7 Elements of a Great Company Culture

Build these things into your culture and your rock star talent will take you to the top.

By Marla Tabaka

IMAGE: Getty Images

What does it really mean to build a strong culture? For some entrepreneurs the very word conjures up images of employees dancing on desks, playing pool in the break room, and napping away in comfy, soundproof enclosures. While fun may be one component of a thriving culture, there's so much more to it. 

Build a culture based on your own values, but don't forget these 7 musts.

1. If you want to be trusted, you must trust.

A culture of trust is imperative, especially if you're employing millennials. If you behave like a helicopter parent, overseeing, or worse, taking over every project, it will directly conflict with the building of trust. What if they make a mistake? I think any successful entrepreneur will tell you that there is no mistake from which you cannot recover. Give your employees clear guidelines and let them spread their wings.

2. Give employees the opportunity to get to know one another.

How can people know, like, and trust one another if they don't have the opportunity to play together? An occasional party or outing is not enough to build and maintain these relationships; weave these events into the fabric of your day-to-day company life. Create little rituals at employee meetings, have themes for certain days of the week and holidays, and engage in community projects together. Find quirky ways to celebrate success, no matter how small, and certainly create friendly competition; both work-related and personal. A chili cook-off and a game-filled afternoon at the park are a couple of things to consider. Too much work? Assign a monthly "culture captain" to plan out the month.

3. Create a cool space.

Tossing a few desks in a room doesn't cut it anymore. Our external environment has a significant impact on our internal thought process. Design a creative corner with bean bag chairs, chalk boards, and a lighthearted theme throughout. Allow employees to bring fun decorations to add to their work area. If you can afford it, hire a designer to create your unique space. A creative environment sets the bar for innovation. Creating a "culture of cool" attracts the kind of people who value the kind of culture you're trying to build.

4. Give 'em free stuff.

Everyone loves free stuff! If you can't afford to supply personal computers or tablets, stock options, and grand parties--no worries, those things will come. In the meantime Friday morning breakfasts, afternoon smoothies, fun work tools, and inexpensive merchandise will go a long way. This will contribute to a work-hard, play-hard environment, making for happy, productive, and creative employees.

5. No jerks allowed.

I can't say this often enough: Hiring for skill alone will doom you to misery. Hire nice people who fit in with the intention design of your culture. Hire people who have a proven work ethic and are team players. Hire for creativity and personality. Sure, experience and skill are important, but not nearly enough to take you to the top of your industry.

6. Encourage growth and ownership.

A strong company culture isn't just about fun: it's about encouraging your employees to see their job as more than just a job--to own their job and their ideas. Once you've build this collaborative, trusting environment, your employees will bring ideas to the table. If it's their idea, put them in charge of it! If an employee wants to learn something new, provide the support for them to do it. Today, innovative companies don't hire employees to remain in one job for an eternity; they hire innovators who will contribute to the future of the company in a powerful way.

7. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

Here's where I see entrepreneurs, especially startups, fail most often. When one hand doesn't know what the other is doing you have a recipe for disaster. But communication about processes and workflow aren't enough. Drill your values into your employees with ideas like those above and by demonstrating them in your own behavior. Be authentic and, at times, vulnerable. If an employee isn't performing up to par, don't let your frustration and disappointment grow; engage in thoughtful conversations about it and create a plan for improvement. If an employee has a win, celebrate! 

Building an outstanding culture is not an overnight event, and it's not always easy. You'll hit some bumps in the road. Never forget that your team, not your product, not your bank account, is your number-one asset.

5 Signs Your Company is in the Dark Ages

One of our vendors recently asked us to fax a form to them … really, a fax? So I started thinking, what are the signs that a company has not kept up with times and is stuck in the dark ages?

If you are guilty of any of these fives things, it’s time to move forward. Immediately. It’s not just about productivity, it’s about keeping your pulse on how people do business and what is important to them. Keep your particular customer base in mind, but these five things are most likely holding you back.

1. You still use a fax machine.
   Our company does not own a fax machine and I have not sent a fax in over a decade. If you are not aware that fax machines have been replaced with emails, you are a dinosaur headed for extinction. Even when signatures are required, the businessperson of today expects things to be signed, scanned, and emailed. You shouldn’t expect clients, customers, or vendors to have fax machines.
2. You only communicate by phone.
   If you sell anything to millennials, don’t ask them to call your customer service phone number … that’s not how they communicate. Reconsider your ‘social media seems like a silly fad’ attitude and embrace the new ways your customers want to communicate with you and each other. Yes, it’s good to have the option to call. But if you’re not transitioning to live chat and social media correspondence, you’ll soon lose any customer base below the age of 40. (If I lost you at “live chat,” it’s time to hire a consultant.).
3. You still print everything.
   Seriously? This is my planet too, so learn how to archive electronic documents, sign PDFs online, and stop killing our trees. With a few very rare exceptions, you don’t need a hard copy. The risk here is not just to the planet, it’s to your ability to hire and retain quality employees. Now and for at least the last 10 years, college graduates are looking for companies with good environmental practices. You don’t need to bring 15 printed copies to the meeting, trust me.
4. You’re still using snail mail to do business.
   When a customer asked us to snail mail a paper copy of our invoice half-way around the globe, we refused for oh-so-many reasons, ultimately walking away from the small deal. Snail mail might be even more obsolete than a fax machine and does not gel with our approach to protecting the planet. Stand up for what just makes sense and stop mailing paper.
5. You still need “face time”.
   Gone are the days when working 15 hours a day was a solid measure of success. If you allow your employees to utilize flexible scheduling options, you will likely see more productivity than if you encourage the traditional “first one in, last to go home” paradigm. Remember that sometimes a task takes longer because someone refuses to consider easier options. The person staying late every day may need some help with new approaches to work smarter rather than applause for burning the midnight oil.

It happens to all of us, we find ourselves holding onto a tradition even though it’s not logical. We find comfort in doing things “the way we’ve always done them.” When it comes to your business, it’s important to fight this urge and push forward. The longer you hold on, the more behind you’re getting. 

I'm sure you, too, have a few things in mind when it comes to antiquated business practices. Please share them below!

Written by

Thomas Michael

The Problem With Managing Millennials...(Is Not What You Think)

If I sit around and look through my LinkedIn feed or Facebook, Twitter, Zite...whatever, I am bound to see something about the millennials and their "narcissism" or their "poor work ethic" or what have you. And, the point of this post isn't to say if these things are true or they are not. 

The point is that the problem with managing millennials isn't them...its you. (I'll pause while you fire off a hateful email to me...)

But here is the thing, no matter what person you are dealing with, no matter the generation, no matter the position...you, as the manager, are ultimately responsible for the performance of your team. 

So I have found in working with my clients that a lot of the challenge of dealing with millennials stems from a poor grasp of setting clear goals and expectations for your teams. Which means that even if millennials have short attention spans, need praise, or anything else that is being said, as the manager, you need to set your expectations and goals in a clear and understandable way. 

Here are a few tips to help:

1. Focus Your Goals On The Output: Too much of our time is spent on just doing tasks that don't move us towards our goals. Millennials are sometimes called lazy because they talk about "balance" between work and life. I think by focusing your goals on the outputs you are trying to achieve you accomplish a few key things...you give your team the flexibility to attempt to solve problems with creativity; you don't get bogged down on assigning tasks; and, if you are lucky, your team works hard to solve the challenge in an effective and efficient manner which will lead to more "balance" by allowing them to complete mission critical tasks and knowing what they need to accomplish to get out of the office. 

2. Open Clear Lines Of Communication: No matter what you do, where you are in your career, people love to have information. The void of communication will always be filled and if you aren't careful it will be filled by bad or false information. So as a manager, help everyone by setting clear expectations for your communications with staff...including updates, status reports, and feedback. Its going to help tremendously.

3. Listen: Another big one I hear about millennials is that they want to be heard. And, somewhere along the line we seem to have forgotten the fact that as managers and leaders, we are only as good as the information we have at hand. So it only makes sense that you take a little time to talk with your team and listen. Sure listening takes time and building relationships with your staff is tough, but the first time you save a huge hunk of time and money by paying attention to something your team tells you, the investment will have paid off...and the added benefit is that you might not really be so willing to lump a whole group of people in generational stereotypes. And, that's something I guarantee will make you a better leader. 

Posted by:Dave Wakeman

Hiring over 50

Lately I've heard a lot, both in the news and from clients, that people just don't want to hire a candidate that is over 50. This is short sighted and wrong, and here's why: 

In our culture no one stays in a job for their entire career. If you can get an employee to stay for 3 - 5 years, you're laughing! The Millennial generation is even encouraged to switch jobs every 3 years or so to build up their skill set. Penelope Trunk even said that staying at a job for too long is career suicide! So why are employers afraid to hire someone who is older when they will get no guarantee that a younger candidate will stay any longer? 

Knowing that employee tenure is about 3 years, why wouldn't employers be scrambling to hire older workers? If you know that you can hire someone who is only looking to work for another 5 - 10 years, shouldn't they be at the top of the candidate pile?

One may argue that a younger employee costs less. In some cases this can be true. Health benefits aside, a less skilled employee would definitely be at the lower end of the pay scale than a higher skilled employee. However, if you've been upfront with what your salary range is, and you're paying market value for the role, and the candidate is interested, then what's the problem?

There are 2 types of older workers: Those who are working because they enjoy it and those who are working because they have to. That's not to say that they can't be both. But there are those who have savings and a retirement plan, and who will work until the age of 65 and that's it. Then there are those who, for many reasons, have no savings and no retirement plan, and need to keep working in order to survive. Both types can be great employees. Both can be loyal employees.

Plus, think of the maturity that an older person can bring into your office. Oh sure, you have a "young culture" and you worry that they won't "fit in". But maybe this is exactly what your office needs. There's nothing wrong with a little variety. Many Managers are managing with 4 generations in their workplace.

Ideally we all want to retire - at least I know that I want to retire. Unfortunately I think that there will not be much "Freedom 55" happening anymore. So toss out your misconceptions about older workers and give one a chance. Please, I'm going to be one of them one day! 

Posted by:Kimberley Dart, CHRP Candidate

9 Things Millennials Can Teach the Rest of Us About Engagement

Search the Internet and you find a ton of theories on how to engage Millennials at work. Fair enough given those born between 1980 and 1999 are tomorrow’s leaders, if they aren’t there already. Yet most research suggests longer tenured employees are the bigger engagement challenge. So why aren’t we asking Millennials to help engage the rest of us versus the other way around?

Millennial stereotypes abound -- lazy, unfocused, entitled, disloyal.... And the reasons range from over-indulgent parenting to advances in technology or, more recently, the massive blow to trust in corporations. However my experience, observing from the cusp of the Boomer and X generations, has been very different.

First off, much of what Millennials want, even expect, from employment is not unique to their generation. “Boomers and Gen X’ers want more leadership, more involvement and ultimately more balance too,” says Youthful Cities co-founder Robert Barnard. “Millennials are just able to scream that much louder!”

The combined voice of Millennials merits a good listen, not just because of its volume but because it makes good sense. Based on many discussions here at Edelman and at other organisations, following are a few tips Millennials might suggest about engagement if given the chance:

1. Frequent, instant recognition. Young employees are not far from their school years where they received consistent, measurable and peer comparable feedback almost weekly from the age of six. Also conditioned by gaming, Millennials have been accustomed to instant, albeit virtual, rewards for achieving new levels of competence. Applied in the workplace, we could all benefit from immediate and specific feedback rather than waiting for the annual or semi-annual review.
2. More productive use of time. I’ve always found Millennials are willing to put in the hours. But they’re not interested in just appearing to be busy. In charge, they'd likely schedule fewer and shorter meetings or conference calls but with focused agendas and action logs. And when our work is done, they’d encourage us to leave and enjoy the rest of their life, always remaining connected if necessary. Better use of time could make us more productive, and frankly more interesting, when we’re at work. Shouldn’t that be a goal for all of us?
3. Short term performance management. Among the stereotypes I see reinforced every day is that Millennials don’t have much patience for long-term promises. Based on seeing their parents often toil for many years with one company only to have the rug pulled out due to the financial crisis or the latest recession, can we blame them? Long-term incentive programs and 10-year career-path trajectories don’t hold much interest. What they do tend to embrace are clear, measurable objectives that are regularly reviewed and challenging short-term assignments, at home or abroad. With rapid change requiring companies to be agile, employees’ ability to be so nimble will be a big advantage.
4. More collaboration. Millennials tend to be very comfortable working in teams. They want to be involved and ultimately share their experiences as widely as possible. For organizations that value teamwork and seek to instill a spirit of advocacy for their brands, Millennials can show the rest of us how to do it.
5. A more explicit employee deal. Full transparency around the expectations between employer and employee has probably always been an engagement driver. If Millennials take it further and shout for a more explicit “employee deal,” that’s a good thing according to Andy Brown, CEO of the UK-based Engage. “Increasingly, organizations are putting in place explicit sets of “terms” that outline what the employer expects from employees in terms of behaviours, effort and delivery. And they also spell out what employees can expect back in terms of development, opportunity, culture and rewards.
6. Meritocracy. Yes, the opposite of entitlement. Millennials consistently hate “waiting their turn” to give input and will run from a traditional, tenure-based workplace hierarchy. By evolving in this regard, organizations surely benefit from environments in which rewards are earned versus entitled.
7. More fun. To truly enjoy their work, Millennials will tell you they need to enjoy their workplace. Open, engaging environments promote inspiration, innovation and collegiality. And friends at the office are the norm versus the exception, making work and life seamless. I recently enjoyed reading HR Magazine's interview with tech firm FNZ’s HR director Daniel Kasmir, who describes the company’s Edinburgh location, complete with a four-pod think tank, kitchen meeting area with pool table and large graffiti wall. If we create a workplace that promotes fun, Millennials are more likely to stick around. As for the balance of us, we just need to lighten up and join in.
8. More purpose. Millennials will consistently tell you they want to work for a company that makes a positive difference. Do they want to have their cake and it eat it too? Perhaps. And why not? Today’s young adults have often had experience of contributing their time and reasonably expect their employer to generate more than a profit as well. Articulating a clear purpose, or "North Star," and actively involving employees in corporate social responsibility programs will reap big dividends.
9. Tailored engagement action plans. While there are many common denominators for engagement across the generations, it’s also true that we value different things as we journey through life’s stages. I think Millennials would advise us to segment our engagement actions and avoid using a “single hammer” to address engagement across everyone as if we were one homogenous mass.

I'd love to see this list extended with more suggestions, but the point is clear. Rather than constantly trying to figure out how to engage Millennials, we can seek their help to engage us. It could be the key to improving the terrible math I referred to in my blog a few weeks ago. Finding the answers will only become more important as retirement ages get pushed back and three or even four generations work side by side in the companies of the future.

Nigel Miller is co-chair Europe CIS Employee Engagement & global director Talent 

Engagement, Edelman.Posted by:Nigel Miller

Why It's So Hard to Turn Fickle Millennials Into Leaders

In an era of job hopping and fast rises, how do you turn young talent into leadership?

Among the starkest data points in Deloitte's 2014 Global Human Capital Trends report is this one: About two-thirds of companies around the world consider themselves weak in developing millennial leadership. Meanwhile, only 5 percent of companies rated themselves as "excellent" in that field.

The data comes on the heels of other reports showing trouble in leadership development programs. Among those findings: Companies are hurting themselves by failing to differentiate between high-performance and high-potential employees, and though they recognize the importance of talent development they're not putting their money where their mouth is by investing in development programs. 

If You Don't Develop Them, You'll Lose Them

Part of the trouble with developing young talent, Deloitte analyst Josh Bersin tells Inc., is that generally speaking, millennials approach their careers very differently than previous generations. They expect to rise fast, and if they can't, they look for other opportunities.

Bersin's assertion is backed up by separate data showing that just 23 percent of disengaged high-potential employees aim to stick around at their jobs, and only 55 percent of millennials say they are loyal to their companies (compared to 69 percent of other generations).

This makes it important, Bersin says, for companies to find ways to help young talent see the opportunities within their companies. He offered a few of strategies.

1. They want face time. Spending time with senior leadership is one way to convince employees that they, too, could eventually rise to that level. Bersin suggests a program wherein high-potential employees are given projects to work on for a while--maybe a quarter, maybe six months, maybe a year. Once complete, they present the results to senior leadership team or the CEO. Not only does this allow leadership to better get to know and evaluate its best and brightest young talent, it also empowers that talent by putting them at the helm of a project.

The idea mirrors a practice at logistics company EMKAY, wherein middle managers across the organization are partnered up with members of the executive team to work on projects over the course of the year. Not only does this apply a gangbusters approach to solving problems across the entire organization, it also helps senior leadership get a sense for who among middle management might eventually make for C-suite material.

2. They want to jump around. Millennials in the business world are fickle. They want to explore new opportunities far more quickly than past generations. Those opportunities, however, might be found in your company. Bersin sited one company that saw its young talent consistently leaving after about 10 months on the job. So the company created a new site that mapped out potential career paths for employees within the organization, and let them access it after nine months on the job--giving them access to openings across the entire company. The company saw its turnover rate plummet.

Bersin says millennials value the opportunity to move around organizations--not just for promotions, but also horizontally. An employee who spends a year in sales might appreciate the opportunity to work in a different department for a while if their skills are a fit. And if that employee has leadership potential, it's all the more valuable to the organization to give them a better-rounded look at the company.

3. They need a different type of manager. One obstacle to bouncing employees around, however, might be their managers. For much of corporate history, managers have been judged on their ability to hit departmental goals and objectives--so it doesn't behoove them to see the talent that helps them reach those goals move in to other positions.

Bersin says organizations need to shift the mindset of what a good manager does away from hitting those departmental goals--which rely on what he calls talent consumption (or, put less kindly, talent hoarding)--to graduating employees into better positions--or talent production. That shift would serve to give companies a better sense for their managers' talent development skills while giving young talent the opportunity to grow.

BY Adam Vaccaro

How To Unlock Great Ideas

Many companies blow off the best ideas of their most creative employees–leaving innovators no choice but to leave if they want to act on their brainstorms. This is clearly a source of huge frustration, as some of you expressed in your comments the last time I posted on this topic in “What To Do When Your Boss Won’t Support Your Great Ideas.”

But if you’re an inventive type, maybe there’s hope that you don’t have to live with your frustrations indefinitely. Serial entrepreneur Ken Tencer, co-author of the new book Cause a Disturbance, believes that it’s very possible for companies to change and embrace innovation. He’s the CEO of Spyder Works, a branding and innovation firm with offices in New York and in a suburb of Ontario, Canada. He previously founded Nettlewoods, a private label of bath and body products sold through major chains, such as Walmart. He is also chair of the Unleashing Innovation Summit, to be held in New York City on March 26 and 27. Here’s an edited transcript of a conversation we had yesterday about how to bring more innovation to today’s workplaces and to innovate more on your own.

Many people say it is hard to get their company to pay attention to their great ideas. How can companies become more receptive?
Tencer: Certain companies really embrace the notion that `We have a lot of incredible people working for us, they’re very close to our customers, and we should actually be engaging these people.’ If  you look at a company like LinkedIn LNKD -4.55%, they enable employees to come up with new idea, put a pitch together and if it comes through, to bring the idea to market. At Google GOOG -0.37%, 20% of your time can be spent on projects other than your main job. I don’t know why more companies aren’t gravitating toward that whole notion of empowering employees, of putting in place mechanisms where they allow people to present ideas and push them forward. It engages and motivates them and helps attract the best talent to your company, rather than frustrating them, turning them off or pushing them out.

Is it possible that big companies don’t see an upside to internal innovation? Many seem to want their employees to focus the products or services they already sell. When they want to add new products and services, they go out and acquire small, innovative companies, instead of doing a lot of R&D internally.
Tencer: If they don’t see an upside to internal innovation, I think it’s incredible short-sightedness. Your brand is about building relationships with your customers. Innovation is about keeping those relationships fresh. It’s about introducing “new, improved and better.” The people closest to your relationships are your employees. They’re on the front lines of  speaking to or working with customers. To me, these are where the most relevant ideas are coming from or should be coming from. I’m not saying acquisitions or open source innovation aren’t important. They are, but why–if you have  5 or 50,000 or 100,000 people–would you ignore their ideas?

Some companies want their employees to stay focused, but I am not saying innovation should be 100% of their day.  I’m talking about adding a glorified suggestion box. Let’s get those great suggestions back to corporate management and the R&D team. I think the tide is turning. I hope it’s turning. I think the great companies are seeing that listening to your employees is powerfully motivating and engaging.

What’s holding the other, not-so-innovative companies back? 
Tencer: It’s an incredible mind shift for most companies to move from viewing employees as the doers and executors to the idea generators. I think companies are afraid it will take them out of the stride of their daily work. The change is hard. Instead of being managers, we’re being motivator and coaches.

I think managers can be. [Creativity expert] Ken Robinson talks about  the notion that creativity is taken away from us and replaced by very linear thinking through our education processes in his TED talks. In large companies, just like you have an open source innovation platform, you need an internal platform through which employees propose or present their ideas, so it doesn’t become every manager’s responsibility to be brilliant at this. If you have the processes in place, you’ll see that tide changing. I do believe that, given permission, managers will start to shift.

What if you’re an employee in a company that isn’t as receptive to innovation as LinkedIn–and you’re innovative? What can you do to put your ideas into action? 
I think if top management  really doesn’t appreciate it–I hate to say it–but in many cases an innovative employee will leave. If you’re one voice in 50,000 I don’t know that you’re going to have incredible success at it. But I think that with this new generation of employees, recognition and engagement are so high up on the scale of what motivates people that you won’t be the one voice in the company anymore. Hopefully a lot of companies will recognize that they don’t want to lose their employees.

What can someone who is, say, 47 years old, learn from Millennials about innovation? 
They’ve grown up and see sharing as just a normal part of their life. They’re sharing their ideas, thoughts on what they’re doing and social activism through social media. They are habitual sharers. What we need to learn is it’s okay to share our ideas and to build on one another’s idea. For the 47-year-old, the whole notion of the wiki or open source programming or innovation is a little more challenging. We were taught to keep our head down, keep things to ourselves and go in a linear fashion. To be fair to our generation, we didn’t have social media growing up. We can adapt to a new reality. We do it very well through LinkedIn. We share a lot of ideas through LinkedIn groups and other platforms. We can do that internally, as well.

Do you see any relationship between Millennials’ attitudes about consumerism and their opportunities to create? Many started their careers during the Great Recession.
We were brought up with home ownership and the cars in the garage as status symbols. To them, status symbols relate to whether something goes to sharing: Does it go to lowering emissions, saving the planet, to working together for a better cause? It’s an extension of that whole interconnectedness. To me, they’re almost better equipped to bootstrap a company. They don’t have that singular focus on the acquisition of material goods.

So how do midlife professionals who have mortgage to pay take a cue from a younger, very entrepreneurial generation and get back in touch with the innovative side of themselves? 
In my workshops, I don’t start out talking about innovation and being creative. I ask people to talk about what cool things around them they like. Someone might say: “Standing on a corner and getting a text message that your cab is one mile away, and your cab is number 118.” Here’s another example I like: At Disney theme parks, if a child drops an ice cream cone, an attendant will run up and take them to the ice cream vendor, who will put a new ice cream upside down in a cup, with a smiley face on it. These are examples of brilliant process innovation. It’s about making your customer happy in a simple but very different way. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Once people start realizing that innovation is that simple, it frees them up to be creative.

The Top 10 Workplace Trends Of 2013

Top 10 Workplace Trends of 2013

This year, through primary research through my company and secondary research by a variety of trusted sources, I’ve tracked ten major workplace trends affecting the world of work. They focus on the generational shift, the rise of freelancing, the skills gap and more. From a professional perspective, understanding these trends will give you the leg up as you make career choices. From the corporate perspective, these trends will help you make more informed business decisions. Here are my top ten:

1. Millennials will rise up. Despite all the reports of the poor economy and the high unemployment rate for Gen Y, they will start to get jobs again. They will become nearly 30% of the American workforce next year and that number will increase substantially in the next five to ten years. As millennials enter and boomers retire, new life will be breathed into corporations and policies will change rapidly.

2. Working from home becomes mainstream. We’ve heard some companies trusting their employees enough to let them work from home. In 2013, companies will realize the cost savings and the productivity increase and give their employees more flexibility. While in years past flexibility programs were viewed as a perk, they will become more standardized and expected. One of the best examples is Aetna. 47% of their 35,000 employees work from home and they have saved an estimated 15% to 25% on real estate costs at an annual savings of about $80 million.

3. Emphasis on employee engagement. Employers are still having major retention problems and it’s costing them a fortune. In 2013, they will focus more on employee engagement to increase their retention rates. An October survey by MSW Research and Dale Carnegie Training found only a mere 29% of employees are fully engaged. One example is when MGM  Resorts put on an entire show for their employees this month.

4. More boomers retire. The shift in workplace demographics is finally upon us. Boomers will start to leave the workplace and retire next year and it’s about time. This will free up positions for Gen X and Gen Y to take leadership roles. The question is which generation will seize their roles? My research next year may give you an answer to that question.

5. Intrapreneurship is embraced. Companies are starting to understand how entrepreneurial Gen Y is and in order to compete with startups, intrapreneurship programs will take off. Aside from EY, PwC, DreamWorks, Microsoft, Google and Facebook, LinkedIn has now created their own program called “[in]cubator.” Employees with an idea can organize a team and pitch their project to executive staff once a quarter.

6. Freelance nation booms. We keep hearing about the surplus of freelancers out there and it’s just the beginning. Next year, there will be millions more freelancers, replacing full-time workers. Companies will hire experts to solve problems instead of full-time employees and save on benefit packages. This is due to the economy and how corporations operate now. One third of American workers are freelancers, reports NBC News.

7. The skills gap shrinks. As of this year, there are over 12 million people who are unemployed and 3.6 million open positions, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. American Manufacturers have 600,000 unfilled positions and 34% of companies say they are having trouble filling open positions. I see this skills gap shrinking as new talent enters the workforce, companies work with schools to train the next generation workforce and people realize that they need new skills in order to get jobs.

8. Internal hiring takes off. It costs companies 1.7x as much to hire an external candidate. The top reason why millennials leave companies is lack of career opportunities. My research shows that companies are starting to give opportunities to their employees over anyone else. This also means that job seekers will suffer. Internal hiring is good for employee morale, saves them money and is quicker (weeks versus months).

9. Employees become social advocates. Companies will start to leverage their talent in order to recruit and market. They will finally realize that they can just use their employees to get the word out instead of wasting money on advertising. Companies will become publishers and in some capacity compete with the likes of magazines and newspapers. IBM, for instance, has 32,000 employee blogs that touch on every area of their business.

10. Women start to outpace men at work. One billion women will enter the workplace in the next decade. Research shows that they are more educated than men and many are saying that they will start taking leadership positions away from them. Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer are just the beginning. Look for more females to break into top roles next year and beyond.

Dan Schawbel is a workplace expert, keynote speaker and the New York Times bestselling author of Promote Yourself.

15 Stats Brands Should Know About Millennials

Saya Weissman

Like all new generations, millennials are often misunderstood. The rap on them is they’re serial oversharers in constant need of acknowledgment and feedback.

And, of course, some of that is true. But it’s just as true that this newest generation is an optimistic bunch who are trying to make the best of the economic climate and tough job market.

Here are 15 interesting stats about the coveted class of consumers who are also your employees.

There are about 79 million millennials in the U.S., versus the 48 million Generation Xers (born between 1965 and 1980). (ComScore)

Millennials will make up 50 percent of the U.S. workforce by 2030. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

23 percent of companies reported having heavy contact with parents of millennial employees. (Collegiate Employment Research Institute)

4 percent of employers involved reported parents attended their children’s job interviews. (CERI)

31 percent of employers involved reported parents submitted resumes on behalf of their offspring. (CERI)

27 percent of millennials are self-employed. (The Millennial Generation Research Review)

80 percent of millennials sleep with their phones next to their beds. (The Millennial Generation Research Review)

Millennials send about 20 texts per day. (Pew Social Trends)

15 percent of millennials, versus 7 percent of Gen Xers at a similar stage of life, said having a high-paying career is important. (The Millennial Generation Research Review)

The purchasing power of millennials is estimated to be $170 billion per year. (ComScore)

Millennial unemployment rate in January 2013 increased to the highest rate recorded for this demographic to 13.1 percent versus the national average of 7.1 percent. (U.S. Department of Labor.)

56 percent of millennials think technology helps people use their time more efficiently. (Pew Social Trends)

14 percent of millennials use Twitter. (Pew Social Trends)

31 percent of millennials said they earn enough money to lead the kind of life they want, versus 46 percent of Gen Xers. (Pew Social Trends)

41 percent of millennials have no landline at home and rely on their cellphones for communication. (Pew Social Trends)