Millennials: Melodramatic or Misunderstood?

Here at Kaufman Rossin, we strive for a happy and engaged workplace for all of our employees, whether they are millennials who are early in their careers or baby boomers who have been with the firm for decades.  If you’ve perused our website, you might have noticed that one of our core values is fairness.  At Kaufman Rossin, that translates to taking the time to understand each employee’s specific situation and needs and giving each person an equal chance to succeed. In other words, “treating everyone fairly, is treating everyone differently.” Millennials, often miscategorized as melodramatic and demanding, are actually just the type of workforce our firm welcomes: self-starters who want to be treated fairly so they can make a difference!

Because I’m the firm’s Recruiting & HR Coordinator and a millennial myself, James Kaufman, CPA, Kaufman Rossin’s founding principal & CEO, is always pulling me aside to chat about how we can best serve our newest crop of young employees. His most recent address to the firm was centered on the generation that will soon make up half of the global workforce and that sometimes gets a bad rap. Currently, 46% of our firm’s employees are millennials, making this group the largest segment of our workforce.

The Kaufman Rossin Group has been named a Best Place to Work for several years in a row, in part because it enjoys great success with its millennial employees. In some ways, firm leadership is finding that this emerging generation’s ideals closely mirror the ones that the firm’s founders stressed from day one. It almost seems as though Kaufman Rossin was built with millennials in mind. “How so?” you ask.  Let’s play a little game using alliteration.

Millennials are…

1. Mobile – Many of our employees work a flexible schedule, travel between offices and, in some cases, are able to work from home. The firm’s investment in technology enables employees to stay connected, whether they work in Miami, Boston, San Francisco or the Ivory Coast.
2. Motivated – Millennials have been criticized as “lazy” in the media, but I believe just the opposite is true! Millennials are energized, innovative and motivated to succeed.  We want to do the best we can, and we want to do it now – and Kaufman Rossin gives us the tools and the environment we need to thrive. One of the firm’s mantras is “We work hard, and we play hard.” The firm rewards employees for good work, and every individual is empowered to shape his or her future at the firm.
3. Mission-driven – We want to make a difference in our communities and are dedicated to the idea of social responsibility (another one of the firm’s core values).  Kaufman Rossin holds an annual United Way fundraiser and our employees participate in the Corporate Run in both Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. We also host monthly jeans day that raise money for employee-chosen charities. Firm professionals are involved in more than 250 organizations in South Florida.
4. Mighty – The firm helps employees stay in tip-top shape, mentally and physically. Through our internal training organization, Kaufman Rossin University, we offer workshops, seminars and access to industry conferences to help employees grow professionally and sharpen their skills. We also have a gym, yoga classes and a masseuse onsite in some offices to make it easier to stay physically fit.

Millennials have been referred to in the media as an entitled, self-involved and sheltered generation.  To that, I can wholeheartedly say that we have been wrongfully stereotyped.  We are far from those things. What we are is a generation that is challenging the notion of success and how you get there. To reach our maximum potential, we need to work at organizations like Kaufman Rossin that value their employees as individuals, innovators and drivers for success.