Engaging millennial workers key to future business success

Tuesday, 22 May 2018

Companies should embrace the millennial workforce and their expectations if they are to succeed, a young Christchurch entrepreneur says.

Andrea Brewster, 26, is a member of The SYNC Collective – a group of freelance workers based across New Zealand. She is giving a sold-out talk called Millenials and the Future of Work on Wednesday at Greenhouse in Christchurch, as part of Tech Week. 

'I want to explore some of the practical implications of remote working, flexi-working and how realistic that is for big companies,' Brewster said.

'We already have the technology and everything we need to have remote workforces … it's just about organisations being willing to explore that.'

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She will talk about giving millennial staff, who already make up a large proportion of the workforce, roles in governance and decision making. Millennials as a workforce were defined by their social conscience, their desire for flexibility and a flat organisational structure, Brewster said. 

The birth year of millennials is up for debate, but most research institutions say millennials were born between the early 1980s and 2000.

Brewster has experience in communications, business strategy and social enterprise, holding mentoring and governance roles. Walking the talk, she started her own consultancy company Brewster + Associates in 2018.

'I guess for people who have been working in the traditional way it could be a challenging concept, you know, climbing this very linear ladder to positions of power and influence and now being told they have to let their staff work flexibly, that could be quite confronting,' she said.

Alongside flexible working, Brewster said it was important companies incorporate their younger employees into decision making, particularly around technology and the environment.

A 2016 Gallup pole indicated up to 70 per cent of millennial employees felt 'disengaged' in their jobs and only 50 per cent said they would stay in their job for more than a year.

'Employers should be asking themselves what the cost of those disengaged staff is, sitting in a chair for eight hours a day and not giving you their best work,' Brewster said.