Millennials, often referred to as the ‘job-hopping generation,’ represent a group of young workers who once grabbed the national spotlight with their publicized demands for ‘fun’ work perks, such as happy hours. However, researchers have discovered today’s young workers — ages 21-34 — represent a life-stage shift toward placing more value on having respectful communication in the workplace over trendy work perks.

Millennials, often referred to as the “job-hopping generation,” represent a group of young workers who once grabbed the national spotlight with their publicized demands for “fun” work perks, such as happy hours. However, researchers at the Novak Leadership Institute at the University of Missouri and Kansas State University discovered today’s young workers — ages 21-34 — represent a life-stage shift toward placing more value on having respectful communication in the workplace over trendy work perks.

The team of researchers, which includes experts from the Novak Leadership Institute and the MU Department of Communication, were able to identify this shift in workplace values for young workers after surveying more than 1,000 full-time workers, ages 21-34, who represent 18 different career areas, including the service industry. The team analyzed how participants rated, on a 1 to 5 scale, how each of the following workplace culture aspects were representative of their current place of employment — respectful engagement, autonomous respect, occupational resilience, job satisfaction, employee loyalty and retention, and job engagement.

While previous studies have reported leaders and managers spend 70-90% of their time communicating, LaGree believes this study shows more emphasis needs to be placed on training leaders and managers on how to be effective communicators and convey respectful communication with their employees. She believes that even though the study was completed before the COVID-19 pandemic began, their results continue to be relevant in today’s workplaces, which may have adjusted to more of a hybrid workplace split between work and home offices, or gone entirely remote.

LaGree acknowledges the extent to which leaders and managers can foster supportive cultures and outcomes is still unclear, yet she believes their study strongly contributes to the concept that workplaces are intensely social experiences.

“As we see here with our research, actively recognizing employees for the value they bring to their organization will help equip them to bounce back after adversity, to perform better in their jobs and be more committed to their organizations in the long term,” LaGree said. “I think that’s especially relevant today, even though this study was conducted before the coronavirus pandemic.”