Deloitte Millennial Survey 2015: Four Takeaways

Deloitte, a global professional services firm, conducts an annual survey of Millennials to gauge how this group feels about the general direction businesses are heading, as well as about their own budding careers. And selfishly, as a card-carrying Millennial, I am generally interested in the findings and how they compare to my own personal ideas/beliefs. (I have no idea why Millennials are accused of self-importance.) 

I would recommend you read the full survey findings, but below are four key takeaways that jumped out at me (and more importantly—what I think about each of these areas)

1. More than seven in 10 (73 percent) Millennials believe businesses have a positive impact on wider society.

Millennials feel that businesses shouldn’t just focus on profits and products while developing their business strategy—they need to also consider their employee’s growth and satisfaction, their effect on the immediate community, and their wider social impact. Millennials don’t feel like this is a ‘nice-to-have’ component of a business—this is a ‘must-have.’ And, Millennials feel that businesses are falling short on this obligation, “under-performing by 10 points at improving livelihoods [of their employees] and under-performing by 12 points on social/environmental benefit.”

My take: I completely agree with this finding. It is an automatic response to support the companies that are contributing to positive social impact—brands that share my values. Conversely, if I hear about a company’s negative impact, I will make a point to avoid them. (I’m looking at you, Walmart and Chick-fil-A.)

2. The ‘super-connected Millennial’ feels even stronger about a business’ role in social impact.

A sub-category of Millennials, the super-connected Millennial, is comprised of relatively active users of social networking tools with a large base of followers within those communities. Deloitte’s findings show this category of Millennials feels more strongly about the need for business to create positive social impact—and it is one of this group’s key considerations while seeking employment. The study found that “77% of this group reported that their company’s purpose was part of the reason they chose to work there (compared to just 46% of the subset of Millennials who are the ‘least connected’).”

Another interesting fact about the super-connected Millennial is that they have “significantly higher self-rating on leadership (32% vs. the least connected group’s 16%).”

My take: I don’t consider myself a super-connected Millennial—I’m a social media observer. More of a lurker than a content-generator. I’m not surprised that they identify themselves as leaders.

3. Millennials feel that nearly two-thirds of the skills required to meet the needs of their organization have been gained while in employment.

After obtaining a bachelor’s degree, Millennials felt the traits they are equipped with when entering the workforce—skills like “being professional, hard-working, flexible, and in possession of integrity and maturity”—are not the traits potential employers value. They felt weak in areas like “technical or specific business skills, including financial, economic, and general business knowledge; the ability to challenge or disrupt current thinking; the ability to create opportunity; sales and marketing; and similar talents.”

My take: I’m one of the 27% of college grads that has a job in their field of study1—and I would still say that my first two years in the workforce taught me exponentially more than my four years of college. This leads me to believe there are some improvements that could be made in higher education to help graduates prepare for the workforce. Possibly providing more real-world situations through the curriculum and making internships mandatory. I feel like the most helpful skill I gained in college was learning how to work and lead a team—something I do on a daily basis as a producer.

4. Millennials aren’t likely to classify themselves as leaders—especially Millennial women.

“When Millennials were asked to rate their leadership skills, a significant gender gap of 6 points emerged; 27% of men vs. 21% of women rated this skill as strong.” This theme continued when the participants were asked if they had ambitions to become the leader/most senior executive at their organization—with men being 12 points more likely to express interest.

My take: I identify as a leader and am surrounded by strong women leaders. I was surprised to hear that more women (and all Millennials for that matter) aren’t classifying themselves as such. Survey participants were born after January 1983, are degree educated, and in fulltime employment—but I would be interested in hearing the spread across ages and years in the workforce beyond those conditions. As a new graduate I don’t think I would have self-identified as a leader, but now that I have nearly nine years in the workforce (yowza) I have a different opinion. Like most things, the confidence to be a leader comes with experience. In short, don’t give up on the leaders of tomorrow just yet.

Read the entire study