How to work with millennials

I readily own up to being part of a cottage industry that's geared toward helping employers attract millennials to their workplaces and cater to their needs to maintain their loyalty. After seeing a blog written by a clearly self-centered millennial — focused on what employers must do to keep her and her cohorts happy — I was irritated and inspired to bring some badly needed clarity to this topic.

Let's start with the use of the word millennial. Many younger employees I have worked with express some resentment about the broad assumptions made by older co-workers and senior leaders concerning the behavior of those who fall into this peer group. Obviously, it's unfair to paint everyone who falls in this demographic with the same brush, but employers do face a challenge in differentiating between those who consider themselves entitled — and thus will be impatient for success and willing to change jobs at the first instance of unhappiness —and those who seek to be engaged employees and earn advancement (the traditional way).

It comes down to this: as a manager or the owner of a business, you shouldn't feel the need to cater to millennials; instead, you should identify individuals of that generation whose talent and values are compatible with your culture. That process begins in the interview, when you must be open and honest about what you're looking for in employees and disclose how far you're willing to go to keep them happy — and see if it's a match with the person sitting on the other side of the desk.