How Walkers Attract and Develop MillennialsBy Inga Masjule, Global Executive HR Director, Walkers

The buzz word ‘Millennial’ refers to person that reached young adulthood around the year 2000 (born after 1981) and the term has been around for a number of years. A 2011-2012 study by the London Business School and the University of Southern California noted, among other aspects, the following:

1. Millennials want everything now

2. Millennials are far more globally orientated than the previous generations

3. Millennials are very adept at using and leveraging technology to make life more flexible, easier and more efficient

4. Millennials feel more socially responsible than previous generations

Walkers uses the above four ‘truths’ when putting in place our talent management strategy. Currently 32% of all staff in the Cayman office can be broadly classified as millennials. From our support staff to our future lawyers, we try to engage with our millennials to help attract, retain and nurture talent in the following ways:

1. Involving millennials in business decisionsAt Walkers we ensure that our millennial staff get access to senior members of the management teams (of our practices, departments and of the firm). Our open door policy ensures there is a welcome environment where ‘juniors’ and ‘seniors’ are

able to converse as and when it is needed. Furthermore, we actively seek out millennial input on important issues - online and offline marketing and business development concepts, social responsibility, as well as myriad commercial and professional deal making discussions. For example, our recent recruitment advertising campaign, (one of the ads featured above), was created based on the idea from a millennial!

2. Allowing millennials to think globallyWalkers has eight offices around the world and we actively encourage our staff to pursue short and long term secondment opportunities within our firm and, where opportunities arise, we encourage staff to look for secondment opportunities with clients. We currently have over 10 members of staff on secondment at various offices and companies around the world and another articled clerk due to go on a secondment opportunity into a top Chambers in London.

3. TechnologyThe initial adopters of technology at Walkers are always almost all millennials and so we use them in our pilot groups

and evaluation teams. We provide our staff with mobile technologies, which allow

them to access important applications wherever they are: office, home, airport or conference. It’s not about a doctrine of ‘Work 24/7’ but rather to work smarter and more efficiently. Social media is another space where we are looking at utilising our millennials’ expertise for knowledge sharing, talent attraction and possible business development.

4. Social responsibilityWalkers is very proud of our Charity programme and community involvement and we could not do it without our millennials. This year alone our ‘juniors’ have been involved in Earth Day, sponsored fun runs, spent countless hours volunteering and meeting with and selecting the future charities that Walkers will sponsor for 12 months. Around the world, our offices have the same attitude with many staff members raising money for charity and getting involved with local community projects.

The old paradigm of work hard, sacrifice your personal life for work and you will

be rewarded is over. The new, but not the newest, generation in the work force have very different values to their parents and the current leaders of industry. Part of the challenge is to educate managers so that they are aware of the current needs and requirements that their younger colleagues have. Recruitment, training, evaluating and rewarding are now very different practices within the HR disciplines than they were 10 or 15 years ago. We need to constantly adapt, try, measure and evaluate new concepts to keep our work force happy and working well.

BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS | CAYMAN ISLANDS | DUBAI | HONG KONG | IRELAND | JERSEY | LONDON | SINGAPORE Global Legal Solutions

Self-absorbed, lazy, uncommitted and disloyal are words often used by baby boomers to describe millennials in the workplace. These myths, however, are grossly unfair. Millennials are now integral to well-run business operations and are the future leaders in the work place. They just need to be better understood in order to become those company leaders.

Inga MasjuleGlobal HR Executive Director

Inga has worked in the field of Human Resources for over

20 years and has broad experience in recruiting, developing and managing personnel in professional services across the international domain. Inga is responsible for all people-related matters at Walkers, including recruiting, training and professional development, secondments, compensation and benefits, HR administration and HR systems for partners, lawyers and business support staff across Walkers global network.

www.walkersglobal.com

Currently 32% of all staff in the Cayman office can be broadly

classified as millennials.