Millennials - Salary #1?
Christen Uber January 11, 2008
While scanning all the daily and weekly HR updates that come zipping through my email box, I stumbled across an interesting Workforce Management Recruiting Newsletter which posted a Gen Y’s Top 10 Job Considerations Criteria. To my suprise Salary was #1.
Generation Y employees’ ranking of job considerations in order of importance, with 10 being most important
| Salary | 9.05 | |
| Benefits | 8.86 | |
| Opportunities for advancement | 8.74 | |
| Company location | 8.44 | |
| Company leadership | 7.95 | |
| Company reputation/brand recognition | 7.56 | |
| Job title | 7.19 | |
| In-house training programs | 6.95 | |
| Tuition reimbursement | 6.44 | |
| Diversity | 6.07 | |
| Company’s philanthropic efforts | 6.06 | |
| Source: Robert Half Technology | ||
I disagree with the poll. Based on all of the other blogs, articles, books and personal experience with the Millennial generation salary is not their top consideration when deciding to accept a job opportunity.Yes, like Generation X, Millennial’s want to be rewarded fairly and upfront for their contributions because inherently they believe their contributions will be significant. However, when deciding to accept a position I have found Career Advancement, Training and Significance of Individual Contribution more important to this generation
A recent KPMG College survey supports this:
When choosing their first employer, college business students want career opportunities, not salary and benefits, according to a survey conducted by KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm. In the KPMG survey of 2,409 business students from colleges across the country, 57 percent said that career opportunities would be their primary consideration when choosing an employer, followed by 22 percent who said work/life balance was most important. Only 12 percent felt that the salary and benefits package would be their primary consideration.
Overall, Millennial’s are constantly looking towards their future so by providing a foundation for success with a strong on-boarding program, defined career pathing and advancement opportunities, and an understanding of their contributions to the company - I think will have a stronger appeal to join a company than a fancy compensation package.
Posted in HR Consulting, Human Resources, Recruiting, Sourcing
January 14th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Like most surveys, the results are often skewed based upon improper wording of the question. Given this list, I and many in my generation would also have selected Salary as #1. Had the wording been “Starting Salary” that would likely have ranked somewhere around 3rd or 4th behind opportunity for advancement and training programs.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:12 am
Salary is only part of the package. An employer can pay a high salary, but if the work conditions are such that the employee loathes crawling out of bed in the morning to go to work, then you lose the edge. If work conditions are bad from every angle, the employee is simply there to do what is needed and wait for the check.
You simply cannot treat employees like mushrooms (keep them in the dark and feed them crap) or they will look for greener pastures.
Every company doesn’t have to be Google, but you can’t be Progressive Insurance either.