The 2018 Amway Global Entrepreneurship Report (AGER) contains some advice for employers trying to retain talented millennials: Keep your technology up to date and make sure they have face-to-face time with their customers.
Forbes highlights AGER data
That’s according to a recent article posted on Forbes.com about the report, a biannual study commissioned by Amway on the intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of entrepreneurship.
The alternative for employers could be watching their young talent walk out the door to launch their own businesses – a desire shared by a majority of millennials who participated in the AGER survey.
Amway Entrepreneurial Spirit Index
AGER 2018 surveyed nearly 50,000 men and women aged 14-99 across 44 countries. The findings, available here, include the Amway Entrepreneurial Spirit Index (AESI), which measures the three dimensions that influence a person’s intention to start a business: desire, feasibility and stability against social pressure. The global average this year was 47 – but the index was highest, 53, for those younger than 35.
Within that AESI score was the factor that Armstrong homed in on: 59 percent of those younger than 35 expressed a desire to start their own business. Armstrong saw other hints in the AGER results as to why millennials might want to strike out on their own, too:
- About half of millennials globally think their country has the technology available to enable entrepreneurship.
- And 69 percent of millennials prefer working with customers personally.
Not everything is digital
That last stat was consistent across demographics – 75 percent globally – a surprising finding in a world where technology and selling via social networks seem to be proliferating, according to AGER.
Armstrong noted that, too: “In our digital world, personal service isn’t dead, which in part explains the rise of the serviced-based sharing economy.”
The founder of technology advisory company HERE/FORTH, and the author of “Disruptive Technologies,” Armstrong concludes that the AGER results show that the younger workforce is changing the way “work” is done and employers and beginning entrepreneurs alike should take note.
“One thing is for sure, flexibility is at the heart of the future of most businesses.”
See the complete 2018 Amway Global Entrepreneurship Report here. Read Armstrong’s complete article, “Why millennials really want to quit working for you,” here.
