BrighterMonday Launches Study on Engaging Millennials’ Productively At Workplace

BrighterMonday Kenya has launched a study dubbed, millennials and the Digital place. The report provides insights and solutions to what makes millennials productive in the workplace.

The study surveyed over 8,000 urban Kenyan employed millennials and gathered data from BrighterMonday’s internal database of over 2 million job seekers and from external research to arrive at these insights and solutions.

Speaking during the launch of the white paper, BrighterMonday’s Chief Executive Emmanuel Mutuma said the study will not only guide anyone who has found it difficult keeping millennials productive in the workplace but also learn from our findings that it does not have to be a daunting task if employers focus on five important factors as highlighted in the paper.

“Millennials are fast becoming the teeming populace of the workforce not only in Kenya but across the world, and most employers are grappling with the challenge of ensuring their millennial workforce is productive.” Noted Mutuma.

The white paper explored the factors that are necessary to ensure optimum productivity amongst millennials, detailing the importance of each and illustrating how employers can implement them. The five focus areas are; Work Culture, Sense of Pride, Diversity & Inclusion, Training & Development Opportunities and Tools.

45% of Kenyan millennials, who make up the current urban workforce are gainfully employed, 57% of whom are educated with at least a first degree, making them a force to reckon with, within the current workforce.

Millennials also take pride in a company’s mission and values rather than just taking a job for the sake of it; their willingness to be innovative with ordinary roles is astounding but at the same time they are not chained by benefits, health insurance and other perks offered but rather prefer instant gratification like getting a raise, open feedback, and their personal space, ideals that traditional employers find hard to come to terms with.

Present during the launch ceremony, Ronald Osumba Chairperson of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund noted, “The youth in Kenya currently form a huge part of the workforce. Research shows that by 2020, 50% of the formal workforce will be made up of Millenials. Apart from job creation, which is a key pillar in the government’s big four agenda, the government has been instrumental in improving infrastructure to provide the youth with work-related options” said the chairman of the youth fund who was the chief guest at the launch.

Unlike millennials in more developed countries, Kenyan millennials actually prefer to work in the office especially when they have strict deadlines to working remotely owing to issues like the cost of the internet or appropriate equipment.

The white paper also includes a case study BrighterMonday conducted on a pan-African technology company Andela. The Andela brand has a workforce that comprises of at least 70% millennials and embodies several factors that have been identified as crucial to ensuring productivity among millennials; key management staffs were interviewed (Senior Director of People, Operations Director and People Operations Manager) as well as numerous millennial employees from the organization.