked that. I like that 10 feet both ways. My dead. I don't think that's possible. You get older, you get wiser, like really ask your mom about that. I drove him both ways. Like making up tails now. All right. So any other advice to the older generation owners, executives feeling overwhelmed about that pace of change? Um, you know, the change involved. Any other advice for some of those?
Yeah, I think one, one thing that we kind of haven't covered yet is, um, you know, ways to increase retention. Um, I think one of the things to think about is, is giving, giving the young people who work for you process control over the work they're doing. So there's the micromanager on one nine, right? That's going to tell you exactly how to do it and happy over your shoulder.
And then there's the opposite end where you're saying, okay, here are the results I care about and you can go about it and whatever way you want. And if I as the young employee have control over how the work is, is done and it's kind of my, you know, my process that I'm way more invested in the outcomes.
So you know, people kind of have these stereotypes that millennials can be high maintenance, that they need a lot of help, but really empower them to kind of take process control over the work that they're doing and kind of how they get it, get it done. And if you want to keep them around longer, longer than you would have otherwise. If you want to drive those retention rates up, then you need to show me some pathways here for success, right?
If you want me to be the next Mike or the next Mary that's worked here for 20 years and it's your, your, your gold standard of a, of a great employee, then then you need to show me how with some hard work I can get there.
You know, you know, the, the whole, this might not be your favorite task in the world right now, but people that work here started just like you and they're able to get a training or a certification or we trusted them a little bit more with some responsibility and now they're over here in this completely other area or department. And you know, sometimes millennials, we, we, we don't see the, we can't connect the dots very well. We don't see the long game.
So, so the time and the patients to say, well, why should I give somebody more help than I got? Well, if you want to retain those employees and you want quality employees to stick around, then you need to give them a little more help than you got. Show them a pathway for growth and success and kind of nurture it, right? Take them under your wing a little and in and empower them.
Begin with the end in mind. Stephen Covey says, if you want retention, if that's your goal, if you don't want to be retraining someone every other month or every other year for that position, show him the vision. What? Because you're right, let's say they could connect the dots. They're like, oh, that's go to take too long.
Like, no, no. Show me the incremental steps in a veterinary, those incremental steps in their career path and what it can provide a for you, for your family and everything like that. Then they can get by that by him. Loyalty, all that stuff, and you will be able to retain much, much easier.
[inaudible]
and remember to, don't get, don't get too sensitive if, if you put a lot of effort in a lot of patients with someone and you'll lose a good, a good worker. I mean [inaudible] they call it, they call millennials job hoppers, but we talked about delaying those life stages. You're just, you're just going to lose good people. That's, it's going to happen. You know, so don't take it personally. Don't throw it. Don't have it. Throw off your whole system.
You know, if I don't have kids, I'm not married, I don't have all those roots put down. We talked about, I might decide to move to the west coast. I might decide to move down in Chicago. So you're going to lose some people, you know, be prepared for that. Don't let that throw you off your course. Um, and don't make it kind of a waiver in your investment and the other millennials that work for you. Because we want those things.
And if we're somewhere where we feel like we're thriving, so I've got a mentor, I've got a pathway and being trained and encouraged and I'm developing my skills. I don't want to leave. I don't want to job hop because I'm really thriving here at that engagement. That thriving is really what I think we got to drive our management and, and all of our employees to kind of expect from each other. Okay.
Yeah. No, that's awesome. Uh, and the other thing I would add there is, are the tasks to that person is doing, is it possible that they do it remotely? I know it's not ideal for a lot of situations, but if they can do it remotely, if you've got a really talented individual, uh, if there's some tasks they can do remotely, could possibly 10 99 them for that work. And then that way you retain that expertise.
You retain that person that knows your company and culture and you retain that talent a little bit, even though they're not in the office everyday.
I think that's huge. Right? So we talked about how millennials might be motivated as much or more by their lifestyle. Then they're by their career, right? My grandpa lived to work I as a millennial kind of work to live. So my lifestyle is important and the time I spent sitting at a desk versus the time that I have at home or working remotely, wherever I may choose, or just kind of blending that into my lifestyle, I can get it done however I see fit.
That's a great pro piece of process control right there. I think that's huge. Remote tasks for millennials and even remote tasks for boomers, right? So boomers have all this tribal knowledge, they have all this experience, they're retiring, we're gonna want the, we're going to look around pretty soon and be like, man, I wish, I wish I would've gone to him or I would have gone to her for this project or for some advice on this. What better way than to kind of keep them engaged remotely.
Kind of keep them on the team and kind of helped all of them to help continue to build culture and, and kind of engage with the other people at work.
Oh, that's great. So then the other thing I thought of here is I can see a CFO, CEO conversation, a quote out there. So training is so big for millennials. Uh, and so investing in those people, investing in training and development can be expensive. I invest a lot in training development and it's, it's, it's a lot of money. Uh, and it was a lot, a lot of time, a lot of effort. But so the CFO s what if we train them and they leave the CEO and we'll ask, what if we don't train them and they stay.
So that's just a great thought process to go through their, uh, cause training and development of so key and coaching. And Saki and I, I've talked about on this podcast a lot. I have two coaches. I encouraged coaching for everyone. Uh, but coaching for millennials, they've been coached their whole lives. They are so used to that and so receptive to that or anything you have to add there?
No, I love that. What you said there though, we train them, train them and they leave. Look what if we don't train them and they stay and it's, you know, there's, there's just this expectation kind of that are this old cliche that, you know, if we don't do things differently and then we expect different results, that just doesn't make sense. Right? I mean to do this the things that way that we always did them and then somehow expect that it's going to change. Right?
I mean, everybody's heard that that's, this is a perfect example of that. So why not, uh, kind of sharpen your employees, train them up and it's like, sometimes I'll work with groups who are a little hesitant to spend what you like you mentioned training and development. It's expensive.
And for companies where it's like we just sat down through a 20 minute meeting where you told me about how severe of a problem this is an issue for you for a hiring new people, retaining them and, and kind of going to the level of staffing you want, you just identified it's a huge issue and now you're hesitant to kind of pull the trigger on, on spending money on it. So it's a huge part of your business, right?
And it's, I think it's worth every penny that, you know, we've all seen a speaker who completely changes the way we think about a subject or motivates us in a way that we just didn't have that attitude or that mentality before we were, we heard them or before we went through a training or a certification. So you know that that is the answer to me is we got to huddle up on this stuff.
We've got to bring in good people to speak about it from all the generations, kind of value everyone's perspective because ultimately we're gonna all have to work together. These generational issues aren't going away. They're only going to intensify. So let's, how are we going to build a bridge and get over it?
Yup, absolutely. So what have you noticed about the millennials and a philanthropy and how that shift has been over time?
Yeah. Well, you know, millennials have a very unique world view, a very unique world perspective. We grew up with the technology. Certainly kids of today you've got an iPhone in your pocket, you're on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, snapchat. You see kids all over the world that look just like you. So the boomers, the Xers, I mean we've always had those among us, lots of us, most of us that are eco friendly and socially conscious and we want what's best for the world.
But to a kid who grew up with the internet and grew up seeing all those things, and a lot of times through social media, seeing world crises in real time that we're more connected than we ever have been before. And we're kind of holding in a good way, holding each other accountable to say, what are some standards of living that everyone deserves, right? Clean air, clean water, good schools, safe. And neighborhoods, all those things.
So I think millennials and, and with how much we dream big, how much, how empowered we are to be the smartphone kids that have been able to Google anything and start a business out of your bedroom and Uber with your car on the weekends and make us, you know, a side hustle there were, were very empowered. So I think that millennials are going to do great things in, in the, in the philanthropy sense. And, um, but I think every generation does.
I think what's going to be really exciting is we've got all these really smart, ambitious young people kind of coming of age and becoming how powerful adults, and we've got these great older generations who lived through so many other things and remember what life was like before technology kind of took over. So I think it's gonna be the best of both worlds. And I think the millennials will drive a lot of it, but I don't think it's just a millennial thing.
Well, you're right, it doesn't happen. I feel like it's changed, right. I, I have a Jason Dorsey quote again, where he says the millennials are the most willing generation to take a pay cut to make a difference and be a part of something bigger. Yeah. And so on. I just had a conversation with Dan Rashy CEO at task, and he talked about an initiative that cause he's so passionate about, uh, philanthropy.
He talking about an initiative that are few years ago, he allowed all of his employees to do 40 hours paid per year to do philanthropy philanthropic work. That's amazing. There's only about 14% right now are utilizing the hours. It's all millennials. We're all good. All right. Whenever you get this out, hey, you just want the benefit, right? Just kidding. But, but, uh, there what I said was, because you want to, he wants to take that number for it.
I was like, yeah, but that's 14% of however many hours that is of community service, philanthropic work that wasn't there previously. Right. But by a company that employs, you know, over a thousand people,
it's awesome. And that stuff is so important. So as a millennial who I work for, what I do for work, it might not be as important to my core adulthood as it was from my grandpa, but who I worked for in the eyes of my friends, the eyes of my family and what my job represents, what we do for society. That's super important because our lives are all being shared online where everything is so visible with who we are and what we do.
So if I work for someone that allows me to take paid time to go devote to a cause of my choice, that's awesome. Not only does that make me feel good, it makes me feel proud to post that kind of stuff, right? Look at what I get to do, right? This is an awesome not getting paid to do it too. And it makes you feel like, because we're living more for our lifestyle, right? So does that mean we care less about work? Maybe, maybe not.
But it makes me more loyal to my employer on those days when I don't want to come to work or that project goes late and we're all working after hours. And we're all going the extra mile. I do that. If I know my bat boss, my manager that people I work with are like good people and that we also have our priorities straight and that we're also investing our time and energy and social causes. Things that matter to all of us. That goes a long way. Right.
That makes me want to stay and work for someone. That makes me proud to tell my friends. Right. I mean social impressions are more important than ever before that we get word of mouth through our friends more than from an advertisement that we see. I've seen so many of my friends post stuff on Instagram either about experiences where they get to go devote to social causes or just like started my first day at Northwestern mutual. Look at all this cool stuff.
They, it's a Selfie from their desk, right? With all this welcome package stuff, the swag, right? That matters. And every one of that person's friends, every one of their friends sees that in their feed and they're like, oh cool. They started their job. The good for them, you know, and it's a positive.
Our balloons. We got Marge, whatever you need.
Yeah, I bet you do. That's awesome. I'm going to walk through the closet my way out. I load it up.
Well we'll give you a tour, but uh, well actually I was, okay. So this will be my last Jason Dorsey plug. We'll move on it. The very last thing he said in that talk, so just represents what you just said. He said this is how millennials want to be represented when they join a team. Welcome to the team. You now represent us as we now represent you. I like that.
That's exactly what you're saying with the social media, that the awareness that this is who I'm associated with company wise and uh, now I'm associated
with that. You know, so it's, it's a reciprocity and trust and it's a trust thing, right? That I trust the kind of company you, we are. I trust what we do inside the office and our n and you kind of trust in me as an employee to represent the brand in the right way. And, and it's very much a two way street. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. Cool. So in wrapping up to be respectful of your time, always ask us now, what's the book you either reading now or your favorite book of all time?
Well I like a, I liked the book I've been reading most recently. It's kind of older. Um, I'm sure it's been out there for a little butt sticking points about generational differences and a lot of people have probably heard that one. But it's really good. Just a different perspective on topic even I've got to, you know, I'll joke that some of my presentations that uh, I work with a lot of kids and this is what I research.
I'm not just some doofus who googles generational differences, but I do Google it all the time cause it's a great way to find articles. So Seo, search engine optimization. Good. Yeah, there you go. Who's getting the results up there first? For sure. That's great. So how can our listeners get in touch with you if they want to read it? Yeah, we've got a couple of Jason Dorsey plugs in here already. I got to make sure I get the Steve Bench plug in there as well.
If you go Steve bench.com you can contact me, email me, see some of my presentations and kind of connect with me that way and encourage anybody out there that is a kind of as passionate as we are about this generational differences stuff to just reach out and make your voice heard. Because I love hearing people's stories. What I would say. Well here, let me ask you this first.
If some company wants to book you to speak to, should consult with you, do they go to the website or is, or I'd say just go to [inaudible] dot com shoot me an email with kind of what you're thinking about and we'll just set up a phone call. The pricing's flexible, everybody's budgets differently, uh, set up differently and I'll work with you. Kind of make something that can work for us because I think this is a message that needs to be heard. Um, it's my millennial generation.
I disagree with most of the stereotypes and the ones that I don't disagree with. I can explain, you know, help you understand a lot better. So I'll work with you and who knows, you've heard today. He's done a great job of that as well. So book this man. All right, everybody. Thank you. Thanks again
for man. Thanks Steve for being here. Have a great day. Thanks for listening to another episode of inspire people impact lives. If you've been inspired today, please share this episode with as many people as possible so that together our impact is exponential.