Like most people, you've probably applied a few labels to the rising millennial generation—lazy or inspired, entitled or principled, destined for greatness or doomed to underachieve. The specific set of labels that you’ve assigned to this group of young adults likely depends on your social perspective. But, unless you’re closely following the economic and demographic trends, here are a few millennial labels that you may not have considered: coworker, employee, or even future general manager of your dealership.

With more than 70 million in their cohort, millennials now make up the largest share of the American workforce, constituting more than one in three of today’s workers. In order to remain successful in the coming decades, the automotive industry—and your dealership—must accommodate the arrival and the rise of the millennial generation. And, while I hesitate to apply generalizations to an already stereotyped group, data and trends have revealed the following preferences, goals, and beliefs held by many millennial workers.

Technology as a Tool

Technology is an integral part of the millennial lifestyle. As digital natives, millennials are accustomed to using technology, including mobile devices, to get things done. And, many millennials have rejected the idea that all work-related technology should be provided by their employers. In many cases, they want to make their own decisions about what device, brand, program, and provider they use. Dealerships and dealership technology providers, then, must cater to the new bring-your-own-device mentality. As a result, their systems must be browser and device agnostic. They must support and cater to dealership employees that would prefer to use tablets or mobile phones versus laptops or workstations.

It’s not enough to simply offer high-tech tools for millennials in the workplace. Those tools must be intuitive, attractive, and easy to use. Millennial employees have a strong appreciation for good design and have little patience for inelegant solutions. To keep this group happy and engaged, command codes and other outdated modes of technology operation should be replaced by intuitive navigation and streamlined user experience.

Excessive, On-Demand Information

It wouldn’t be surprising to see a millennial working on a laptop, while using a phone to check social media, while engaging in an IM conversation on a tablet, while monitoring several web pages at once, while binge watching a series on Netflix in the background. As children and students, millennials used search engines, not encyclopedias. In other words, they have always been privy to volumes of easily accessible information and, to them, there’s no such thing as information overload. Millennials have developed an ability to focus on multiple inputs at the same time. In the workplace, this translates into a preference for easily accessible and up-to-the-minute business data and reporting. Dealerships can satisfy that preference by implementing systems that supply remote and mobile access to real-time data.  

Technology over Talking

Because technology has always been a part of the millennial lifestyle, it has significantly shaped the way an entire generation prefers to communicate. Rather than engage in face-to-face interactions, many millennials prefer to connect through technology. This communication style transcends personal and social relationships, and spills into business dealings, workplace behavior, and nearly every other aspect of their lives. Many technologies have been developed to accommodate a preference for digital communication in corporate America. Tools like Skype, Blue Jeans, Hip Chat, and Slack facilitate online interactions that the rising generation finds to be more comfortable and more efficient. Technology providers can align with those preferences by providing multiple support channels through online and offline mediums.

Millennials Want to be Heard

Unlike previous generations, millennials were educated in an environment that encouraged student input, feedback, and participation. As a result, many of them are not content to defer their opinions or to accept arbitrary cultures of seniority, tenure, and hierarchy within the workforce. Dealerships and dealership technology providers should proactively solicit feedback from millennial employees and product users, giving them a voice and a formal platform for sharing their ideas and for expressing their workplace preferences. In addition to providing valuable insights into employee and user preferences, these arrangements can also provide a communication channel that decreases resentment and frustration. At Dealertrack DMS, we convene regular meetings with a millennial subset or our workforce in order to understand their professional preferences and to solicit their opinions on our technology products. As part of our company’s culture committee, it’s up to that group to identify priorities and to become a part of the solution.

Adjustments Create Opportunities

As a growing force in our culture, millennials are having a major impact on our economy, our workforce, and the automotive industry. In order to stay competitive, dealerships must incorporate technologies that cater to the preferences of this new generation. The many labels applied to millennials may not accurately define their rising generation, but adjusting your business to accommodate some of their cultural and technological preferences could help define your dealership’s success by encouraging positive expressions of that culture on tools like LinkedIn and Glassdoor, which will be critical to the opportunity of recruiting quality candidates in the future.