I was just at an aviation conference, and a common refrain when the challenge of finding quality manpower was brought up, was, "Oh, the millennials." Like it was a lost cause, an entire generation! It came up enough for me to notice it as a theme. One speaker even said, "Not only do they not know how to use a wrench, millennials don't know what a wrench is."
Hmmm. I'll admit I've made my own comments about millennial hipsters. They're the punchline of many jokes. What is a millennial? The most succinct definition I found after a quick search was, "early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years"..."generally marked by an increased use and familiarity with communications, media, and digital technologies." AKA, the ones with smartphones always within reach :-) Technology aside, I don't think there is anything different about this particular generation. Hasn't it always been those that are younger that are more open to new ideas, and flipping the status quo?
I wish that we could quit using "Oh, the millennials" as an excuse. You know what will keep drawing qualified manpower to your organization? Not doing it like you've always done it. I bet that bright "kid" will know what a wrench is, and how to use it, and why you would use it, if there were a couple tutorials on Youtube.
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