By 2025, millennials will constitute nearly 75% of the global workforce, necessitating a shift in workplace structures to accommodate their preferences. Key findings from a Bentley University survey reveal that millennials value flexibility, communication, and healthcare benefits, with many preferring in-person interactions despite common stereotypes of being text-dependent. Overall, millennials are ambitious and seek fulfillment beyond traditional corporate hierarchies, focusing on ethical practices while wanting financial security, indicating a need for employers to adapt to their evolving expectations.

1. The Millennial
Mind Goes to Work
How Millennial Preferences
will Shape the Future of the
Modern Workplace
A Bentley University-commissioned survey
October 2014
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2. 1995 2005 2015 2035
By 2025, millennials will make up almost
75 percent of the global workforce. By
the end of 2014 alone, one of every three
employees in the U.S. will be a millennial.
While millennials are often stereotyped as “lazy,” “entitled,” or
having a “poor work ethic,” the fact remains that millennials are
tomorrow’s workforce and an increasingly important part of today’s
workforce as well.
So what can we do to make sure millennials enter the workforce
with the skills necessary for success? In January 2014, Bentley
University created The PreparedU Project to spur a national
dialogue and uncover solutions to the skills gap.
2025
We partnered with KRC Research to conduct the
Millennial Preparedness Study, which looked at
what corporate recruiters, business executives, parents,
higher education leaders and millennials themselves think
about the preparedness gap that young people face in
today’s workplace.
The findings were intriguing and made us want to dig
deeper into the millennial mind. We teamed up with Equa-tion
Research to ask 1,031 millennials, ages 18 to 34, what
they think about their own preparedness for professional
life and what they want out of their career.
Overview
Here is what we found.
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3. The 7 Big Takeaways
1 3
5
Millennials are reinforcing their own
stereotype. 50% of millennials say
the main reason people their age are
unprepared for their first job is a poor
work ethic.
“Idk” about texting. 51%
of millennials say they would
rather communicate with a
colleague in person.
The typical 9 to 5 schedule
doesn’t work for all millennials.
77% say flexible hours would
make the workplace more
productive for people their age.
Millennials may be more respon-sible
than we think. When choos-ing
between two otherwise equal
jobs, 96% say great healthcare
benefits would be the most
important factor in their decision.
Some corporations hesitate to
invest in employee development
because they think millennials
lack loyalty and won’t stay long.
But 80% of millennials believe
they’ll work for four or fewer
companies in their career.
Millennials are mixed on “doing well by doing
good.” While saying it’s important to work for
a company they deem ethical, particularly in
the clients it takes on, they still have a strong
desire for regular salary increases. 79%
expect a pay raise every year.
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Millennials view career success differently
than their parents do. Rather than striving for
the CEO spot, 66% of millennials would like
to start their own business and 37% want to
work on their own.
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4. LET’s TALK...
IN PERSON
Older generations think
millennials favor text, IM and social media, but more than half
of millennials say they prefer to communicate with colleagues
by talking in person.
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Millennial Communication
Preferences at work
51% Talk in person
7%
Gchat or
other
9%
Phone
call
14%
Text
19%
Email
MEN & WOMEN
It’s no secret that men and women communicate differently. But
how each gender prefers to communicate at work may surprise
you. Men are more likely to prefer speaking to a colleague in person
(56%) than women (48%), while women tend to rely more on email
for communication (23%) than men do (13%).
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5. WHAT IT MEANS
Ian Cross, director of Bentley’s Center for Marketing Technolo-gy,
says that while overall millennials prefer to communicate in
person in the workplace, it depends on what the conversation
is about. Particularly at the beginning of their career, millenni-als
need more validation than previous generations. They like
praise, and they want clear direction as to what a manager may
be asking of them, which explains their desire to speak to a
colleague in person. Even so, says Cross, don’t be surprised to
find millennials communicating with friends by text, which is still
their primary vehicle for social interacting.
Aaron Nurick, a professor of management and psychology at
Bentley, says millennials yearn for more personal communica-tion
and real relationships, in part because these opportunities
have become so rare for their generation.
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6. THE END OF
“9 to 5”
Millennials prefer a more
flexible work schedule,
with 77% saying flexible work hours would make the workplace
more productive for people their age. Some companies are already
doing this well. Still, 31% percent of millennials do worry that their
desire for workplace flexibility is often mistaken for a poor work ethic.
Which Would Increase
Productivity?
Flexible work hours More remote working
More breaks during
the work day
Fewer meetings
The Always-on Generation
Millennials’ flexibility routinely finds them checking email after
5:00 p.m. With 80% of millennials owning a smartphone, the
great majority (89%) of this always-on generation admits to
regularly checking work email after work hours, while 37% say
they always do. So who has a poor work ethic now?
?
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7. WHAT IT MEANS
While it’s no surprise that millennials want more flexible work
schedules, could this be part of a greater cultural shift toward
better work-life balance? According to Aaron Nurick, a pro-fessor
of management and psychology at Bentley, people have
been pushing for workplace flexibility since the 1970s and mod-ern
companies like Google have been moving in this
direction for quite some time. It’s typical that any younger
generation is on the edge of cultural trends, Nurick says. But
with millennials now entering the workforce in greater numbers,
more companies are moving these trends forward. However, a
company’s client base always comes first. It will be client needs
that ultimately determine whether flexible work schedules
become a reality.
Of course, new mobile communication technologies enable us
to work from anywhere at any time of day. “People worry that
if they don’t check email outside of work, they will miss some-thing,”
says Nurick. “But this leads to a bigger question about our
society: Are we creating a culture of workaholics? And is this the
standard we are using to define work ethic?”
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8. Millennial
Must-Haves:
A Good Salary,
Flexible SchedulE
and...
gREAT
healthcare
benefits?
Today’s millennials are
a practical bunch.
In addition to flexible work hours and frequent salary
increases, a huge majority of millennials (96%) cite
healthcare benefits as a key factor in deciding between
two otherwise equal jobs.
Important Factors If
Choosing between Two
Equal Jobs
Flexible work
hours
Great healthcare
benefits
Frequent salary
increases
A fun and social
office environment
Rapid
promotions
Ability to work
from home
My own office Free gym
membership /
on-site gym
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9. WHAT IT MEANS
With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, young adults
are able to stay on their parents’ insurance until the age of 26. So
why do so many millennials rank healthcare benefits among their
most important job requirements?
Susan Adams, a management professor at Bentley, points out
that millennials grew up in tumultuous times. They were children
during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the time of war that
ensued and the Great Recession of 2008. “This is a group of
survivors and they are looking for security in this insecure world
wherever they can,” Adams says. “In this respect, having great
health benefits is appealing to them.”
Len Morrison, director of undergraduate career services at
Bentley, said the healthcare crisis has been in the news for as long
as millennials can remember. “Healthcare costs are escalating na-tionally
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— it is in the news every day — and this generation is at an
age where they are beginning to see how these costs are affecting
their parents and grandparents,” says Morrison. “This is likely an
important influence on how they weigh their own job benefits.”
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10. Are Millennials
the Job-Hopping
Generation?
Millennials are thought to be “job hoppers”
but they may be more loyal than we think. When asked how many companies they expect to work for in their career, 80% of millennials
believe they’ll work for four or fewer companies in their lifetime.
When it comes to their current job, 36% of millennials expect to stay 3 to 5 years. And a surprisingly high number — 16% — think
they’ll stay in their current job for the rest of their career. (Females and older millennials aged 26 to 34 expect to stay longer in their current
job than males and younger millennials aged 18 to 25, our research found.)
Expected Tenure in Current Job
Less than
a year
Between
1-2 years
3-5 years 6-10 years 11-20 years For my career
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11. WHAT IT MEANS
The employment landscape is much different from 20 or 30
years ago and loyalty has changed among employees and em-ployers
alike, says Susan Brennan, executive director of Bent-ley’s
University Career Services and Corporate Relations. Since
companies don’t offer the kind of incentives they once did and
pensions are all but unheard of, the financial benefits of moving
to a different company are greater today. So while millennials
don’t intend to jump from job to job, changing companies often
benefits their career in today’s marketplace.
“Millennials intend to be loyal to employers but they are ulti-
mately looking out for themselves,” says Brennan. “They are
seeking companies where they can learn and grow, move up
the ladder and increase their compensation. Growing up in a
world of technology and instant gratification, they are inter-ested
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in putting in extra effort, but only if they can clearly see
the benefits. If they do not see these benefits in their current
company, they will look elsewhere.”
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12. Money
Morals
Millennials have mixed desires
when it comes to what they
expect from a job. While 95% say a
company’s ethics are very important, they also have big
expectations for financial compensation. In fact, 79%
expect a salary increase every year. And 77% value a
pay raise over a promotion. They want to “do well while
doing good.”
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ARE YOU ENTITLED
TO A YEARLY
SALARY INCREASE?
VALUE SALARY
INCREASE OR
PROMOTION MORE?
vs.
YES
NO
79%
21%
77%
23%
SALARY INCREASE
PROMOTION
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13. WHAT IT MEANS
Susan Adams, a management professor at Bentley, says
millennials don’t view these desires as conflicting. Millenni-als
see an ethical company as one that will take care of the
environment, its community and its employees. Millennials
want to work somewhere where they feel valued and they
believe this recognition of value should come through pay
raises. “While millennials do prefer to work for a company
that represents a product or customer base they believe in,”
Adams says, “many millennials are entering the workforce
with a lot of debt, so their ultimate goal is to survive and
thrive within the system while still making a difference.”
Jessica Sackett, a senior at Bentley, said companies are starting
to realize this. As she and her peers have looked for jobs, they’ve
noticed many companies touting their ethical practices to
compete for millennials who care about more than a paycheck.
“After learning about cases like Enron and the fall of many of the
big financial institutions,” Sackett says, “millennials are looking for
employers that not only do good for the company and the bottom
line, but also do good for their clients and their employees.”
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14. For Today’s Millennial,
Ambition doesn’t Lead
to the Corner Office
Are millennials ambitious? You bet.
But success doesn’t always mean climbing the corporate ladder.
Two-thirds (66%) of millennials are interested in starting their
own business and 37% would like to work on their own. A much
smaller number — only 13% — said they’d like to be a CEO or
company president.
Men & Women
Compared with their female peers, men reported
more interest in starting their own business (71%
vs. 62% women) and were more likely to want to
be a chief executive or company president (17%
vs. 9% women).
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CARER GOALS
66%
37%
25%
13%
START MY OWNBUSINESS
WORK ON MY OWN
OWN MY OWN
COMPANY
BE A CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OR COMPANY PRESIDENT
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15. WHAT IT MEANS
Why are millennials so interested in striking out on their own?
Fred Tuffile, Bentley’s director of Entrepreneurial Studies,
says the answer’s simple: Just look at corporate America.
“Millennials see chaos, distrust of management, breaking of
contracts and bad news associated with business,” Tuffile
says. “They’ve watched their relatives get fired and their peers
sit in cubicles and they think, ‘There has to be a better way.’”
From Facebook to Tesla, millennials have plenty of positive
entrepreneurial role models to look up to. “While they know
their chances of creating another Facebook are low,” said
Tuffile, “they do think it’s fairly easy to create a cool startup.”
And easy it is. Today, the cost of starting a business is lower
than ever, private equity capital is readily available and the
consequences of failure are less significant. “Millennials are realizing
that starting a company, even if it crashes and burns, teaches them
more in two years than sitting in a cubicle for 20 years,” Tuffile says.
Krassi Popov, a senior at Bentley who founded a mobile phone
charger startup called Veloxity, says being able to live with their
parents longer and stay on their parents’ health plans until age 26
gives young people today a safety net that makes them comfort-able
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taking risks. “Millennials have a certain level of confidence that
enables them to take these risks,” says Popov, a native of Bulgaria.
“This is especially true in the United States, where young people
think they are special because they are told that they are. People
who think they are special don’t want to sit in front of a computer
from 9 to 5 doing cubicle work. That is not exciting.”
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16. Who says
millennials
have a poor
work ethic?
THEY DO!
Older workers aren’t alone in faulting
the millennial work ethic. 35% of millennials say
people their age are unprepared for their first job; the main reason they cite is
a poor work ethic.
What would make millennials more productive? 66% of millennials think
employers should limit social media usage to make workers more productive.
Ways in Which Millennials are
Unprepared for Their First Job
35% 32% 30%
Not confident Can’t speak well
to a group
Not good
decision-makers
29% 28% 25%
Can’t work well
on a team
Lack relevant
internship
experience
Don’t write well
19% 9%
Not risk takers Not up to speed on the
latest technology
What do corporate recruiters and
business executives say?
54% of corporate recruiters and 59% of business decision-makers
give recent college grads a “C” on preparedness for their first jobs.
(Source: KRC Research)
?
Poor work
ethic
47% 38%
Poor time
management skills
Not
well-organized
50%
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17. WHAT IT MEANS
Where does this perception of a poor millennial work ethic come
from? According to Leslie Doolittle, assistant dean and director
of academic support services at Bentley, it stems from a differ-ence
in how millennials and older generations view “work.”
“While older generations think of their job as a large part of who
they are, millennials see work as a piece of their life but not
everything,” says Doolittle. “In other words, work doesn’t define
them. Family, friends and making a difference in their community
are much more central to them than previous generations.” As a
result, millennials seek to have more work-life balance. “Frankly,”
says Doolittle, “I see this as a healthy adjustment to our world
view of work.”
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18. SO WHAT
After analyzing the views of more than 1,000 millennials in
this Bentley University survey, a clearer picture begins to emerge of
millennials’ views on work. Despite a supposed poor work ethic, millennials at
their core are a passionate, responsible group. They crave personal commu-nication,
believe in work-life balance and value praise. They are serious about
succeeding in their chosen career and loyal if rewarded fairly by their employ-ers.
Millennials are ambitious and entrepreneurial, our survey found, and be-lieve
in ethical business practices.
All of these characteristics give reason for optimism about this highly scruti-nized
and much talked about generation.
“This is a group that really believes in community and really wants to make
a difference in the world,” says Leslie Doolittle, Bentley’s assistant dean and
director of academic support services. “I don’t believe there has been a gener-ation
that is so committed to making an impact since World War II.”
So while millennials may bring different work styles and skills to the office, they
represent a pivotal shift in culture and behavior that holds great promise for
society as a whole. As the millennial generation continues to join the nation’s
working ranks and soon comes to dominate them, it is critical for leaders in
higher education and business to work together in creating an environment
where millennials can thrive and ultimately succeed. The future of our economy
depends on it.
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About Bentley University
Bentley University is one of the nation’s leading business
schools, dedicated to preparing a new kind of business
leader – one with the deep technical skills, broad global
perspective, and high ethical standards required to make
a difference in an ever-changing world. Our rich, diverse
arts and sciences program, combined with an advanced
business curriculum, prepares informed professionals
who make an impact in their chosen fields. Located on
a classic New England campus minutes from Boston,
Bentley is a dynamic community of leaders, scholars and
creative thinkers. The Graduate School emphasizes the
impact of technology on business practice, in offerings
that include MBA and Master of Science programs, PhD
programs in accountancy and in business, and custom-ized
executive education programs. The university enrolls
approximately 4,100 full-time undergraduate, 140 adult
part-time undergraduate, 1,430 graduate, and 43 doc-toral
students. Bentley is accredited by the New England
Association of Schools and Colleges; AACSB Interna-tional
– The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools
of Business; and the European Quality Improvement
System, which benchmarks quality in management and
business education. For more information, please visit
www.bentley.edu.
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