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How to Get the Most From Millennial Employees

9/24/2015

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Generational stereotypes abound; we Boomers have lots of 'em ("the me generation" is one), as do Millennials (also known as GenY) - those graduating from college from roughly 2003 to 2018 ...  As with ours, theirs are part earned, part myth: arriving at job interviews in flip-flops, inquiring immediately about telecommuting policies, expecting quick and painless moves up the corporate ladder.

As just one of many studies done on this generation shows (this is a very studied group), in a 2014 National Professionalism Survey by Pennsylvania’s Center for Professional Excellence, one-third of professors and HR professionals cited a decline in professional behavior (this included failing to project a professional image, dressing inappropriately for work, and inappropriate use of social media).

Insights gleaned through these myriad studies can help we Boomers more easily - and productively - supervise and/or co-exist with them. 
Here's 5 from the show's pals at PBS's Next Avenue:
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  • Provide consistent coaching and feedback
    Millennials have spent a lifetime getting regular, almost instant feedback. Whether it’s a lightning-quick response to a text message or school tests that are computer-graded and posted to an Internet gradebook within an hour or two, this is how this generation has been conditioned to live, work and play.  So use it to your advantage.
    Keep it on-going, but short: while feedback needs to be continual, it doesn’t have to be extensive or formal: the aforementioned text, email, or two-minute conversation can do the trick.

  • Millennials see work as a means to an end, not the end
    The vast majority of Millennials are children of Boomers and witnessed, up close and personal, the devastation of layoffs, underemployment and eroding pay and benefits for their parents. Thus, although they can be motivated to work hard, they are also more likely to reject the 60-hour weeks their parents put in.
    Add to that how much Millennials’ social lives influence their workplace expectations: almost 9 in 10 want workplaces to be social and fun.
    So, it comes as no surprise that the results of a two-year study completed last year by Price Waterhouse Coopers found that its Millennial workforce sought benefits in line with that philosophy, such as reduced pay for fewer work hours.

    Appreciate this and you'll have yourself a great employee.
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  • Mentor them
    Three-quarters of Millennials want a mentor (note: a good mentor is more  Yoda than an authority figure), according to MTV’s survey. And Boomers’ experience and powers of persuasion can come in handy in counseling Millennials that flip-flops and cut-offs are generally not acceptable work attire and that continuously posting to Instagram while at work is a no-no.

  • Show them the power of spending more time with people than with electronic devices
    Millennials are technologically savvy — and proud of it. But numerous studies have found them wanting in the “soft skills” necessary for long-term career success: integrity, professionalism and the ability to interact effectively with superiors, colleagues, clients and customers. None of those skills can be learned with eyes glued to a smart phone.Boomers can constructively help Millennials recognize that people — not technology — do the hiring and promoting. When Millennials are tempted to email or text a complex question or response, do them a favor by highlighting the value of picking up the phone or better yet, walking over and actually talking face-to-face.  You'd do this for your own child, right?
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  • Recognize that each generation has complained about the next one...
    ...thinking them irresponsible, selfish, entitled, lazy, etc. Had social media existed during our prime, “can you imagine how many frickin’ Instagrams of people playing in the mud during Woodstock we would’ve seen?” asked Scott Hess, senior vice president of insights for media agency
    Sparks SMG, in a 2013 Time cover article titled, “Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation.” (Time, interestingly, neglected to note that once upon a time, we were also labeled “The Me Generation" as mentioned above)

Finally, keep in mind what a number of respected academicians and social scientists have acknowledged: Millennials’ earnestness, can-do attitude, and optimism which make them very similar to our parents and grandparents, known as “The Greatest Generation.”  There's much to work with, here.


You have been officially alerted.

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Sci-Fi Becomes Reality

9/17/2015

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Just like generations before us witnessed extraordinary technological advances (for our grandparents it was breakthroughs like the automobile & the telephone; for our parents, the computer and penicillin), Boomers can now tell our grandchildren about sci-fi-like breakthroughs in our lifetime.

Here's the top 8:

Technologically-assisted telepathy successful in humans
By using internet-linked electroencephalogram (EEG) and robot-assisted image-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) technologies, an international team of researchers were able to get two subjects — one in India and one in France — to mentally transmit the words "hola" and "ciao."  Can you hear me saying "cool!" in my mind?!
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NASA emails a wrench to the space station
In what looks a whole lot like the precursor to a Star Trek-like replicator, astronauts aboard the International Space Station used their 3D printer to manufacture a socket wrench. Remarkably, the 20-part wrench was designed on Earth and emailed to astronaut Barry Wilmore who ran it through the printer. It's a prime example of how 3D printing can change space travel, allowing astronauts to produce equipment on demand.

Surgeons use suspended animation
Surgeons at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital are using suspended animation, or what's presently called emergency preservation and resuscitation, that dramatically cools down trauma victims to keep them alive during critical operations.
The technique, which involves internal rather than external cooling, entail the patient's blood being replaced with a cold saline solution, which slows down the body's metabolic functions and need for oxygen.

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The U.S. Navy deploys a functional laser weapon
Another Star Trek moment.  The device, called a High Energy Laser (HEL) weapon, was fitted to the USS Ponce, which is currently in the Persian Gulf.  Still at the prototype stage, it's capabilities in a real-world environment - it has already shown its effectiveness in destroying two boats and a drone.

Company appoints an Artificial Intelligence to the board
That would be Hong Kong-based Deep Knowledge Ventures which appointed a machine learning program, called VITAL, to its board of directors.
It's said to be an "equal member" that will uncover trends "not immediately obvious to humans" in order to make investment recommendations. The system will pour over massive data sets, apply machine learning, and then predict which life sciences companies are

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Double amputee receives two mind-controlled arms
Les Baugh became the first human to ever receive two shoulder-level thought-controlled prosthetic arms. It's not permanent, but the researchers at Johns Hopkins are hoping that the arms will eventually become a permanent add-on.
Researchers also created an artificial hand that feels, and the first mind-controlled prosthetic hand with 10 degrees of freedom (ability to turn, grip, etc.).

We now have a cloaking device
Yep...more Star Trek... Researchers at the University of Rochester developed a cheap and surprisingly effective cloaking device meaning it hides objects from the visible spectrum, that's being heralded as the first to perform 3D, continuously multidirectional cloaking in the visible spectrum of light. To do it, they combined four standard optical lenses that keeps an object hidden — even as the viewer moves side to side. The system could eventually be used to eliminate blind spots in vehicles or let surgeons see through their hands during surgery.

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An artificial chromosome is built from scratch
Researchers from New York University Langone Medical Center reconstructed a synthetic and fully functional yeast chromosome. They were also able to insert their own special additions to the chromosome, including a chemical switch that allows scientists to "scramble" it into thousands of different variations to make subsequent gene editing even easier. It's an important concept that could lead to artificial chromosomes in humans designed to battle diseases and chronic conditions (like my RA).

Wow!

Consider yourself officially in the Twilight Zone...and alerted.

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