Working with Millennials

TRACIE DUNCAN:

Awesome. Good morning. So I’m more interested in discussing with you guys this morning then completely if I get every slot of this presentation. So I feel like that there’s something that brought you into this session, that is outside of the world of credit collections and AR, obviously a topic that’s important to all of us. But I liked some feedback from you. I think this room is small enough. We park in here without the mics and do I sound loud to y’all? No? Okay, because it’s really loud for me. Like what brought you here today? What are you hoping to learn about millennials? Or you just like they’re a fact of life today so we’ve got to learn how to deal with them, or you just wanted to break from credit and collection talk so you decided to come to learn about millennials.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

Yes. Okay, now it’s like my 16-year-olds answering me. Yes, or Anna taught us a new German word yesterday that means yes and no. So, I guess that’s it, depends on the answer. Okay well I’ll start with I was having lunch with actually my mentor, whose nephew is a millennial, and he’s telling us the story that the nephew and his wife went on vacation for a month, and they just happened to run a house, he was owned by my mentor’s friend. So the friend calls up to him, he says, I need you to discuss it with your nephew. He paid for three weeks of rent last month instead of four. Well, they decided because they were on vacation for a week and they weren’t using the house that they didn’t have to pay rent for that week. Alright, this is kind of indicative of how millennials think a lot of times, but the thing that I’m wanting to make sure is and at the beginning of this presentation. I’m going to click the last back on the other thing is that so many of these things are just stereotypes that we’re hearing about millennials, and they’re probably the same stereotype of our generation. And as someone mentioned earlier, the hippie generation, no one thought there was any hope for them and yet here they are today. So I don’t think the key is maybe understanding the stereotypes of the millennial generation so that we can learn how to work with them.

So first off, Millennials 1981 to ‘96. So we’re starting to bleed into, not only the millennials being in the workforce, but the Gen Z’s who are now also in the workforce today, which are also very different in learning how to deal with. So if you search the term millennial. These are some of the key phrases they come up with millennials are like – these look familiar to you. And here is how you feel and what you’re thinking. My daughter who is not a millennial, every time I say anything about the millennials at work, she tells me just how discriminatory I am, and even thinking that way, which if you think about it, we are right because we’re judging this whole generation, based on probably a few individuals who maybe have created the stereotype. They are killing the napkin industry, and are the funniest one to me by the way. Okay, so Millennials are known as selfish, uninvolved, unmotivated, pampered narcissists, they’ve just picked up on their parents. I think again these are very unfair titles for millennials and also we have to think why are millennials this way. Who has created and called this weak? Not me because I’m not old enough to have a millennial child, but parents that have caused it? And it wasn’t because they were looking to ruin the generation, it’s because they were in a better position than their parents were, they were in the ability to provide more to give more and the world providing more opportunities. So these kids have had an exposure that the workforce has not seen before. Not to mention the fact that they never had to go look it up, they’ve never heard that so everything for them is instant gratification, because if they want to know something, what do they do? Google. At the second they think about it, they stopped mid-conversation with you, so look up what they want to know. They know everything instantly, and that instant gratification has trickled through every aspect of their life.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

Alright, popular characteristics. This looks familiar. Right so somebody’s very self-explanatory and it’s something that has to be worked through as they come into the workforce. They can’t speak in text talk. They try to write emails in a much more simplistic, less professional manner and this is where we come in. This is our job to coach them to guide them and to teach them that while this is okay with talking to their friends, it’s not going to work in the workforce, but it doesn’t mean that it’s bad because they do want to shortcut everything. Think about the process improvements that they have, the ability to bring to your organization because they do think about the fastest way to get things done.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

Okay. Can y’all see this? I don’t understand and read this to you but this sounds familiar. This is what we say with our millennials.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

They need to be encouraged. There’s a need for constant feedback, and there’s a need for constant change in the world and millennials. I feel very fortunate. I have several new members in my team, who are millennials, and they were hired in probably the class of 12. So, 12 new employees coming into the company, 11 of the 12 are millennials. We had one when I became a new member of the new hire. Welcome to them. I consider him a non-traditional student because everyone else in the room was 23 years old. They’ve had recent feedback sessions with these individuals after six and eight months of employment, to determine how they’re fitting into organization how they’re enjoying the organization, how they’re enjoying their jobs, and all these 11, I’m pleased that the one who’s most happy and satisfied is in our department, and a little bit of to tell you about that is, we have worked hard to make sure that he’s not doing one task. He has multiple projects coming his way he’s involved with multiple groups within our team and we try to constantly keep things moving. And I have 20-25 years old employees, they want to come in, they want to do their job, they don’t want any other projects, and they want to finish that task and go to the next one. And that’s okay for them.

But what we’ve tried to make sure is with our young employees who are coming into the department that we are challenging them to keep them interested in motivated. Now, of course, my favorite thing was two weeks after he was with Adidas. They did say that right. My favorite thing was two weeks, into being with the organization, he’s already looking to see how he can get into sports marketing. Can you imagine the coveted jobs in the Adidas organization? Everyone wants to be in sports marketing, product development, design, you know big things so he’s wanting to work with the athletes who work with the stars who wear the product in two weeks, he’s wondering how quickly he can get there. That’s the other thing that we have to teach them is, they’re no longer in that instant gratification world, they have to take the time, they have to learn the roles, they have to learn the job, but it’s about mentorship to them. It’s about making sure that they’re plugged into the organization. They’re plugged in and involved in the things going on on your campuses. Work has to be fun, right? And that’s sometimes a foreign concept for all of us, right. I have had some of my very seasoned employees. Go to HR and complain because they don’t want to come to work, they have fun, they come to work, and they want to go home and they are upset because we’re having team building and we have social hours, and we have training sessions, and in their mind, they shouldn’t have to do any of that they just want to work and go home. So the other problem that we have is our challenge is learning how to deal with these two sets of employees because they see things in a very different light. Okay, so how do we understand millennials. We got to where the millennials are right, Instagram, just as important to us. How many of you Snapchat in this room?

TRACIE DUNCAN:

Highly impressive.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

All right. You should look into it. The thing is, to understand these kids, we do training every day to make ourselves smarter, better, to understand our jobs more to grow and develop. So why are we not understanding the technology and the things that motivate and drive those who are coming behind us? I do not plan on working forever. Someone has to replace me, and this is the generation who’s going to do it. And if I don’t train them to be good credit collections directors, leaders, then they’re not gonna be able to do it and it’s our responsibility, someone took that time and invested in us, and it is our job to take that time and invest in them, and that means understanding their world. And if you have children, I highly recommend that you understand the world of technology, I hear so many people tell me constantly that’s beyond me I’m not interested, that’s my child. I have just one 16-year-old, just one. You better understand Instagram and Snapchat and VSCO, and there’s probably 20 other kids using it, and you need to understand how they work.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

Excuse me. All right, how many millennials do we have in the world?

TRACIE DUNCAN:

Probably so 2 billion millennials in the world. On the workforce yet but very quickly, they’re going to be right. Well, we hope the stereotype that they’re sitting in the parent’s basements right now. At some point, they’re going to get out. Mom will kick them out eventually.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

So at the point that mommy is higher than living in the basement, they’re going to come to us and by that time the hope is that they’re gonna be a little more mature and a little bit more able and capable of handling the workforce right. All right, so these millennials all have the same hopes, dreams, aspirations, they want to be the president within six months to a year. Right, so it’s our job to train them. Right. So the other thing about the millennials and Generation Z I don’t know for you guys I have employees who have been with the company, 20 to 30 years, Adidas has been in Spartanburg for 30 years, employees that I do not plan on staying anywhere that long. However, I truly believe if we open the path for them within the organization. We might lose them in our departments, but we’re creating the knowledge base that’s going within our organizations, but it’s a matter of creating those pads for them. So they’re not necessarily looking to leave a company, they’re looking to do something different. And in the past, our career paths I feel have been very structured, very regimented and very long term, and they’ve been such to allow for the 20 and 30 year employees, especially in the world of credit collections. So this is the third organization I was with two companies within Michelin, and within data for the last eight years. And it’s the same in all of them, people have been sitting in those days doing these jobs for a very long time. And we can’t expect that so if we don’t change our career paths to support the direction that they’re going, they’re not going to stay. So there’s the adage that people leave managers, they don’t lead companies, we need to make sure that as managers, we’re setting up their success to go and take the knowledge that they’ve learned from our department and that they have our organization and just move it elsewhere in the organization. I don’t think that they’re scared to take a risk as maybe we were so they’re okay with going from credit to sales to marketing wherever, but they take a wealth of knowledge from every area that they go from if we allow them to stay within organizations. If these things start to happen and we start to support this way of thinking, we have the opportunity to change the statistics of how quickly we get the thing in two years. 43% changing how much it costs your organization. Training is very expensive, and then the knowledge is completely lost versus just moved on to another department.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

This is shocking. Pardon.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

Next year, next year. So we have no choice but to accept this. And it’s us, as leaders who have to change our way of thinking. All right, so 10 tips for working with millennials. Okay. They are individuals, they want to be treated as individuals, they want to be recognized for their accomplishments. They want to know that they are doing a good job, and they want to know that you’re listening to them. It is imperative to the success of working with millennials. Maintain a positive company culture. But you have to have it, it’s important, there have to be opportunities for them to get together. Bowling leagues, social hours. It doesn’t necessarily have to be company-sponsored but company supported. Encourage them to create groups that are doing things together, so they’re plugging in as a culture, if not they will not be happy and stay. They might want to be treated as individuals, but they want the community. Be transparent. They like open communication, they’d like to know the path that you see for them, and they like to know that this path is obtainable. So it’s about the constant one to one feedback, making sure that they know where they have opportunities and making sure that you’re staying late and exploring those opportunities with them.

We have something at work, hold on an IDP Individual Development Plan. These are very important to millennials. They want to know that there’s a future and an opportunity for them. Regular feedback and opportunities for advancement again tie together. I’m sure I’m hoping every one of you at least does annual reviews, but I don’t think for the millennial population that this is enough. We do monthly one to one in our organization that is very well documented and shared with the individual, and we no longer do annual like performance plans or quarterly. So this defines the period and activities that they’re going to be responsible for in a three months chunk of time, it might be a project that extends over the year, but in that quarterly plan, you’re only talking about the things that they’re gonna accomplish in that quarter related to the overall plan. So this allows for very structured discussions, very structured feedback for them, and the opportunity for them to show you what they’ve done, because remember they’re used to coming home from kindergarten showing mom and getting all the praise and the ribbons right. Everyone got a trophy. Make teamwork a part of your culture again they might want to be treated as individuals, but they want that opportunity to work together to collaborate, to be with other like-minded individuals who think the way they do and can help express their ideas. Take advantage of their tech-savviness.

I had a great opportunity yesterday with a group of ladies that did a panel with, and I finished them into the picture. I was like oh you’re airdropping that to me. And every one of the panels like airdrop? What’s that? right. That’s one individual item of technology that’s pretty basic. Imagine the things that the millennials can bring to the table and teach us. And those things are only going to make us better leaders and make us open our minds more to the way that the millennial generation is thinking. Focused on results. They want to know they’ve done a good job. They want to know how what they’re doing, contributes to the success of the organization. They want to know that their worth is being shown in the results of the company or the results of your department, and it’s very important that you taught what they’re doing to the overall success of your organization. Embrace diversity and flexibility. This is the first generation where we’ve had LGBTQ and whatever comes next. Right. And it is the way of the world it is the way of the culture today and that is got to be embraced that everyone is the same. Everyone is welcome, and everyone is a part of the team for what they’re contributing, so they’re very much about. Not only that, but we were having a discussion at lunch yesterday and one of the ladies said that five years ago in her organization if you had a tattoo, you had to cover it up. So women came in with arm brace Ace bandages on their arms. They had a skirt or their ankles were covered. That’s obvious, I mean, I’m almost an anomaly because I don’t have a Tattoo and everyone in Adidas does. So, the piercings, the tattoos, the colored hair. All these are part of them expressing their individuality and something that can’t be judged for today.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

Make it fun.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

I don’t know that we were necessarily internet careers, that work was supposed to be fun, you’re supposed to work and just get your job done, achieve your results and go home. This does not work anymore. And, you know, I hear people make the comment I’m not running a daycare. It’s not about running a daycare or playground. But if I have the theory that if someone can work seven hours a day, we get eight hours worth of work done because they’re enjoying what they’re doing, then why not just let them work seven hours a day. And maybe they start getting eight and a half – nine hours worth of work done during those seven hours because they’re so motivated. After all, they have so much passion and energy for what they’re doing and how they’re delivering it. After all, they have so much fun at work.

We also know we have those people who have four hours’ worth of work, and they take eight hours to do it. So, if we make sure that they are engaged in the environment and having fun. The results are going to follow in most circumstances right. Again, I just really want to be cautious with all the stereotypes that we’ve heard about this generation. Don’t squash their ideas. We have people in our organization, it doesn’t matter what you tell them the first answer is going to be ‘no’. This cannot be the case, it might be no and you may know that the second idea comes out of their mouth, but you have to change your way of thinking so that when you have these discussions, you are oh let’s think about that let’s explore that further, why don’t you come back and tell me how you think that could be executed, give them the empowerment to explore their ideas so that they know that they’re being listened to. It’s one of the most important things for the generation. All right. So, thinking back to the first slide and how negative it was. This is the millennial generation, they are creative, independent, motivated, free thinkers. They just want to be happy. And if we do our job to make the environment happy for them. Imagine the results they are going to provide to you.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

Questions? Yes, ma’am.

AUDIENCE:

You were talking about millennials who are working for like managers and so forth. But what happens if you’re working for a millennial or you’re trying to get a new job, and the person is a millennial, is it just a reverse?

TRACIE DUNCAN:

I would say not consider that but yeah. So I think if you do a lot of research so that you can connect to them on their level, then it may be a total rethinking of how you approach work right. Coming in showing your commitment to groupthink and campus community. There’s a word that’s floating in here but I think it’s definitely about rewiring how you think about approach work for sure.

DAN:

Tracy, Dan Chapman, HighRadius.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

Oh, nice to meet you today.

DAN:

Thank you. Great presentation. I love the part about squashing an idea so I’m technically a millennial, believe it or not, I don’t know if we ever talked about this but I am right on the edge. But I thought I had an interesting experience where I was managing people younger than myself. And they would come to me with all these ideas of things that were broken. And they would say things like why are we? this is so dumb, why are we doing it this way. And I would have thought so, even though I worked for HighRadius So believe it or not, we have some problems internally if you can believe that. And it would say like we shouldn’t be doing it this way. And I would say, I found myself saying but you know just kind of go back to your desk and you know it’s just the way it is. And later I realized, I was squashing their ideas and not enabling it and it was something that should change right, I was curious if you were, and then I struggled with like how is it worth trying to change this the battle of like you know this is the way it is. I wonder if you’ve had an experience like that and how do you foster that not squashing the idea within the realms of a company that is operating and it has to focus on things you have to prioritize.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

So I think that it’s about carving out that time and allowing them. For me, everything’s about empowerment and it’s empowering them to explore the ideas and bring something back to the table right if they think it can be done better than show me how, if you think that we need technology resources to do that. Do some research and lay out the plan. I truly believe that that’s why my department specifically has been so innovative because people have come to me, very often with ideas on why we do things, certain ways, and it might take a long time. We’ve heard a lot this week about technology resources and limiting them but just giving them a time to explore that. And if it doesn’t work by the time they’ve explored it within their parameters, they’re going to know we’re going to come to their answer and they told themselves no, thanks.

AUDIENCE:

Hi, great presentation. So I run a global millennial organization, a networking organization. And what I realized is that there’s a gap right and there’s that line, right, and nobody wants to either go down to, to deal with the millennials and the millennials have a hard time dealing crossing the line with the Gen Xs and you know, and beyond. Right. So how do you close that gap in these organizations where they also because they’re looking, we’re looking at it from the executive level or manager down. How do you encourage them to bridge the gap also and meet us in the middle?

TRACIE DUNCAN:

Wow. You know, I think it is the expectation of management right if you just as we talk about the discussions we’ve had on things like diversity and being a more diverse free-thinking workforce. It’s no different, and learning to deal with the millennials so is the expectation. When I have discussions with my management team when they’re hiring how they will think and treat people and embrace this new generation coming and it’s also a reminder, you don’t want to work forever. You got to train your successor, something about retirement. When you get to that 50-year-old age group, it starts to be a little bit like the carrot right. I only have. I’m not sure how many millennials I have now. But it’s interesting for me because I have two who worked for Chris’s land who was here this week as well. And that’s been, it’s been a very positive experience and I haven’t had to coach or be involved very much because he’s kind of a young free thinker. I have two millennials, who are working for a guy in my department who is very old school management. And so the discussions with him are often on how he’s got to change his way of thinking and I think it’s just a matter of changing the way of thinking to make them realize that they don’t have any choice. This is the new employment.

STEVE:

Hi Tracy. My name is Steve, I’m with Duracell. So I have millennials working for me in my department. And I also have a boss that’s a millennial. That’s why I want to address it and my experience has been very positive. You know, my boss who is young and moved up the ladder rather quickly is bright capable, and he’s fun to work with. And I find that he tends to be a little less structured and creative and allows me to take more ownership and prior mentors I had before. So I think it works for the people that work for me. I find if you enable them to make their own decisions and, you know, they just do well, kind of by themselves, independent myself, I think it’s been a win-win for the generations where we’re at, I agree.

TONY:

I’m Tony. I have 11 people that work for me and some of them are millennials. My problems, kind of the opposite where I’ve kind of embraced the millennial thing makes me feel young working with those guys and, you know, also, they’re our future they’re the people that are going to be replacing us this year that I come across I’m curious if you get the same thing is that the older people in the department feel like they’re being left out like we’re not, you know, gearing things toward them we’re gearing things toward these younger people do you experience that and how do you handle that.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

We have and this is the comment that I made where several people have gone to HR like I just want to come to work. I don’t want to have to be involved. I don’t want to have to be engaged. And so for me, it’s trying to make it where they don’t feel forced if that is what they want to do. They’re not forcing their requirements, but it’s also the education and the discussions with them, that they’ve got to understand that when they came into the workforce, they thought differently. This generation thinks differently as well. And that just because they may not approach work in the same manner, doesn’t mean they’re not getting their job done. And that’s the thing that I find most often is they think because this younger generation wants to play and have fun and that they never leave their desk that they’re working harder with the millennials are probably working smarter and that the amount of work getting done to the same, so it’s just making sure that they, in a politically correct way, understand that. That’s been my experience with it.

RACHEL:

Hello, I’m Rachel, and I’m with a PTC we’re a research organization here in Houston, thanks for your presentation, and one observation I had was that I am not a 14-year old. I’m not a millennial. Sometimes I wish I was a millennial. Sometimes I wish I was a baby boomer generation X but let’s say I’m on the baseball program, and the coach did a parent meeting and he said you know if your kid is not playing. It’s either because they’re not one of the best nine players, or because there’s some kind of behavioral problem. And I thought that it is with the workforce today. It’s the best nine players, you know, it doesn’t matter what your ages are or what your generation is. Anyway, that’s my commentary for the day. Thank you so much. My question for you is does your tips vary? Do you think for like Generation X or for, you know, baby boomers are for some of the other generations in the workplace?

TRACIE DUNCAN:

Definitely. So I think, you know that the generation, we think the baby boomers are, they’re very focused on just finishing it out and getting to retirement. You know, they came in from where they were raised from parents who had depression. They’re much more conservative and of course, again these are stereotypes so this is not indicative of the entire population, because there are some in each generation who have maintained the thought processes to keep up with the next generation. Right, so I’m also a generation X or. I’d like to think I’m very open to the millennials, making sure that you know I keep confirming and changing my ways. And the guy on my team, part of his job is to keep up with technology to make sure he knows what’s coming next in the industry, what’s coming next in technology and society. And I think that’s important for our team as a whole because that’s how we keep up with, with these generations coming in. So there’s a different approach to every generation because they’re all at different phases in life. And it’s just a matter of making sure that everyone feels comfortable in the workforce. It’s a hard one to answer right because we can’t approach everyone. I mean we’re each individual, we don’t want to be treated like the next person, and we can’t treat each generation like it’s the same and force them to conform to one norm.

ELLIE:

Hi, I’m Ellie from the Ikon Transportation Group in Montreal, Canada. So I’m a millennial myself and my team is split between all generations. So obviously with the millennials, I can relate to a lot of those tips which are spot on. By the way, I was just wondering, you know, in our organization, we are trying to automate a lot of processes and taking those kinds of trying to be more tech-forward but in the meantime, a lot of our processes are still very manual or archaic and obviously for millennials the struggle with that you know we’ve had certain reporting let’s say that has to be sent out on a, daily and they kind of take it, and they improve it, they automate and they make it amazing, and then you ask them to continue sending it out for let’s say every day. And then after two or three months, it’s like they’re bored and they don’t want to send it out anymore and like, so I’m just wondering the part about keeping them motivated and finding new projects for them. It’s, I find it almost exhausting sometimes to always be wanting them to continue to be motivated, how do you have that experience or how do you ensure that they stay motivated at the same time, enjoy your daily operations and go on as needed. With those, you know sometimes manual tasks are still involved.

TRACIE DUNCAN:

So for me, the first discussion that I have with every new employee is, I want them to dissect everything that they do, and come back to me and tell me how they can do it better, right and that’s like a year process, so that buys you a lot of time in the beginning as they’re finding their feet, and hopefully leads to a lot of process improvement right, my suggestion for the things that they get bored with is, you know, switching that between, giving it to the next person and seeing how they can take what this person did and make it even better, right, can they automate it so it’s sitting out and they’re not having to send it anymore, and let them feed off of each other so that they’re taking everything and taking it to that next level. I think even if we look at what’s the HighRadius technology. If you think back five years ago did you ever think that what HighRadius is showing us today would have been feasible in the world of credit collections? So I don’t think we’re ever done improving a process, there’s always something that can be done to it. So it’s a matter of okay this person working on this today. Having them, you know, switch it off to someone else and maybe create a team that does that so you don’t have to. The number one thing for me is delegation. Well, I guess number one I said was empowerment so number two is delegation, I’m giving them the empowerment to bring other people into the project to pass the product off if they’ve hit a roadblock with it and take it off your plate so you’re not doing all the work.