By now you’ve probably heard or read the term “millennials”
in a handful of news stories. It seems like this term and angle is getting lots
of play recently in the media. Even NPR has an ongoing broadcast about
millennials called “New
Boom.” As a millennial myself, I’ve taken an active interest in reading
about my generation and how the media and the world view us. The perception of
my generation runs the gamut from the positive descriptors – tech-savvy and
philanthropic – to the less than glowing description as an entitled, “selfie-obsessed”
generation moving from job to job as quick as we can.
This last descriptor of the “job hopping” mentality gave me
pause because I am still in my first job since graduation after more than 10
years; and, I can also name a handful of millennials in my group of friends who
are still in their first jobs right out of college. To top it off, a few of my clients have millennials in their workforce who have been with the company 10+
years. This got me thinking, there must be a trend story to counteract the
negative perception that classifies millennials as the job-hopping generation.
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| Leah (in green) in third year at C. Pharr - former client event, Plaza Style |
Whenever I’m working on developing any story idea for a
client, I focus on strategy and key messages instead of simply pursuing a story
because it’s “good press.” For this millennial angle, I asked myself: “Does
this story idea have any value for clients beyond being a timely story about remaining
at your first job? How does this idea relate to my client’s key messages versus
just good publicity?” I quickly realized this media pitch would be a good
opportunity for clients to highlight their engaging, positive corporate culture
that encourages employees to hang on for the long-term and promotes employee
retention. The story would prove to be a good opportunity to showcase their
company as a good place to work. And, we all know the underlying message here
for businesses – happy employees generally mean increased productivity and happy
clients.
I went ahead with my pitch and the end result was a business
feature in the Sunday
section of the Dallas Morning News. Read on to see what my clients,
friends and I had to say about millennials and why we’ve decided to stay put in
our first job.
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