Aspirations of sitting in the corner office and taking the role of the CEO aren't necessarily the key motivators for millennials in the workplace, according to a panel of young achievers in the financial services sector.
Insights from future leaders in financial services
By Emily Dawson
Aspirations of sitting in the corner office and taking the role of the CEO aren't necessarily the key motivators for millennials in the workplace, according to a panel of young achievers in the financial services sector.
Considering millennials are now the largest demographic cohort in the world, companies are starting to think about what values are important to this portion of society, which will increasingly make up a large amount of their workforce.
Ashton Jones is the Head of Savings and Superannuation Products for TAL and says his career motivation is more about interaction and learning, rather than climbing the corporate ladder.
“What I value is working with people. I really enjoy their company and learning from those who have had different experiences.
“What you take home from work at the end of the day is those personal experiences and interactions - not so much the boxes that we are ticking are the pay rises we might be getting,” Mr Jones said.
Give me purpose!
CBA’s Executive Manager WM Advice Strategy Laura Bielinko says she sees her career as something that is more than just a way to pay off the mortgage.
“For me it’s more about: am I enjoying coming to work everyday in terms of the people I work with, do I feel like I’m being challenged and am I learning and developing?” Ms Bielinko said.
Kathleen Williams is Head of Retail Risk, Optimisation and Compliance at AIA and she says customisation is something that millennials expect.
This even comes down to the way praise and reward is given in the workplace and how millennials are incentivised.
A group 'thank you’ email isn’t enough
“Recognition for millennials is very important – and it’s personal – similar to how they want services to be,” said Ms Williams.
She has gamified the way she offers recognition to her team – with points they can monetise by choosing any number of products or experiences.
“This puts them in control of how they spend their 'recognition capital’,” Ms Williams said.
This increasing expectation of customisation is also changing the way businesses interact with their customers and means the voices of younger workers are becoming increasingly valuable.
Failure… is it really okay?
The ability to think creatively on how to approach problems and instilling a mentality that “it is ok fail and experiment” is ever more valuable.
But this is often at odds with the way many large businesses operate, and a shift to a more nimble way of bringing products to market can be a painful and difficult process.
However, EY Senior Manager in Wealth & Asset Management Boudewijn Chalmers says it’s no longer about products; rather, it’s about solving problems.
“I think the concept of product is changing, where ultimately for the end customer the product is probably not what they are looking for. They have a challenge or a need that they would like to see addressed and the product is one of the way to resolve it.”
Robots taking our jobs?
Millennials are also considering what the future of work looks like for their generation.
Increasing automation and technological advances means personal 'value adding’ is becoming more important than ever.
And will robots take all their jobs?
“For me, it’s about looking at what skills are hard to automate and where I can really add value to the company,” said Ms Bielinko.
“A lot of the time that’s more about creativity and problem solving… as well as some of the customer engagement functions.”
Mr Chalmers agrees. He sees technology as being simply a portion of the solution as to how to better engage customers.
“Millennials in particular are happy to do research themselves and have service interactions with financial institutions through digital and technology driven tools,” Mr Chalmers said.
“But when it comes to a complex financial decision like buying a mortgage for the first time… I’m pretty sure most of them still prefer to have a human interaction before pressing the button to buy.”
This conversation was part of the 2017 FSC Leaders Summit in Sydney on 26 July.