This document discusses mentoring Millennial employees. It defines Millennials as those born between the early 1980s and early 2000s who have high expectations for career development support from employers. The document outlines differences between Millennials and older generations in terms of communication preferences, views on work-life balance, and expectations for mentoring relationships. It provides tips for mentoring Millennials, such as meeting them where they are, communicating in their preferred styles, and focusing on immediate career development needs rather than formal schedules or programs. The goal of mentoring Millennials is to help them develop skills for long-term career success through a flexible, educational approach.

1. Mentoring the Millennials
Stewart Brower, MLIS, AHIP
Director, Schusterman Library
University of Oklahoma-Tulsa
stew@ou.edu

2. Introductions, caveats, etc.
 Yes, it’s just like astrology
 No, I’m not talking about your kids
 I will probably make incredibly sweeping statements
that have very little evidence in fact, only in my
personal experience
 Okay, sure, my library is a kind of wonderland and has
definitely clouded my judgment…

4. What is a “generation?”
A grouping of people, typically by
birth years, that are defined by the
historical and sociological
experiences they have shared
Howe & Strauss, Millennials Rising

5. Three factors
 Life cycle effects
Things people of a certain age have in common
 Period effects
Things people living during a particular time have in common
 Cohort effects
Things people born at the same time have in common

6. Defining the Generations
Four major generations:
 Silent – born 1925-1945
 Boomers – born 1946-1963
 Gen-Xers – born 1964-1982
 Millennials – born post-1982 (until 2010-ish...)
 Plurals – the post-Millennials generation (also iGen,
Homeland, Gen Z)

7. Who are Millennials?
 Result of a backlash against the “hands-off”
parenting of the 1970s – a protected (coddled?)
generation
 Born in the 80s & raised in the 90s (or born in the
90s and raised in the early 00s), Mils only knew
economic prosperity and opportunity – until
recently
 College-age Mils mostly children of Boomers;
younger Mils mostly children of Gen-Xers
 “They’re the most numerous, affluent, and
ethnically diverse generation in American
history.” - Strauss

8. Some Mil Statistics
 Numbering about 82 million, the Millennials
outnumber the Boomer Generation
 One Mil in ten (11%) has an immigrant parent
(Boomers 5%, Xers 7%)
 8 Mils in 10 plan on attending college
 Averaged out, approximately 300,000 Mil
freshmen will enter college each year

9. Educational attainment

10. The nature of college education

11. Pew Research 2010

13. What Mils want…
from boss & company…
 Navigate career path
 Straight feedback
 Mentoring/coaching
 Sponsorship for prof dev
 Flexible scheduling
 Customizable benefits
 Work/life balance
to learn…
 Technical skills
 Self-management
 Personal productivity
 Leadership
 Industry knowledge
 Creativity/innovation strategies
HBR, May 2010

14. Mentoring in the workplace
 Expectation by Mil employees that mentoring is
something that comes from the employer
 Whether cohort-based or life-cycle-based, young
people become frustrated by hierarchies, seniority,
“old ways” of doing things
 Mils believe they will have several careers (not just
jobs) in their lifetimes, and could “jump ship” if work
is not rewarding

15. Some horror stories
 “I had to teach one mentee that it isn’t acceptable to call in
the late evening with a routine question.”
 “I’ve had to explain … that texting on your smartphone in
a situation that involves your seniors suggests you think
you have more important things to do.”
 “Sometimes it can be days and days before a mentee will
answer an e-mail. That annoys me.”
 “One of my assigned mentees and I mutually agreed to
table the relationship because she never seemed to have
time for our scheduled meetings. Although she’d seen the
benefit of having a mentor, she simply couldn’t make time
for it in her life.”

16. Mil career encouragement
 A 2012 Bentley study of 1,000 college-educated
Millennials asking about career encouragement:
 2 percent said mentor/someone at work
 33 percent said spouse/partner
 25 percent said Mom
 16 percent said Dad
25 percent gave credit to a manager for encouraging them
to assume a leadership role at work

17. Mentoring programs
 Formal mentoring/leadership programs
 AAHSL, NN/LM, NLM Fellows, MLA Rising Stars, etc.
 Tied directly to professional development
 Reverse mentoring
 Team-based mentoring
 Anonymous mentoring
 Organization-wide mentoring
 Assigned mentors

18. Outcomes of formal mentoring
 Average time meeting mentor/protégé: 2 hours/month
 Ineffective, not enough time, poor relationship building
 Mentors from outside department/non-supervisory role
with protégé
 Less effective than mentoring from supervisor, or from non-affiliated
mentor
 “Good mentoring may lead to positive outcomes; bad
mentoring may be destructive, or in some cases worse
than no mentoring at all.”
Inzer, Crawford, JOLE 2005

19. Why informal mentoring works
 Mentors are not always a part of the library organization
 It is driven more by the needs of the protégé than by the
plans of the mentor
 “I’m in a situation and I want to know what you think…”
 Feedback tends to be honest, unbiased
 “What I’m hearing is…”
 Career-focused, rather than organization-focused
 “You will do well here if you understand these unspoken
rules.” vs.
 “What’s the best thing for you? Not your library, but you?”
 Friendships possibly, but also surrogate parental role
 Mentors allow that sometimes protégés will make
different decisions, accept that failure can be as instructive
as success

20. Techniques for mentoring Mils
 Remember those horror stories a few slides back?
 “…isn’t acceptable to call in the late evening with a
routine question.”
 Soft skills take time/experience; Mils accustomed to
constant feedback; establish dif between mentor and
a parent; what defines “routine” anyway?

21.  “…texting on your smartphone in a situation that
involves your seniors suggests you think you have
more important things to do…”
 Is this during a meeting? Work-related priorities
 Texting seen by Mils as primary, synchronous means
of communication; texts often used for broadcast,
multiple receivers; texts avoid tl/dr found in emails,
voicemails, etc.

22.  “Sometimes it can be days and days before a mentee
will answer an e-mail. That annoys me.”
 E-mail perceived as the opposite of text;
asynchronous, clunky, long communications; low-priority
unless marked otherwise, or given clear
instructions to respond
 “That annoys me.” … Mils find other generations’
over-reliance on e-mail annoying…

23.  “One of my assigned mentees and I mutually agreed to
table the relationship because she never seemed to have
time for our scheduled meetings. Although she’d seen the
benefit of having a mentor, she simply couldn’t make time
for it in her life.”
 Who made the schedule?
 Protégés need mentoring to be immediate, point-of-need,
and articulated/communicated in ways they can
use/absorb
 Just like our students do…

24. Millennial protégés are our students
 Meet them where they need you
 Meet them when they need you
 Customize the message for them
 Treat mentoring as an educational exchange
 “It’s not you. It’s me.” Mentoring is all about the
protégé

25. Things to think about
 Building professional development opportunities
 Awards, grants, posters/papers, travel funds
 Job skills
 Professional communications, appearance, bullets for
the CV, writing cover letters, mock interviews
 Encouraging creative ideas
 Keeping the door open, giving them a chance to fail
 Formal + Informal?

26. Paying it forward

27. It’s a conversation, not a conclusion
 Thank you for listening! Thank you for contributing!
 Stewart Brower, stew@ou.edu