Money Cant Buy You Love- Shane’s Soapbox

Interesting Infographic via Bit Rebels about happiness at work- two key takeaways:

1. Employees using social media have an 18% chance of feeling happier when engaging with friends who are happy.  

2. Companies that provide a stimulating  and challenging work environment suffer considerably less turnover AND make considerably more profit.

Notice neither of the above involve pay raises or promotions or offices with a window.  And by focusing on making the work stimulating, via good management, you make more profit for multiple reasons. When you apply this lens to the Mad Ave agency model, things get a little blurry- Long hours, limited career coaching and acknowledgement of good work- it all adds up to staff turnover in the 40-50% range and young staffers not seeing a future for themselves in the industry unless there’s dollar signs being dangled in front of them.

Advertising used to be the Hollywood of business, and some agencies do make good on that premise, for what its worth, but more often than not the holding company model (short term profit to satisfy shareholders) ties one hand behind the back of agency leadership who want to reinvigorate the company culture but lack the time or resources to make it happen. The end result are often endless Director meetings about “why are all the junior staff so unhappy and want to leave”

Millennials are suspicious of big companies;  they have seen at a young age the unravelling of major corporations due to avaricious management;  the burden of long hours on the lives of their parents, then they have also heard about these new kinds of companies, startups that rebel against the status quo, with inspirational leaders that live in a T Shirt and jeans and go without sleep inventing cool stuff that enriches Millenials lives first before a penny has been made. Finally, we had the banking collapse in 2008- greedy under regulated  fatcats that bankrupted their future economically and ecologically.

Gen Y are not easily impressed, especially by advertising messaging- in their view marketers just want their money and will say anything to get it (not untrue)  Sure if you’re a socially conscious, eco friendly and highly innovative enterprise, they are all ears because your speaking their language.  They will wear you, talk about you, want to be associated with you. Heck thy will even camp out for days just to be one of the first to buy your new product or see your latest movie.

These days if you want to get through to a Millenial you need to a) take a genuine and sincere interest in who they are and what they do b) prove to them their opinion counts by active listening and c) be honest and transparent.  Gen X managers get frustrated at times by a  perceived sense of indifference in their subordinates- back in the day we worked like slaves for no money and were are still  damn proud of it too. But times have changed as have the definition of a what a role model is supposed to be.

In trying to understand how to manage and market to the younger generation, I have found the most helpful resource to be a book written    back in the 1930′s- It surpasses most all expert thinking on the topic.  Really? How could somebodies thoughts on the human condition be so relevant after all these years? Well, the three suggestions for getting through to Millenials in the previous paragraph are lifted almost word for word from  his book whose title is usually invoked only in the most ironic of contexts. So what is it?

You can buy your copy here:  http://goo.gl/PK6G7

Cheers,

SC