Since the turn of the decade, millennials have been a growing presence in the Philippine workforce. According to the April 2016 Labor Force Survey by the Department of Labor and Employment, 44.3% of the Philippine working class solely belong to the millennial generation. The generation has also already entered middle and senior level management positions. A PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) study published that, by 2020, millennials will form 50% of the workforce all over the world.
This means that your business' growth in the coming years will depend on how you can leverage this millennial workforce.
Bea Lim, managing director for strategic integrated marketing communications agency TeamAsia, says in a recent talk that by creating an empowering corporate culture, millennials will be encouraged to take bigger responsibilities in your organization - which helps the company achieve its goals in the long run.
Through her direction, TeamAsia now hosts a family of some of the most passionate, creative minds, with 80% of its team composed of millennials. Moreover, corporate culture starts from the top, and this begins by setting a vision and direction for the company that leverages its team’s passion and skills. “I think the challenge for me was to use what I know about my generation to be able to create a fun, safe and meaningful environment for our team to flourish and grow,” Bea said.
She defined the three components that leaders should have in order to accomplish this: the Team, the Culture, and instilling Commitment within the people.
Team
Bea believes that teamwork is key to achieving a shared vision. She believes that she was able to do greater things for the company because of a strong management team that shared the same vision and heart as hers and Monette Iturralde-Hamlin, the agency’s founder and president. She believes in the idea of continuous, sustained development for the various teams within the agency where they develop not only their skills, but their passions in line with the company’s mission and vision.
She says that a team who believes in the same goal is essential in putting forth an inclusive and collaborative culture.
Culture
Instilling a corporate culture that resonates with everyone begins with “walking the talk”. People in the organization - especially millennials - take heavily from the examples set by their leaders. It is important that a culture of mutual respect and a commitment to continued learning and growth is cultivated across the organization. When the agency’s managers lead their teams to bring brands to the next level of experience every day, as it is TeamAsia’s mantra, teams will then follow the example and live by this mantra in everything that they do.
Commitment
As Bea would always say, commitment is what ties everything together. All the integrated marketing communication campaigns that TeamAsia runs are empowered by a unified commitment by the team to bring brands to the next level of experience. Not only that, each person in the agency shows commitment to the next person beside them, and that it is each person’s commitment to serve and care for each other.
Take-aways in Culture-Building
Generational labels are nothing more than labels. Bea exemplifies this within the agency through a sustained organizational development plan that involves both upskilling, and establishing and reestablishing the values of the company. The success of this continuous development is seen in the positive working environment, giving way for more seamless collaboration.
Also, it is essential that a corporate culture bridges the gaps, instills a sense of belonging within each person in the organization, and promotes a safe environment where people can contribute and work together as teams.
By doing so, organizations will be able to inspire its people to share more of their talents and ideas, and to empower millennials to become next generation leaders your organization needs them to be.
