Talent Management

How to Enhance the Career Self Efficacy of South African Millennials

The primary job of a line manager is to unlock the talent in his or her team to optimise every member’s contribution towards organisational goals

BY: BRIDGET DE VILLIERS AND CHRISTELLE ROBERTSON

With retirement age extending well into the seventies and Millennials being a dominant factor in the workplace, people management is a balancing act, given diverse needs of a multi-generational team. To say that the South African workplace is challenging is an understatement.

As if that were not enough, the reality of globalisation and technological advancement makes continuous change and development the new normal. This has resulted from the integration of numerous technologies leading to artificial intelligence, online teaching, cloud data, robotics, virtualisation and smart devices.

Boundaryless markets and global competition adds to this complexity, resulting in less secure work and the need for employees to manage their own careers and personal progress. Employees and managers alike are challenged by this rate of transformation and the necessity to rapidly adjust to evolving work environments.

Millennials (born between 1980 and 1994, and currently between 26 and 40 years) will represent 75 percent of the global workforce by 2025. It is therefore important to learn more about this generation to ensure that they succeed and flourish in the workplace while contributing towards organisational objectives.

All employees need to be independent, self-directed and selfreliant to succeed at work. At the same time, employees require strong communication and interpersonal skills to deal with the pressure and uncertainty that characterises the 21st century workplace. Further, in order to survive and thrive in this environment, employees need to possess high levels of career self-efficacy. Career self-efficacy is described as an employee’s belief in his/her capability to complete specific tasks in order to achieve set goals. Having a high sense of self-efficacy increases the effort and perseverance that an employee has towards challenging tasks, thereby increasing the possibility that tasks will be successfully completed.

Considering the rising prevalence of millennials in the workplace and the importance of career self-efficacy in the 21 st century, the career selfefficacy of South African millennials was explored in a study conducted by Christelle Robertson, while being a Masters’ student within the Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences at the Nelson Mandela University. The rationale behind the study was that an understanding of the factors that enhance their career self-efficacy allows managers and millennials alike to leverage these factors and thus enable millennials to withstand and thrive in the volatile, uncertain, challenging and ambiguous 21 st century workplace.

The study took the form of semi-structured one-on-one interviews held with millennials. Gathering data in this manner allowed for the identification of themes or factors seen to promote career self-efficacy. In the study it emerged that the factors that millennials themselves perceived to exert the greatest influence on their career self-efficacy were growing conversations, studying and/or training, and performing meaningful work that was seen to be purposeful and significant, with each of these factors being underpinned by encouraging relationships.

Millennials found growing conversations with their managers empowering in approaching tasks. Growing conversations are described as “in the moment”, continuous coaching conversations that focus on learning from mistakes and failures through developing strengths to build capacity These conversations were seen as empowering as they allowed the millennials to know exactly what was expected from them, what the measurements for success were, what time-frame they had in which to achieve a specific goal, and how to improve their performance if they made a mistake. Even if these conversations were not overtly positive, the millennials still reported that they took the learning to heart as it assisted them in exploring alternative strategies to success. These conversations were not seen as one-off activities occurring when correction was required, but rather as a continuous engagement that took place at regular intervals. This continuous engagement strengthened the millennials’ perseverance and increased their dedication towards achieving set goals.

The second factor found to promote career self-efficacy was that of studying and/or receiving training. Millennials stated that they

felt equipped to succeed if they had some experience or training in a task, as this provided clear guidelines of what to expect and a sense of preparedness. An overarching goal for many of the participants was to achieve a tertiary education and they therefore also spoke of the obstacles that they had overcome to achieve this goal. Reaching this goal provided the courage and motivation to set even higher goals, knowing that hard work and preparation are required to achieve success.

Lastly, being passionate about and seeing the significance and purpose of their work was identified as an important influencing factor in determining career self-efficacy. Millennials stated that they would work exceedingly hard and persevere through many obstacles if they could see the difference made by their efforts in the lives of others, either in a community or through having a positive impact on the world. Being passionate about their work was likened to enjoying their work, but also through experiencing alignment between their work and their personal values and goals.

Strong and encouraging relationships were found to be an underpinning factor in all the above. In the absence of encouraging relationships, participants in the study indicated that the effectivity of the above factors on career self-efficacy was limited. This seems to suggest that connectivity is important for millennials. For example, growing conversations were perceived to be most effective if the millennial felt supported by the manager as this support made them more receptive to feedback. The millennials indicated that support went beyond that of received from the manager. It was seen to include support from significant others, such as parents and academics, which was seen to have a positive influence on their studies and careers, and in their lives in general.

Based on the findings of her study, Christelle proposed recommendations that can be used by organisations and individuals alike to explore, develop and promote strategies to drive millennial career self-efficacy. These recommendations include: • Leaders of organisations need to instil a culture of continuous improvement and high performance in organisations by holding regular coaching conversations with their managers which will equip them to better manage millennials and promote their career self-efficacy. • These managers need to hold regular growing conversations with their millennial employees. Managers need to be equipped to hold difficult conversations in which honest feedback and encouragement are provided when confronting poor performance. To build career self-efficacy, these conversations should address specific performance issues, be developmental in nature and build trust and open communication. • Failure is an inevitable part of everyone’s life. Leaders and managers can assist millennials to view incidents of failure as normal and as stepping stones in the journey to success. Leaders and managers should openly talk about their own personal failures and the lessons learnt in this regard. This will encourage millennials to manage their own reactions and attitudes towards failure, while bolstering their self-belief to take on more challenging tasks previously avoided. This will result in increased motivation and enhanced job performance. • Millennial employees need to receive relevant training to provide them with the confidence to attempt new tasks. The training could take the form of on-the-job training, formal and informal training sessions, and advice from a peer or mentor who has a vested interest in the success of the millennial employee. • Partnering the correct mentor and mentee is vital in positively

Three factors influencing career self-efficacy are growing conversations, studying and/or training, and performing meaningful work, underpinned by encouraging relationships.

influencing the millennial’s career self-efficacy. Mentorship requires intentional sacrifices of time and energy from both parties to the relationship. Millennials will disengage from the relationship and experience a decrease in career self-efficacy if they perceive themselves as a burden or inconvenience to their mentors. • Studying towards a specific career also bolsters the career selfefficacy of millennials. In this regard, millennials need to take responsibility for their careers and ensure that they are adequately equipped to achieve success by completing relevant studies. These studies could include formal tertiary education, internships, online training, watching YouTube videos and being exposed to specific tasks or jobs in the workplace. Self-development needs to be a priority, while development from the organisation seen as additional support. • The study indicated that millennial employees do not shy away from hard work and are driven to achieve success. However, they require adequate information and guidelines in the form of clear job descriptions, instructions, timelines and measurable goals. Clear communication in this regard will provide millennials with a sense of purpose through understanding the significance of their work in relation to organisational objectives. • When providing specific job descriptions is complicated due to continuously evolving roles in a fast-changing environment, clear goals and the desired outcomes of tasks are nonetheless required. Through providing this information millennials can develop and implement strategies to achieve goals. This is strengthened by providing appropriate feedback at regular intervals to direct their focus and enthuse them towards achieving set goals. • Connectivity is essential to millennial employees. The abovementioned interventions stand to be more effective if a trust relationship exists between the employee and the manager. Having an open-door policy and investing in the relationship with the millennial employee will improve organisational morale, enrich motivation and enhance productivity.

The 21 st century workplace in South Africa is becoming increasingly challenging, requiring that employees are robust and resilient and possess high levels of career self-efficacy. With this study providing a greater understanding of the factors driving career self-efficacy among millennials, managers can implement interventions and strategies to influence the career self-efficacy of millennials in a positive manner. It furthermore provides millennials with a greater understanding of what drives their career self-efficacy which will allow them to proactively take responsibility for their own actions and success.