Generation Y, also known as millennials, are entering the workforce at a rapid pace—especially for white collar positions. If you happen to work with a millennial or have hired one, have you noticed they are a little different than all of the other employees? Different as in they are willing to forego higher pay for flexible benefits, such as working from home or bringing pets into work. This is an over generalization, of course, but they also seem to be unorganized, scattered and sloppy, as if someone will come in and clean up after them.
The interesting fact is that regardless of how millennials act, they are here to stay. In fact, some estimate that the millennials are a larger group than the baby boomers. The reality is that this group of workers will be leading our organizations before we know it.
One mind-shifting fact we can learn from this particular group is that they love to work on projects they are passionate about; and they would rather leave the non-engaging tasks to someone else. What we can learn is hidden in the notion that millennials wish to work on projects they find fun and invigorating.
The lesson in this is that we should have lazer focus on projects and tasks that would make us productive, happy and passionate about what we do, and leave the low value tasks to an admin worker or to a third-party company.
More common now than ever, business leaders are beginning to outsource various functions of their business for the sheer fact they are non-generating activities and aren’t core to the business. What millennials have taught us is to focus on what is the center of growing the business rather than the day-to-day duties that side track us. They simply detract us from the things that matter.
“How does this apply to janitorial services and cleaning in an organization?” you may ask. For one, cleaning is not an essential function of the business nor will it garner revenue growth. Arguably, however, it is essential in the sense that it needs to be done otherwise there can be other issues that derive from neglect of office cleaning. More importantly is the fact that millennials in leadership positions will not be prone to cleaning on their own or utilizing internal resources to do so. The times are changing.