The millennials challenged

If you happen to be a job-seeking “millennial,” chances are you might be a newbie in the job market or on your second or third job all within the last five or six years at an average of two years per company. Sadly, today’s millennials have become the equivalent of migratory birds seeking ideal weather, better feeding grounds until the time they need to build their nests on something more stable and long term. But for now most millennials would be looking for a job that is urban-based, located in a business center, a positive and flexible work culture and a climate controlled atmosphere where you don’t have to get dirty, sweaty or otherwise ruin your fashion statement. Ideally you want to be in an organization that is global, offers fast growth, multiple training and travel opportunities and of course a competitive compensation package. Like most young Urbanites you want your favorite coffee frappe, pastry and WiFi because in your generation everything is about connectivity.

The job-seeking millennial often presumes that their ideal job or career path lies within the corridors of glitzy, glamorous or impressive companies who are household names or known for their branding, prestige products and public relations. So they end up missing out on companies that offer as much opportunities and growth. I recently discovered how some young professionals used their powers of observations studying a company and ended up finding jobs with a future and lots of fulfillment. While many of their batch mates or contemporaries lined up to fill corporate vacancies, these millennials from Ateneo, La Salle and UP defied the norm and misconceptions about working for an animal feeds company and signed up with B-Meg. This is quite a departure from the past when only veterinarians and graduates of animal husbandry or nutritionists and the “cowboy types” would apply. Their ages range from 23 to 25 years old, and they previously worked for a non-agri or feeds company, while the other half of my interviewees were between 30 or 40 years old and were “settling in” as far as employment migration is concerned. The one thing they all had in common was they studied B-Meg as a company.

The first positive sign they saw was how many employees of BMeg had been with the company for at least 10 years. One respondent added that when she asked around she learned that BMeg Feeds as a company and business unit had the lowest turn over of employees. “It really got my attention because they must have been doing something that made people stay long term.” The ladies also shared how they were told from the start that “the culture of the feeds business is down-to-earth.” In contrast to the fashionista culture in large corporations, feed companies like B-Meg revolves around simple and practical fashion and lifestyle.” This for them was liberating and freed them from the stress and major expense of constantly making a corporate fashion statement.

Even though my interview subjects were millennials, they were still Filipinos and they all saw and appreciated the prevailing sense of “family” within the business unit. Unlike most corporations where individuality and aggressiveness is rewarded, agri-based companies such as B-Meg thrive on relationships internally and externally. It is not often that you hear an employer go out on a limb and support an employee who required long-term treatments for cancer or co-employees passing the hat for a stroke victim even when the company was helping out financially.

On a different angle the culture of “family” is also manifested in how senior executives nurture and encourage growth among the newbies. Making it easier for millennials to grow their wings in such a nurturing environment. One of the young ladies who graduated in agricultural economics from UP shared how she had come in doing administrative work analyzing sales data and being under the wing of the most senior executive of the company. For a couple of years, the newbie was getting a lot of training on “business planning” and worked directly for the boss. Then one day the millennial expressed her desire to join the marketing department! Opting to leave the boss would have been frowned upon in other companies but instead the millennial got the support and endorsement of their boss.

The youngest of the bunch told me that the greatest attraction for her to work with BMeg was the stream of training and learning opportunities on the job and out in the field. I found out from a senior executive that people in marketing go on two to three trips a month while most employees have one to two trips a month because B-Meg’s market are all outside Metro Manila. This is probably why employment migration or turn over is also low. You’re never trapped inside four walls.

A middle manager told that he was typical of the migratory employees but as he matured his priorities changed and with that the need for stability and vision became a pressing need. Like the other respondents he too studied BMeg as a company and saw that the company was growing and expanding like never before. Unlike past decades when B-Meg was just one of the many business units under San Miguel Corp., the new leaders under Mr. Ramon Ang have placed more focus and multi-billion peso investments on B-Meg to quadruple their production capacities, expand their sales network and to aggressively market the B-Meg brand and numerous animal feed products. Relative to this, B-Meg will also be expanding and recruiting their personnel compliment to double if not triple their numbers while continuously increasing and improving training programs and market exposure for their team members. Instead of looking for “cowboy” types, B-Meg is now looking for or developing people to have the confidence and professionalism of marketing experts.

Before you think of knocking on their doors, you better stock up on your marketing knowhow, patience in documentation and administrative skills, people skills as well as knowledge in branding and product development because: “Now is the best time to be part of the B-Meg Team.”

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