Banker launches report on millennial employees, tasks leaders on innovation

The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) auditorium in Lagos last week played host to Nigerians from all works of life as a banker, Nduneche Ezurike, an executive of a leading commercial bank, delivered the report of his research report titled: “Employee MarketPlace: A Study of Employee Engagement and Workplace Innovation in the Millennial Age.”

The report showed how leaders can take advantage of the creative energies and talents of the millennials to achieve innovation within their organization.

The three-part presentation include: a video documentary of professional perspectives on employee engagement, theoretical reviews of the subsisting practices of employee engagement as well as quantitative survey report which the convener conducted in partnership with CIBN. The survey was titled “The Millennial Voice”.

Undertaking a review of the current practice of employee engagement, Mr. Ezurike questioned the practical relevance of some of the existing theories on employee happiness, employee motivation and employee engagement vis-a-vis profit- chain.

Citing recent researches in positive psychology and emotionomics, Mr. Ezurike cautioned that organizations seeking to create happy moments and fat pay cheques as a strategy for achieving improved productivity are in for hard times in the era of the millennials.

He advised that they should instead pay greater attention to creating enabling environment which harnesses individual talents in the work place. “In the era of innovation, there is little correlation between organizations with the highest wage package and its net productivity,” he declared.

Speaking further, Mr. Nduneche revealed that the Employee Marketplace is an engagement design which seeks to harness employee self-interest to unlock organizational benefits of innovation and business growth.

“Employee Marketplace” as a management model, he continued, provides a new paradigm on multi-teaming, employee self-interest and enterprise innovation.

Continuing, he noted that forward-looking organizations must deliberately renew their attention on the traditional three Cs: communication, collaboration and community, stating that since engagement remains essentially an emotional activity involving passion, empathy and creativity, efforts to advance digital transformation must first understand employee self- interest and emotional intelligence.

Mr. Ezurike later presented ‘The Millennial Voice’, a survey of millennials within the Nigerian banking industry.

According to some highlights of the report which was done in partnership with CIBN, 41% of the millennials state that competitive salary will make them put in their best whilst 59% believe that manpower development, reward and recognition will enable them offer their best service.

On the operating culture within their organization, 41% of the millennials express dissatisfaction with it whilst 11% express confidence in their corporate culture.

The report also showed that 41.4% of banks current employee engagement activities are focused mainly on employee awareness higher than product adoption (20.7%), regulatory information (13.8%), and change management (13.8 %|) respectively.

Later in the presentation, stakeholders representing varied generations bared their minds on the workplace conflict created by intergenerational gaps.

Biodun Adedipe, the MD/CEO of Abiodun Adedipe and Co commended the research stating that it is a unique and incisive effort in unravelling the seeming mystery of the generation X and their work attitudes.

Femi Awoyemi, MD/CEO, Proshare, said “the matter which had always been discussed in hushed tones is now brought to the center of agenda.”

He said the role of generation X should be that of supporter, facilitator and mentor to the young generation’ rather than competitor.

Charles Aigbe, President of Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks (ACAMB), lauded the depth of research undertaken by Mr Ezurike noting that it is in line with the association’s current effort to build the capacity of marketing communication professionals in the banking industry

Michael Ebia, a millennial and CEO of Ade Digital, who said he had never witnessed a conversation centered on millennials, praised the session as an insightful one.

“Overall, I now see a wide difference between collaboration and co-operation; I also understand communication more as listening to the millennials,” he said.

The term Millennials is usually considered to apply to individuals who reached adulthood around the turn of the 21st century. Millennials are estimated to constitute over 72 per cent of the global workforce by the year 2025, while over 50% of employees in the banking sector are estimated to be in the millennial generation.

The research initiative, according to Mr Ezurike, was designed to arm business leaders with the winning strategies in engaging millennial and Afrilennial employees as well as contribute to the global conversation on the role of millennials in the workplace, especially in mid to large organisations.