Millennials View Office Politics As Biggest Barrier To Performance
Top barriers to performance at work reflect more culture-related factors than a lack of personal development efforts, including office politics (27 percent), lack of training and development (26 percent), unclear/changing job roles (22 percent), restrictive work culture (20 percent), and a lack of collaboration (19 percent), and excessive workload (18 percent), according to a survey finding by HBR Ascend Youth Skills Survey 2019 which covered over 2,700 respondents from more than 100 countries and 6 continents.
Vivek Chachra, Country Manager (India), Harvard Business Publishing said, “There are several existing notions around millennials and their approach towards work. The survey reveals that millennials understand the impact of technology and automation on the future of work and highly value knowledge over current credentials.
Self-Assured Millennial
Almost three out of four respondents say they are confident about their technical ability. Less than 10 percent expressed a lack of confidence in their technical skills.
The Need to Upskill
One-third of the millennials said that education helped them build necessary technical skills but not soft skills, while 15 percent of respondents indicated that their education provided them with a holistic grounding of both technical as well as softer skills.
The desire for improving employability skills was reported in high measures. Respondents across the globe are hungry to learn and are willing to invest their own money for acquiring skills in data science (38 percent), creative and innovative thinking (33 percent), analytical thinking (30 percent), business communications (29 percent), and AI and automation (27 percent).
Engage your youngest workers
According to the survey, almost one out of two of respondents said that they experience periods of disengagement at work. Around 18 percent report that they feel engaged only when working on challenging and interesting projects.
The respondents’ employer of choice is defined by five key characteristic: flexible work conditions (27 percent): a clear career path with advancement opportunities (25 percent); strong training and development programs (20 percent), a clear vision of corporate goals and mission (20 percent), and passionate and engaging leaders (19 percent).
Additionally, they also expect their employers to look beyond business and make a sincere commitment to important social and political causes.
Impact of AI on their work
Around 61 percent of respondents indicate that they are aware that aspects of their work could be replicated by artificial intelligence (AI) bots. Only one out of four are confident of their role not being replaced by a robot whilst nearly, 9 percent lack clarity around the impact of AI on their role.
In India, 65 percent feel that some of their work could be done by a robot. Whereas, in developed nations like the United States, only one out of three respondents show confidence about their role not being taken over by AI.
