Mark: Welcome to unsuitable on Rea Radio, the unique financial services and business advisory show that challenges your old-school business practices and the traditional business suit culture. On this show you’ll hear from industry professionals who will challenge you to think beyond the suit and tie culture, offering meaningful modern solutions to help you enhance your company’s growth. I’m your host, Mark Van Benschoten.
According to the White House, Millennials, those born between 1980 and the mid-2000s are currently in the process of redesigning the way businesses operate internally and externally in our country. It’s not like really anybody had a choice though. A block of people who represent about one-third of the total US population is kind of hard to ignore, try as we might. That being the case, as you can imagine we have a lot to learn about this unique generation especially as we look for better ways to integrate them into our companies and businesses.
Today we’re going to talk to Pat Porter who is our HR director here at Rea to learn about Millennials and the changing landscape of the American workforce. If you like the miniseries concept of the last two episodes, then you’re in luck. This is part one of a two-part series about a critical component of your business, your employees. Next week, Rea’s own Annie Yoder and Don McIntosh will talk to you about why you should take time to develop your workforce and how to get started. For now, let’s get on with this week’s show. Welcome to unsuitable, Pat.
Pat: Thanks, Mark. Glad to be here.
Mark: Really appreciate you being here, Pat. Pat, you and I have several things in common.
Pat: What are those?
Mark: Good looking guys.
Pat: Yes.
Mark: We are both members of the 40 under 40.
Pat: That is true.
Mark: I was a few years before you.
Pat: Part of Columbus Business First class of 2006.
Mark: Mine was so long ago I can’t remember when it was.
Pat: Part of that, the theme was being a superhero, so I had to come up with my superhero trait.
Mark: I assume you listen to all of our podcasts.
Pat: Yes.
Mark: You’re well aware of the question at the end.
Pat: Yes.
Mark: I expect you to nail that one, Pat.
Pat: Of course.
Mark: Doing a little research on you, I see that you spent some time at the University of Vienna. When was that?
Pat: That was between first and second year of grad school.
Mark: That’s very exciting.
Pat: I had the chance to study abroad.
Mark: Did you find that to be beneficial?
Pat: Oh, totally. If possible, I think every 18 to 24-year-old should travel abroad and have the opportunity to study.
Mark: Should they pay for it themselves?
Pat: Well, it depends upon their parents, but yeah, if the opportunity is the case. Yeah, they should, it’s part of the learning experience as well.
Mark: I agree. I would like the opportunity for kids to have them take advantage of that opportunity and to study abroad at some point.
Pat: Now, full disclosure, I did get a partial scholarship for mine, so part of it did come out of my pocket, and university helped as well.
Mark: I am currently 51 years old, and when I grew up everybody was Baby Boomers. I mean, that’s just what we … We didn’t have these different classes or groups, I don’t want to say classes.
Pat: Categories.
Mark: Categories, thank you, Pat. That’s why you’re in HR. Why is this important? Why do we have different categories?
Pat: Well, Mark, the United States’ workforce and the global workforce for that matter has never seen five generations of people come into the workplace. I mean, we’ve got the Greatest Generation of all, you’ll hear the label traditionalists, but then we also have the new label out there as the Gen 2020 that is starting to enter the workforce. You know, the traditional workplace that you and I knew and started in had our parents and for the most part our grandparents had already exited the workplace. With the economy being such today, longer lifespans, earlier entry into the workplace, you’ve got five generations and businesses that have never faced that opportunity, but it’s also a challenge as well.
Mark: I’ll take an old man’s, an old person’s perspective. Why can’t they just do it our way? Why can’t they just show up when I want them to show up, do the work I want them to do when they want to do it. We can’t instill that? I was going to say “beat,” but that wouldn’t be appropriate, so we’ll say “instill.”
Pat: Here’s a little bit of a history lesson for you.
Mark: I’m always eager to learn.
Pat: Each generation has its own world experiences that shape them. You know, for you and I-
Mark: Great point.
Pat: It was the Challenger shuttle explosion. Right? For the Greatest Generation it might be the depression. For the Gen 2020, it’s living in the social media world and the “I this, I that,” so those world global views change how people approach work and change what their focus is and what’s important to them, and that’s why businesses have to adjust to that, and the workplace changes.
Mark: I was just trying to be funny about being the old man. I don’t think you can force people to do or to do something. What are the benefits by understanding these generational aspects and working with each one? Why go through that pain and pull your hair out?
Pat: Well, one is business leaders, they’re trying to stay competitive. The Marketplace is changing, the pace is changing. And, if you look at it and how do you go to Market, what products, what services. You know, you got a different consumer out there. Did you ever think about buying your holiday gifts online or through a smartphone. Right? You and I grew up, used to go to the department store and we’d look at what’s on the shelf and we’d buy it and go home and wrap it. Well, that’s not happening today. Businesses to stay competitive, they have to be fast and agile, and who knows that better than the younger workforce, the Millennials.
Mark: That’s a great point. I think people, we moan, we’re like “Oh, they’re not here at 9:00am,” but they might be working at 9:00 at night, they do tend to work at a faster pace for us old guys that cannot work as.
Pat: Exactly. The other piece to that is to be competitive in the workplace you got to have a workforce, and you’ve got to retain them. If you’re a business leader and you’re not willing to adjust to the needs of your employees, then you’re going to have difficulties retaining them. That’s a real business problem.
Mark: Tim McDaniels has been a guest twice on our program, and I believe in each episode he made a reference about the value of the business increases when they have a workplace enforced. Your comment if you get rid of all the Millennials, you’re not going to have any employees, and obviously the value of your business is now diminished. I’m kind of trying to tie some-
Pat: You also have, so those Baby Boomers we talked about, you’ve got them leaving the workforce. They’ve not been able to leave the workforce as quickly as maybe they wanted to or other generations before them, so you got to replace them. The generation that you and I grew up in, there are not enough of us to replace the Baby Boomers that are leaving. It actually takes the Millennials to replace them. The other thing that I’ve noticed through my research is the greatest contrast as far as those wants and those needs and how people approach work is between the Baby Boomers and the Millennials. That’s the greatest divide and the greatest challenges too.
Mark: Thanks. That’s neat. I appreciate that.
Pat: You’re welcome.
Mark: I’m a great believer in diversity in a group gets the best decision, and I would agree that would also be diversity in age. Right? Your life experience.
Pat: Correct.
Mark: Just a bunch of old white guys sitting around, you’re going to get an old white guy decision.
Pat: That could be viewed that way, I agree, yeah.
Mark: I mean, I think you bring in a Millennial, I think you probably maybe something fresher, at least discussed.
Pat: Yeah. If you give them the opportunity, and that’s also been one of the challenges in the workplace is management and leadership opening up to the idea of, hey, I’m going to listen. Am I willing to listen to a 20-year-old that has half of the experience or maybe a fourth of the experience that I do? Am I going to listen to them and value their opinion? Those organizations that are fast moving, agile, competitive, yeah, they’re engaging that younger workforce to understand the consumer. It’s tough.
Mark: If you had a business, try to think outside of the CPA firm, business consulting firm, and you had a Millennial or a group of Millennials come in, where do you think may be best served? What certain aspect?
Pat: One, I look at, what competencies, what traits, what skills, abilities. An employee can offer four things and really only four things. Their knowledge, their skills, their abilities, and their experience. I look at each person as, what do they have to offer. It may not necessarily tie nicely to a certain job title, they’re an accountant, they’re an analyst or this or that, but truly what has life prepared them for up to that point, and what can they offer. It’s looking at it through a whole different paradigm, through different colored lens. I think that way you’re best getting out of an individual what they have to offer.
Mark: Sure. I’m a little slow today. Can you repeat those four things?
Pat: All right. Knowledge.
Mark: Knowledge. All right.
Pat: Skills.
Mark: Skills.
Pat: Abilities.
Mark: Ability.
Pat: Experience.
Mark: Experience.
Pat: No matter how you look at a workplace, employees can really only offer those four things.
Mark: Those four things. On the Millennials, some people question work ethic.
Pat: Yep.
Mark: I personally don’t see that. I don’t see that as generational. Do you see anything generational with work ethic?
Pat: Well, I think where that comes from is when you’re comparing them to the Baby Boomers or the Greatest Generation that was always so company loyal. What those Greatest Generations lived for, they were so company loyal, but then as you go along the Baby Boomers, they lived to work. Right? The next generation after that, my generation, Gen X, you know, we work to live. Then if you get to Millennials, they start looking at it as you’re going to work my way. In large part, again, it gets to the numbers. You know, they’re replacing everybody in the workplace. They actually had more leverage on their side that, hey, we’re going to work my way. Then you get to this Gen 2020 group that’s just starting in the workforce. Their tagline is they’re living and working their way.
I think when managers, particularly senior managers, struggle with, “Well, they don’t have the work ethic like I did,” it’s because they view work differently.
Mark: I think that’s a good point. I had to walk to school uphill both ways, right?
Pat: Yeah, without a coat.
Mark: Without a coat, correct. It always snowed no matter what time of year.
Pat: That’s right.
Mark: I think sometimes you get blinded by that. You always worked harder than maybe what you really did. You kind of get blinded by that.
Pat: I agree. What’s happening is those life experiences that we talked about early on is that shapes how somebody views their life and how do they want to go about working. I look at career opportunities that you and I had. They probably could fit into one hand.
Mark: Correct.
Pat: If we’re counseling our kids today, when I’m talking to those that are in college, the world’s their oyster. I mean, they have so many more choices than my parents, my grandparents, could even fathom as far as how you make a living out there, what you do, how do you do it, all that.
Mark: I think as business owners and maybe not even owners, just managers in the business, saying here is a resource, probably the largest resource that I have, how am I going to maximize the value of that resource. I think it’s important, and we can’t just say, “Oh, well they’re not going to work hard. I only need five and I’m going to hire 10,” because you got to hire two for … That can’t be the attitude that you have.
Pat: Agree. I think too many times business managers often forget about how important their people are and the resources you take them for granted because they’re showing up every day. Those who are making a difference, those who are winning, are those who are focused in on their people. They know their people beyond just being an employee. They know them as family member or contributor. Those relationships are really what makes a difference.
Mark: If you know that person, you can know what their skill set is, what knowledge they offer, what’s their ability, and what’s their experience.
Pat: Yep, there you go. You caught onto it.
Mark: Then you can get what’s best for them, keep them engaged, and hopefully have a happy productive employee.
Pat: You know what the future brings, the best my crystal ball can paint as it’s an ever changing business environment. Who knows what this next generation is going to bring after that, but we know that it will bring change, it will bring more technology, and with that comes probably even more opportunities to engage people.
Mark: I think that’s important. You just can’t turn your back. You need somebody. We need people to help us in our businesses, to perform services, keep the economy going. I know you’re not an economist, but I’m going to ask you. People are saying, Oh, you know I can’t find enough people. There’s not enough jobs. I just see that we’re kind of in a neat little environment here. You have all this population of these Millennials and the 2020s coming that hopefully employment is not going to be an issue.
Pat: No, but yet I think it’s always some form of a challenge. I can go back 20 years ago, and the first coin phrase that came out was there’s a war on talent. That’s when economists and business advisors really started looking at the numbers of employees in the workplace and anticipating when that Baby Boom generation, the largest generation we had seen, come through when they were going to exit the workforce. There was doom and gloom painted and businesses closing down and so forth. Well, how we’ve adjusted to that is we’ve now brought in an earlier generation, and in five generations and economic reasons we’ve kept the Baby Boomers in the workforce later. Those challenges are real and it’s going to be interesting to see what other adjustments we have before then.
Mark: I think we tend to get scared of the future. We’re not going to survive this. We can’t get through this. I agree with you, you will. You’ll figure it out. The ones that figure it out better than the others will probably even more be successful to find success any way you want it. The way you figure it out is to work with Millennials. Maybe it’s not important to be there at 8:30 if they can get there or they can work from home or they can work into the evening, and does it really make a difference.
Pat: Yeah, and I think the key there is are they productive, and however you want to measure that productivity-
Mark: Good point.
Pat: If you’ve got a manufacturing process where you got raw materials flowing in and you got finished goods coming out, there is a process. You’re always going to have those kind of jobs where you have to occupy a shift or certain time of the day. We’re more of a services economy. We’ve got more opportunities that tend to be more consultative in nature, and it’s part of just everyday lifestyle. I mean, what we are seeing with this younger generation, they don’t disconnect. I mean, they easily will have the same conversation they had at 8:00 a.m. as they would 8:00 p.m. I’m likely to have a same recruiting conversation with a candidate in the morning as I would be the evening. It’s just when people are available.
Mark: I think we need to understand that, take advantage of that, not get upset that they didn’t take my call at 8:00 in the morning but they want to talk 8:00 at night. I think that’s very important for us to accept that and that’s just the way it is.
Pat: I think for the older guys like you and I that’s part of the adjustments that we’re going to have to make in order to stay engaged in this economy is as Millennials that one-third of the population takes a greater presence, they’re going to shape how we act and behave and respond to them.
Mark: Like it if we don’t, we need to accept it.
Pat: They’re going to influence it.
Mark: Correct.
Pat: Yeah.
Mark: I mean, either influence like I’m not going to accept them so you’re working a lot more hours and your quality of life goes down or you embrace it and take advantage of it. I agree with you. They’re going to shape it one way or the other.
Pat: Exactly.
Mark: We might as well take … I don’t want to say take advantage of it, but accept it and get on the ride.
Pat: That’s right.
Mark: Before we wrap up, Pat, there’s a question that we ask every guest, and you know this, and this should be your strong point here. If you could have one super power, what would it be?
Pat: My superpower, and, again, I go back to being part of the 40 under 40 class that I identified a decade ago, that’s surprising. It was to have superhuman powers to find talented individuals, engage them in the workplace, develop them to reach their maximum capacity. I passed on all the other superpowers.
Mark: X-ray vision.
Pat: X-ray vision. Super strength. I figured I need to be more about engaging people in the workplace.
Mark: I like that. That’s very fitting for you. Thank you for joining us today, Pat. Have you changed your aspects of your business to attract Millennials to choose a career with your company? If so, we’d love to hear from you. Send an email to podcast@expressln.com. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss part two of our workforce series next week. Don’t forget to visit our website 531u8yy.expressln.com/podcast to learn about this topic and more. Until next time, I’m Mark Van Benschoten encouraging you to loosen up your tie and think outside the box.
