Talent mobility and Millennials are the perfect combination

Companies that opened new markets are currently sending younger workers to several countries. The mobility of talent is a reality, and skilled employees are transferred where organizations believe it’s convenient. This is a perfect panorama for Millennials, an active generation which is thirsty for knowledge, that starting 2020 will make up 50% of the workforce worldwide.

Millennials have made a difference regarding their parents’ generation. According to a study by the PwC consultancy, while older generations were happy to work in their home country, 80% of Millennials surveyed said they want to work abroad. As well as 70% of them expects to use non-native languages in their careers.

A Mercer survey revealed that 48% of employees assigned to international tasks are under 35 years of age. In addition, the survey points out that this percentage will rise to 51% in the next two years.

Millennials will be the basis of talent mobility

Millennials hope to have more participation each day in a misión abroad to help fulfill their professional ambitions, according to a research by the RES Forum.

Unlike Baby Boomers and Generation X, Millennials will have the most international assignments in the next decade. While both previous generations are worried about the creation and maintenance of pension rights, youngsters around 30 years old will be taken into account under the initiative of mobility of talent.

In a globalized world, Millennials look for opportunities to develop their careers. Likewise, companies bet on them for mobility of talent because:

• Their priority is to achieve their goals as weill as happiness. For them, it is essential to be integrated into working life.
• They are ready to try different roles, and even to change jobs whenever they don’t feel comfortable.
• Improving their knowledge and skills is among their objectives, in addition to adding new tools.
• They focus on interests and opportunities, not necessarily in monetary rewards. We foresee for them a fundamental change in the duration of the assignment, the type of package and the value.
• They see the need to save significantly for their retirement.

Significant features

Millennials and the strategic initiative of talent mobility are the perfect match. While companies expect to see their new businesses grow abroad, the generation born between the 1980s and the 2000s wants to take on new roles.

According to Mercer, 98% of Millennials believe that assignments abroad offer them new opportunities and the development of their careers. 61% of them see it as the possibility to meet new countries and cultures, 32% say that it is a new window for learning and studying, while only 27% say that it serves to get a better salary.

In general, there are three characteristics that make Millennials the ideal generation for mobility of talent:

1. They have an entrepreneurial perspective. They understand that flexibility is critical for the growth of their career. Global assignments provide them with new skills and experiences. Similarly, they consider shorter assignments with the possibility of making business trips.
2. They are comfortable with technology. They use it as a tool to locate themselves in the country where they work. This represents an advantage for global mobility because it increases the fluidity of communication and allow organizations to keep in touch with their employees abroad.
3. They have fewer ties. As they are younger workers, statistically, they are more likely to be single and without children. This makes more viable and less expensive for the company to relocate the professionals in another country.

An interesting fact is that 91% of multinational companies employ Millennials in their globally mobile workforce.