This past June Meghan Thoreau presented a scholarly presentation on, The Importance of Millennials in the Workplace, at the 2019 National Association of Community Development Professionals in Asheville, NC. The 30-minute presentation, go.osu.edu/millennials, highlighted:
- The changing conditions in the workplace and the workforce induced by emerging technologies, like automation and AI, which are expected to further disrupt ‘the nature work’ and entry-level workers.
- General values and career priorities of Millennials. What Millennials want, value, expect from employers, bring to the workplace, how they can improve the workplace, and how to attract Millennials.
- Considers possible Extension Generational Program Development ideas, tools, and strategies to engage business and industry that are interested in reevaluating traditional approaches to: employee acquisition, job assignment, employee development, and influencing over organizational culture to support the current and future workforce, in addition to, reevaluating the hiring process and targeted skill sets.
- Be proactive of Generation Z, ages 7-24, starting to enter the workforce.
Meghan is very willing to present on this topic and related topics to the local community and business leaders to foster a collaborative discussion on next-steps or programming feedback to considering new approaches and strategies to our youth workforce development programming. Contact Meghan Thoreau, OSU Extension Education, Thoreau.1@osu.edu.
She and her fellow OSUE colleagues were also National NACDEP Award Recipients. Becky Nesbitt (Distinguished Career Award); Brooke Beam (Cross Program Award – Using Virtual Reality in Educational Programming), and Meghan Thoreau (Educational Technology Award – Scholastic High School Drone Racing League Program); and Amanda Osborne (Educational Materials Award – Produce Perks Toolkit for Farmers Markets). These individuals were also North Central Regional NACDEP winners.
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A worthy read, Generation Z enters the workforce: generational and technological challenges in entry-level jobs, by Carolyn O’Boyle, Josefin Atack, and Kelly Monahan. Asks the hard questions, With Generation Z entering the workforce and the nature of entry-level jobs changing, how can organizations redesign these jobs in a way that can both attract and engage Gen Z and ensure that these jobs continue to generate a pipeline of future talent?