Millennials in the Workforce: Implications for Manufacturing

As many manufacturing organizations are having trouble maintaining a steady pipeline of talent, their frustration turns to millennials.

At the 2016 American Aerospace & Defense Summit, Curt Towne, EVP, New Business Development at TPT (The Productivity Team), gave the following statistics about millennials in the workforce, which have implications for how organizations should recruit, train, engage and retain millennial talent.

Millennials are now the single largest group within the workforce, and will soon become the biggest consumer groups, too.

The Millennial Perspective:

• 64 percent of Millennials would rather make $40,000 a year at a job they love than $100,000 a year at a job they think is boring.  
• 88 percent prefer a collaborative work culture rather than a competitive one.
• 74 percent want flexible work schedules.  
• 50 percent do not believe that Social Security will exist when they reach their retirement age.

The Corporate Perspective:

• 59% of business decision makers and 62% of higher education academics give recent college graduates a C grade or lower for preparedness in their first jobs.
• 68% of corporate recruiters say that it is difficult for their organizations to manage millennials.

How do these figures affect how you are recruiting, training, engaging, and retaining millennial talent?

data source: Bentley University’s Preparedness Study

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To join the conversation on this issue, view our upcoming events:

• 2017 American Automotive Summit
• 2017 American Aerospace & Defense Summit
• 2018 American Manufacturing Summit