Veterans or Millennials - Who Should You Hire? Any organization or team today needs to embrace diversity and form composite teams which have a bit of both

Veterans or millennials - who should you hire? This is one of the most debatable topics for talent managers in recent times and we are sure you have also thought about it at some point in time.

Millennials are the passionate, hardworking and extremely capable generation who see value differently than other generations, which are then translated into how their work ethic is perceived. While on the other side, Veterans are steady, loyal, can withstand pressure and use their experience to provide guidance and direction to this energy.

But do they fit in my business? – is the question every entrepreneur seeks an answer for.

The Aura

Sunity Choudhary, Co-Founder & COO, Asti Intofech personally prefers hiring millennials over veterans mostly because of their aura and the tendency to adapt.

The entrepreneur also notes that business landscape has been changing very rapidly over the past decade, where old ways of doing business are falling short. To sustain the market one has to be innovative continuously.

"New generation abounds in new ideas and energy. They like to be at the cutting edge of technology and are ready to put in more than 100 per cent to give their ideas shape. Fortunately, the Indian resource market has a surplus of millennials. All we need to do is to tap into this potential and nurture the employed resources for great results, Such things are unthinkable with a team predominantly veterans, " he points out.

Skilling
Ramandeep Arora, Founder and CEO, edWisor opinion echoed with Choudhary as he shares that he would hire a millennial over a veteran any given day owing to industry scenario.

He also thinks upskilling is challenging for veterans as against millennials.

"The current scenario in any industry would require its professionals to be on par with the latest technologies and developments. Most companies are now switching to technologies like Machine Learning, Data Science, MEAN Stack, Artificial Intelligence etc, thus making a demand from their professionals to be experts of these areas," the CEO shared.

Veterans + Millennials = Perfect Team

However, Dr. (Col) John Chenetra, President, SecUR Credentials feels organisation should grow out of the debate and look at the fresh picture.

For example, any organization or team today need to embrace diversity and form composite teams which have a bit of both. Therefore, millennials and veterans can make a good team

"The proportion would differ depending on the task at hand and the nature of the industry. This is exactly what most organizations are looking to adopt for building a killer team or what HRs refer to as Strategic Human Resource Management, Organizational Development, and Culture building," he asserted.

Therefore, Amit Vadera, Assistant Vice President, TeamLease services advice companies to examine – whether the candidate has a fixed/closed mindset or has an open-mindset.

"People with open mindset generally prove to be greater assets as they are constant learners, are open to new ideas and experiences, can cope with ambiguity and can, therefore, be groomed and nurtured. It is also important to check and ascertain the traits of confidence, curiosity and risk-taking abilities through proper psychographic assessment," Vadera said while adding that, "Confidence & Curiosity are foundations of career growth – while confidence grows with experience and having curiosity helps to take the first step and risk-taking abilities will help one achieve audacious goals."