If you’re hiring millennials, you may want to ask around to see which ones might have come to the interview with a silver spoon in their mouths.

And if you’ve got a substantial number of millennials in your workforce, you should probably be doing more to advance their professional knowledge and their management skills.

A study from the Center for Talent Innovation says that “financially privileged millennials” tend to be job-hoppers. However, they comprise just 9 percent of all millennials. The other 91 percent may want to job hop, but they can’t afford to, the study says. And those young people report that they aren’t getting what they need in terms of training, knowledge and management skills at work.

The center gathered data from 765 millennial college grads in white collar jobs. The study’s findings have been published in book form under the title “Misunderstood Millennial Talent: The Other Ninety-One Percent.”

Examining data on the 91 percent who do not have personal wealth or lots of family money to sustain them in a job-hopping frenzy, the study drew the overall conclusion that their employers are just kind of throwing them in the deep end without a lot of guidance or training.

“Millennials are poised to comprise 75 percent of the workforce by the year 2025 and nearly half are already in managerial positions, yet employers continue to underinvest in this critical talent cohort,” says Joan Snyder Kuhl, co-author and fellow at the Center for Talent Innovation. “Millennials are the bench strength for leadership and, as such, are the candidates whom talent specialists and succession planners must prepare.”

Examples of this from the study include:

73 percent say that learning new professional skills is an aspect of intellectual growth that’s important to them in their careers, but 45 percent say they aren’t getting this through their work.
67 percent say that inspiration and motivation are important aspects of the rewarding relationships they want in their careers, but 70 percent say they do not find that at work.
64 percent say it’s important to have colleagues with expertise they lack to learn from, but half say they don’t have that at work.

The percentages become downright alarming when the responses from nonprivileged millennials are sorted by race.

“Six percent of black, nine percent of Hispanic, and 13 percent of Asian millennials without financial privilege say they have rewarding relationships and intellectual growth and challenge at work, compared to 25 percent of white millennials without financial privilege,” the report states. It notes that, when the responses of older millennials are examined, the negative trends are more pronounced.

“The underinvestment in this cohort undermines the long-term strategic goal of making leadership representative of the workforce and the marketplace it serves,” says Jennifer Zephirin, co-author and senior vice president of strategic outreach at the Center for Talent Innovation. “Millennials are the most diverse talent cohort, to date, and employers that successfully tap into this cohort will enjoy a competitive edge.”

Instant Insights /

Study: Employers ignoring professional needs of most millennials

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