Are You Living to Work or Working to Live? What Millennials Want in the Workplace

This study examines how different levels of work-life balance and job advancement affects a potential jo b seeker's attractiveness to a position. The study was geared towards Millennials that are entering the jo b market and corporations that should understand this generation properly to be able to recruit the best talent. The experiment was a 2 x 2 between subjects factorial design. The participants in this study included 95 males and 71 females college students enrolled in business classes from a medium sized private university in the northeast. The participants were asked to review an example job posting, which varied among conditions, and rate their attractiveness to the position. The results showed that the participants were able to tell the difference in conditions, and they were significantly more attracted to the position when there were high levels of work-life balance. There was not a significant difference with the work-life balance and jo b advancement conditions. The results indicate that Millennials say that jo b advancement is important when considering a job; only work-life balance that makes an impact. Corporations can use this information to properly recruit millennial talent and use the right resources to attract this group of talent. Millennials, who were born between the years of 1980 to 1995, are starting to become the majority in the workplace and companies need to prepare for them (Thompson & Gregory, 2012). To recruit the best talent for their organizations companies need to make sure they are ready and understand this generation to recruit the best talent for their organizations. If an organization does not meet a millennial, also known as Generation Y, needs, then they may lose a Jot of potential talent and opportunities. Companies need to understand that millennials are hard workers, but value leisurely time much more than previous generations (Meriac, J. P., Woeh r, D. J., & Banister, C., 2010; Becton, J. B., Walker, H. J., & Jones-Farmer, A. 2014-). An innovative and modern company will be smart to do the best they can to fully understand this generation if they want to be successful for years to come. Millennials enjoy incentives and benefits to a company more than previous generations (Bristow, Amyx, Castleberry & Cochran, 2011). Work life balance policies decrease turnover and improve an employee’s overall mental health Job advancement (J a ng, Pa rk, & Zippay, 2011). Job advancement, which can be related to job satisfaction and loyalty, has not yet been studied when it comes to millennials. Job advancement is an important aspect of the corporate world, similarly to work life balance, when it comes to having a decrease turnover. This pa per will discuss what is important to millennials when it comes to benefits and perks of a jo b. The purpose of this study is to find what is imperative to Generation Y when it comes to work-life balance and job advancement in the workplace. The Millennial Generation Millennials have unique character traits compared to the generations before them. This group is defined as being born between the years of 1980-1995, and grew up during the technology boom during the beginning of the millennium (Ng & Gossett, 2013). 1 Monmouth University 16 Journal of Human Resources Management and Labor Studies, Vol. 5(2), December 2017 Psychologists and sociologists alike are eagerly watching this generation to see how they will acclimate to the working world and how they will have an impact on our future. This generation has novel characteristics compared other generations. The cohorts before millennials, Generation X, are more independent and want more power than millennials (Borges, Manuel, Ela m, & J ones, 2010). This can be seen as a progressive trait in Generation Y, and shows the sharp contrasts between generations. This implies that Generation Y is more of tea m players and can work cooperatively together. Unlike other generations, such as Traditionalists, Ba by Boomers, and Generation X, Millennials are more interested in job security and work life balance than money (Bristowetal., 2011). These drastic changes among generations need to be closely analyzed so corporations can fully prepare for the upcoming majority in the workforce. Specifically, millennials need to be properly examined to better understand this generation. Millennials are stereotyped as being disloyal to employers and too causal i n the workplace (Thompson & Gregory, 2012). Others consider this generation disloyal to employers, because they are quick to leave an organization creating high turnover rate. This generation is also dependent on others, by beings more needy compared to other generations, and act entitled by believing that they are exemptfrom the rules others have to follow (Much, Wagener, Breikreutz, & Hellenbrand 2014). There are a few reasons for negative attributes in millennials. One of them is from the parenting style, which this generation grew up with, called helicopter parenting (Much et al., 2014). This generation also was ta ugh t in school to use teamwork for enhanced learning (Macke & Taylor; Borges et al., 2010) Scholars have made an effort to turn these negative characteristics in to useful resources in the work place to prepare for this generation. Millennials need continuous feedback to understand how to improve their performance (Ferri-Reed, 2014). This generation is also successful in using collaboration to work together to effectively finish projects. Millennials are used to frequent feedback from helicopter parenting and from growing up in a team environment. I f companies are aware of the constructive ways this cohort functions, then they can take full advantage of this and become a more successful organization.