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Recruiting Future Generations: Libraries and Millennials
by Amanda B. Johnson
In light of largely negative media stereotypes of Generation X, librarians, particularly those involved in the hiring or supervising of new staff, may be bracing themselves for the next big thing: the Millennial Generation. Yet this some 70-million huge generation is definitely is not "more of the same." They're not like the Xers, only more so; instead, this up-and-coming group of 20-somethings and younger (born between 1980-2000) is quite different from earlier generations. They want different things from their employers and their work.
Millennials - the term this generation prefers, if they label themselves at all - are just starting to enter the workplace and to interact with the Boomers (born 1945-1965), Xers (born about 1965- 1980) and even some members of the soon-to-retire Silent (Greatest) Generation (born about 1925-1945) as their coworkers and supervisors.
So...Who Are the Millennials?
According to William Strauss and Neil Howe's book, Millennials Rising (New York: Vintage Books, 2000):
- They're the most ethnically-diverse generation ever - thirty-one
percent are minorities and twenty percent have at least one
immigrant parent. They've been taught to be inclusive, and, to them,
"diversity" is not just one's racial or ethnic background.
- They've led structured, scheduled lives and been pressured to
achieve in school and elsewhere, so they're goal-oriented. They
multi-task - all the time.
- They're civic minded, hopeful, patriotic and believe in community
service; their values are more conformist, but also heavily peer-
influenced.
- They feel close to parents and their values and they have been
both sheltered and consulted by their parents about their opinions
throughout childhood. As a result, they expect respect and interest
in their views from their employers and supervisors. They're used to
"being connected" to family and friends.
- They're fascinated by new technologies, and they grew up with
computers.
Diana Oblinger, in "Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials: Understanding the New Students" in the July/August 2003 Educause Review, notes that twenty percent began using computers between ages of five and eight and that seventy-three percent conduct research by going on the Internet rather than to a library. However, sixteen percent of Millennials are raised in poverty. The digital divide between the technology "have-nots" and the tech-savvy Millenial "haves" is a widening gap, and an issue that concerns librarians and schools. Millenials also don't understand delays, or tolerate bureaucracy, hypocrisy or "paying their dues" in the workplace.
What Millennials Want
In her article "Managing Millennials," Claire Raines notes that Millennials are team players, tech-savvy, and looking for frequent new learning opportunities - which sounds like the working conditions many libraries and information centers can provide. However, she also notes that "employers who provide for the social aspects of work will find those efforts well rewarded by this newest cohort. Employers who are flexible will keep employees - the busiest generation ever isn't going to give up its activities just because of jobs."
Some bigger library system bureaucracies will need to evolve or risk severe understaffing. The three public library systems of New York City have been severely understaffed for more than ten years, and other urban libraries nationwide also need more librarians. Academic libraries are feeling the staffing pinch even more acutely than public or school libraries, because the average academic librarian (late forties to early fifties) is even older than the average librarian (forties) — who's older than the average American (mid- thirties).
Millennials (and many Xers) aren't driven to "do the job despite the cost" unlike many Boomers. They aren't interested in "giving it their all," if this means that work interferes with time spent with family and friends or in other, self-perceived important activities or pastimes. Library employers will need to not just offer good pay, so that other technology-related careers cannot lure young information workers away, but they will also need to work creatively to offer flex-time, part-time, shared jobs and other benefits such as advanced staff training, new software or new projects and challenges to retain their best people.
Managing and Mentoring
Many Millennials have the technical skills, but have not yet honed their business or social skills in the workplace. Mentoring is an important way that older, more experienced librarians can teach Millennials managerial or people skills. In return, they could learn Dreamweaver or XML from their fearless young technophile colleagues. Some businesses have instituted such reciprocal programs; libraries should look into internships or training of new staff that might accomplish similar ends.
Millennials like learning and working in groups. They enjoy experiential but structured activities, and working towards a defined goal. For example, a generic library's goal of "better customer service" could be quantified and qualified in an intergenerational group brainstorming session. Technology could be used to assess quality customer service or to perhaps let patrons "self-serve" in some fashion and all workers, regardless of their ages, would benefit from each others' input to the process and results.
Some of the benefits employers can offer workers are relatively inexpensive, such as more flexible scheduling for vacations or instituting personal days instead of sick leave. Others, such as training, may be initially more expensive, but end up more than paying for themselves.
Libraries of all types will be facing a librarian labor shortage in the near future, as the Baby Boomers retire in record numbers. It only makes sense for library human resource managers and administrators to start selling themselves as the employer of choice to Millennials (and Gen Xers) before the need becomes acute and the number of available younger people with the MLIS or equivalent degrees becomes even more scarce.
Amanda Johnson worked six years as a public librarian (QBPL in NYC), three years as an academic librarian, and is starting a position as a prospect researcher in an academic setting.