Do millennials have unreasonable expectations?

As millennials continue to dominate the workforce, it can be easy to label them as unreasonable with overly high expectations – however, one senior HR figure says that’s not necessarily the case at all.

“I think it is more about millennials having different expectations rather than higher ones,” says Mark Van Zon, general manager of performance and reward at Fonterra.

“Millennials are people, and people have a wide array of aspirations and needs when it comes to rewards and recognition,” he continues. “We all know that as people progress their careers in an organisation, what they come to value tends to change.”

Van Zon, who has a wealth of international experience across global firms, says the main difference between millennials and other generations in the workplace, is primarily in the way they work

“With their digital fluency and capability, they expect our digital work environments to be modern, and our working approach to be more agile and collaborative than what we have seen in the past,” he says.

“This generational nuance, along with the wider impacts of the future of work, is requiring organisations and HR teams to be far more adaptive and possibly less prescriptive in terms of how the work is set up in an organisation, including who does it, and when,” he continues.

“Increasing organisational need for adaptive capability, combined with organic OD and Talent approaches makes things very interesting and exciting.”

Mark Van Zon will be just one of many senior HR figures speaking at the upcoming Millennial Workforce Summit in Auckland. The event, due to take place in May, covers a range of topics aimed at helping employers to attract and then leverage talented young staff.