EngageSmith reveals survey tracking Irish millennials’ attitude to work

By Oscar Michel, Masters in Journalism, DCU.

The millennial training company, EngageSmith reveals a workplace survey tracking Irish millennials’ attitudes to work, and what is the best environment to do it.

200 Irish millennials participated to this survey and 60% of them view career progression as most important factor in work. and 57% of Irish millennials value salary above all else in work. 41% of respondents left their last job because they considered to be overqualified and underpaid.

Only 1% of Irish millennials selected the factor of having a “cool” office to be important.

It is interesting to point out that Irish millennials are ambitious as 76% of them would leave a company due to lack of development. The survey also shows that millennials are not prepared to stay in a job that lacked career progression opportunities as 47% of Irish millennials left their last job for this reason.

70% of millennials see a focus on training in a company as positive. They do admit that training and development opportunities will fast track their careers. The significance of career progression to millennials is evident in the survey as 59% of respondents plan to move job in the next year. One in five cite wanting more responsibilities and opportunities as the reason for this move.

Having a good relationship with one’s boss is essential for millennials as the survey pointed out that 64% of them needed to get along with their boss. 60% said that an unfriendly atmosphere would cause dissatisfaction.

The majority of Irish millennials favour online methods when searching for new job opportunities, with 79% of Irish millennials using online job sites and 65% using social media. 53% prefer the old way to search for a job like through friend referrals.

“It’s interesting to see that Irish millennials value salary and career progression so highly. With rents at such high levels, particularly in Dublin, Irish millennials don’t have the luxury of not prioritising their salary. If companies want to attract and retain the top millennial talent they must offer competitive salaries and lots of opportunities for millennials to progress their careers within the company. Enabling millennial employees to have a good working relationship with their managers and offering training and development opportunities that will fast track their careers will create the environment that Irish millennials want from their workplaces. As part of our millennial friendly training programmes, we work directly with managers to help them understand how to motivate millennials and keep them engaged in their work. Companies that become millennial friendly are future-proofing for the next generations and from this investment will see an increase in engagement and productivity from their millennial employees” said Lisa Smith, founder of EngageSmith.

EngageSmith has invested €400k in the creation of 20 new jobs.

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