Millennials Must Continue To Work In The Midst Of A Pandemic

Illustration of the millennial group (Photo: Freepik)

JAKARTA – In the midst of Indonesia facing an economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government asks millennials to contribute to the national economy by working. This was conveyed by the Ministry of Manpower (Kemnaker) online entitled 'How to Boost Millennial HR During a Pandemic' which was held by the Manpower Polytechnic, Friday, July 30.

Secretary-General of the Ministry of Manpower Anwar Sanusi assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic situation is an important momentum for all parties, such as business actors, millennials, and educational institutions to come together and continue to work to support Indonesia's economic growth.

"Educational institutions, especially Polteknaker, must continue to be able to prioritize research and development that is programmed to increase the human resources of the millennial generation," said Anwar.

Advances in information, technology, and information are spearheading changes in various socio-economic fields. The millennial generation, Anwar said, must be able and adaptive to technological advances. They (the millennial group) are expected to be the nation's successors in facing changes in various fields of development.

The statistical number show that the millennial generation and generation Z are the keys to Indonesia's economic performance in the future. Meanwhile, business actors in the business and industrial world must also be able to manage and ensure that human resources are concerned with the potential of millennial human resources, so that performance and resilience are established.

So, Anwar continued, companies can continue to grow during the pandemic to help national economic growth.

"Through this opportunity, I hope that the millennial generation can make a wider contribution to the national economy," said Anwar.

Millennials are synonymous with technological developments and are easy to adapt. Millennials aged 18 to 30 have entered the workforce. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is not easy to ensure that they (millennials, ed) can work well in the company.

Anwar continued, research conducted by Gallup in 2016 showed that only 29 percent of millennial employees are emotionally and behaviorally connected to work and the company. This, continued Anwar, is certainly a big loss for the company because they only appear during working hours but do not provide the best for the company's development.

Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2019, noted that the millennial generation in the world of work occupies the first position with 33.25 percent in terms of population composition in Indonesia.

Next, the second rank was achieved by generation Z (29.23 percent), and the third position by generation X (25.74 percent), and the fourth was baby boomers (11.27 percent).

"These statistics show that the ability to maximize the millennial generation and generation Z is the key to the performance of the Indonesian nation in the future, in facing global competition as well as encouraging productivity growth which has an impact on strengthening the Indonesian economy," he said.