There has been much written about Millennials and the impact they are bound to have on the workforce in the next decade.
Many senior women have talked to us at theglasshammer.com about the challenges of understanding and motivating younger team members. Since there have been academic and anecdotal studies noting the differences in approaches to work between the generations, it is easy to see that our readers are not alone in their experience.
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
According to a new study by Thomson Reuters, today’s professional workforce is collaborative, entrepreneurial, and looking for a way to live their values at work. The study of more than 1,000 professionals in Brazil, China, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States also showed surprising commonalities across genders in terms of work style and habits.
For example, nearly equal proportions of men and women said they prefer an interactive or collaborative team environment (56 percent and 55 percent, respectively). Similarly, 63 percent of both men and women agreed that solving problems is important to them, and 55 percent of men and 56 percent of women said having a vision of what they want to achieve in their careers is important to them. About the same proportions of men and women said challenging work is important to them (53 percent and 56 percent, respectively). Finally, 46 percent and 48 percent of men and women said they want to be able to be entrepreneurial in their jobs.
But the report revealed one big area where genders diverged in how they want to be treated at work: recognition and respect.
According to the data presented in this study, women were more keen to be recognized by management for the work they have accomplished, and they desired more strongly to be respected by their colleagues than men.63 percent of women, compared to 53 percent of men, were much more likely than men to say having their work recognized by superiors is important to them. Similarly, 61 percent of women were also more likely than men to say that gaining the respect of their coworkers was important to them. Gaining the respect of their coworkers was important to just 53 percent of men surveyed.
These are key differences that managers should recognize when leading teams of professionals – either women don’t think they’re getting enough respect at work, or they simply value recognition more than men. Either way, supervisors should take note.