What matters to Priya?

• Global mobility
• Language
• Technology
• Traditional work practices
• Personal / work boundaries

Employee profile

• The responsibility for skills development shifts wholesale to individuals.
• People are more likely to see themselves as members of a particular skill or professional network than as an employee of a particular company.
• Employees rely on achieving high scoring ‘eBay’ style ratings of past job performance to land the next contract.
• Specialisation is highly prized and workers seek to develop the most sought after specialist skills to command the biggest reward package.

What matters to an Orange World employee?

Global working: We expect global mobility in our jobs, and we want opportunities to work overseas

Almost all (94%) of the sample said they believed they would work across geographic borders more than their parents. The graduates seemed overwhelmingly open to the idea of an overseas assignment, with 80% of the sample wanting to work overseas during their career. The country difference was interesting: 93% of Indian millennials wished to work overseas, compared to only 62% of those from the Netherlands. Desired locations included the US, followed by the UK and Australia, but overall Western Europe was the most desired (31%).

¹Managing Mobility Matters: A European Perspective (PwC published December 2006)

International experience is an essential requirement for future leaders and as such should be cultivated from the very beginning of a graduate's career.

+ PwC point of view

The apparent willingness of this generation to travel should be a welcome message for businesses. Globalisation has led to an increase in demand for more mobile workers1, yet companies often struggle to incentivise more senior workers to take on overseas assignments. Might there be a case for encouraging more global mobility at junior levels? This would give employees valuable experience early in their careers and potentially alleviate the financial burden of many costly overseas assignments for businesses.

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Language

Seventy percent of our millennials expected to use a second language at work. This percentage is understandably higher in countries where English is not the main language. But even in countries where English is the main language, there was some expectation that another language would be needed at work in the US, for example, 34% of respondents agreed with that statement. Whilst only 38% of the sample cited English as their first language, 83% expected to use English at work. French and Spanish were the next most likely, said 19% and 14% of respondents respectively.

Technology: We use technology to enhance our ability to network

Much has been written about the technological savvy of the Internet generation. Our survey findings confirm that millennials see technology as a key device for social and networking purposes.

Fully 85% of respondents said they belonged to a social networking site such as Facebook. Almost all owned a mobile phone and 86% owned an iPod or MP3 player. A lesser percentage had access to handheld computers, but we would expect this number to increase over the next few years as technological advances make these items more accessible to all.

+ PwC point of view

We received numerous comments about technology when we provided open text in the questionnaire. The millennials we surveyed seem to believe very strongly that technology will play a critical role in tomorrow’s workplace and emphasised the need for companies to keep apace with technological advancements.

"Technology will be at the centre of everything we do, in ways that may now be unimaginable."

"Technology advances will change the way we work. All peripherals used now would probably no longer be used in the future. Everyone has to keep up the pace with the change in modern technology."

The desire of millennials to share knowledge can bring benefits to a business both in terms of sharing best practices for employee engagement. But this open and instant style of knowledge sharing could also present significant risks for an organisation. Companies who may have rejected a candidate, or created delays during the recruitment process for example, could find a disgruntled candidate making public criticisms on the Web which could be viewed by thousands of people across the world instantaneously. This could have damaging consequences for the employer brand.

Also, employee behaviour such as personally inappropriate or non-sanctioned proprietary postings on public boards could carry devastating effects on an employer.

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We do not expect work flexibility

The theory that future generations will reject traditional work practices was not supported in our survey. The majority expected some element of office-based working and only 3% expected to work mainly at home/other locations. Australasia and the Pacific Islands had the highest percentage of respondents who thought they would be working mainly in an office (41%) compared with only 9% in the Middle East and Africa.

Most respondents (66%) also expected to be working regular office hours, with some flexible working hours. There were some exceptions however: in Germany (54%), Turkey (59%) and France (50%), half or more of respondents expected to be working mainly flexible hours.

Employees may have more flexibility in choosing where to work, when to work, how to work.I think that people will be able to work more from their homes, but I wouldn’t like that there would not be interaction with team mates.

+ PwC point of view

Although the millennials seemed to suggest flexibility was not expected, we did receive many comments about wanting more flexibility in the open response section of the questionnaire. Perhaps the respondents did not feel that total flexibility was a realistic possibility, although they might desire it. We also believe that their expectations may change as they get older and the need for greater flexibility―for example to look after family members―may become more of a priority.

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