Clare Moncrieff challenged the key myths surrounding women and Millennials – who, she argued, “are of particular concern for heads of HR”.
CEB’s research shows that, in 98% of cases, genders are equally competent, and male leaders actually pose a higher turnover risk than their female peers. However, just 33% of women believe there are career opportunities for them, so Moncrieff urged companies to make opportunities more visible. This will lead to “a fivefold increase in their intent to stay with your business”.
“Millennials are willing to look for opportunities internally, so we need to feed that desire”
She said flexibility is key to women’s progression, with female leaders twice as likely to stay with their
organisation if a flexible time schedule is in place. On Millennials, Moncrieff said that, by 2020, they will have filled half of all available leadership positions. Rather than being ‘organisational hoppers’,
“they are willing to look for opportunities internally, so we need to feed that desire”.
Millennials are also “the most competitive generation in the workforce today” – relatively, not absolutely. “They care 10% more than other generations about how they compare with others. However, they’re not as internally motivated to over-perform.” The implications for HR? “Provide more opportunities for Millennials to reignite their relative competitive nature.”
