The FINANCIAL — Millennials plan to reorder the priorities in the workplace to focus on building businesses based on both purpose and profit, and give attention to employee well-being, according to a new survey from American Express.
Redefining the C-Suite: Business the Millennial Way surveyed more than 2,300 leaders and Millennial managers – the future leaders of business – in the U.S., U.K., France and Germany to better understand how getting business done will change as Millennials rise to senior management roles. This release focuses on the responses of the 343 Millennial survey respondents in the U.S.
Seven in ten U.S. Millennials (70% vs 63% of U.S. Gen Xers), defined as those born between 1980 and 1996, said that a C-Suite role is attractive to them – the highest among the four countries surveyed. But more than one-third (35%) believe in less than ten years the CEO role will no longer be relevant in its current format.
“Millennials have high expectations for the businesses they work for – and will eventually lead,” said Susan Sobbott, President of American Express Global Commercial Payments. “The successful U.S. business of the future will need to have an authentic purpose and foster employee well-being with passionate, committed leadership at the helm. Millennials are seeking work with meaning beyond just making money, and they’re willing to make tradeoffs to achieve their own definition of success.”
Millennials are Holding the Business of the Future to Their Same High Standards
Not only were Millennials from the U.S. most likely to say they want to be known for making a positive difference in the world (68%), but more than eight-in-ten (81%) say a successful business will have a genuine purpose that resonates with people. Nearly as many (78%) believe that the values of their employer should match their own values. Yet the research also found that 62 percent of Millennials recognize the importance of maximizing shareholder value and profits – something often perceived as being at odds with running a purposeful business.
Managing the Business of the Future: Millennials’ Priorities Include Employees’ Happiness and Fair Pay
As part of their C-Suite shake up, U.S. Millennial leaders will put employee well-being at the top of their agenda. This may be a result of personal experience, because more than half of Millennials (54%) said they feel pressure to always be available to work. Three-quarters of Millennials (75%) said that a successful business should be flexible and fluid in the face of volatile working environments and not enforce a rigid structure on employees, and nearly three-quarters (74%) indicated a successful business will need to support employees outside of work.
When asked about the key challenges to businesses of the future, Millennials identified the top five as paying employees fairly (39%), retaining talented employees (37%), improving performance (33%), keeping pace with innovation and technological change (32%) and providing flexible working arrangements (29%).
If they were or currently are running their company, Millennials are more likely to invest time and money in staff and strategy than sales. An overwhelming majority said they would invest in employee development (94%) and company strategy (92%), while slightly fewer would invest in hitting sales targets (86%). They are also more likely than Gen X respondents to invest in executive education (87% vs. 77%).
To overcome future challenges over the next five to ten years, Millennials said the key qualities of a boss will be their integrity (43%), fairness (40%) and problem-solving skills (37%).
Millennials Prepared to Make Tradeoffs for Personal Success
On a personal level, U.S. Millennials are seeking validation from their peers and looking to make a positive impact. Six-in-ten (60%) said they care about what friends and family think about their career and more than one-third define success as doing work that has a positive impact on society (37%). When considering their personal definition of success, Millennials rated enjoying the work they do as very important to them (62%), followed closely by having a good work/life balance (58%).
In order to achieve their vision of success, Millennials are willing to make trade-offs. Over one-third said they would lower their expectations around having responsibility at work (35%) and lower their career advancement expectations (35%) to achieve their vision of success, while three-in-ten said they were happy to lower their salary expectations (30% vs 19% of U.S. Gen Xers).
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