Mónica Viladot from Monroe Consulting gave a lecture that left interesting concepts about this issue

It is estimated that Generation Y or “Millennials” (those born between the 80’s and the 90’s) will be around 75% of the entire workforce by 2025. They will not only be the workers, but also the clients of the future. Mónica Viladot, Senior Managing Consultant at Monroe Consulting Chile said that “companies must understand Gen Y and adapt the best they can to it.”

Viladot spoke about stereotypes and realities linked to Gen Y workers. Even though many people think these workers are self-centred, get bored and demotivated easily and are constantly changing jobs, they must also consider that Gen Y workers have great initiative, are creative, solve problems and are efficient.

The core idea in Viladot’s message was based on the fact that Gen Y workers are a challenge for the labour market, but also an opportunity to change and extend the longevity of current companies. According to her vision, there is evidence of positive results for both the company and the worker when there is bilateral adaption between the millennial worker and the company.

Adaptation becomes vital when considering that the longevity of companies is becoming shorter; by 2027, around 75% of the current companies will no longer exist. Corporations’ longevity went from 67 years in the past century (1920’s) to 12 years in the current years (2014).

Adaptability, innovation and change in companies has become an urgent matter if they want to endure. That is why young talents from Gen Y may carry the key for that necessary change, those needed innovation proposals for the company.

One of the main problems with Gen Y workers is that they frequently change jobs and companies, they do “Job Hopping”(according to Forbes, the annual average period of time for working in a company is 4,4 years, but for Millennials this number is going down to 2,2). 91% of Millennials state they do not want to be in the same company for more than three years.

But, does this happen in every company? It does not. Viladot presented the cases of some companies, such as Desigual, Google o Transbank, where Gen Y workers state they want to stay and develop.

During the workshop it was possible to see that Millennials are looking for three things at a company:

1. Innovation and Change;

2. A good working environment; and

3. Positive contribution (to the environment and society).

There are several policies that are easy to implement, are low cost and enable the adaption of companies to the new generation of workers, such as:

• Rotation and Development Prospects in the company
• Certain spatial and temporal flexibility (working hours, workplace)
• To promote innovation and change
• Digital presence
• Participation in decision making processes and brainstorming
• Technology and IT devices (personal devices)
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Environmental Policies (lack of paper)
• Informality and company design

To sum up, it is important to understand Gen Y and adapt as well as possible to it- Besides, it is neither difficult not expensive to adapt to the Gen Y worker.

Therefore, Gen Y is both a challenge for the labour market and an opportunity for the change and longevity of the company.