The following article originally appeared in EO’s award-winning Octane magazine. For more insightful articles from entrepreneurs, visit Octane magazine online. 

By Susan Michel, founder and CEO of Glen Eagle and an EO New Jersey member

The influx of millennials into the workplace is providing today’s entrepreneur with a number of new challenges and opportunities. As you add more and more millennials to your team, you should be prepared to answer the question: Are you ready for a more participatory workforce with strong needs to both grow and contribute? If you answered “Yes,” then you understand how influential millennials can be in creating a more competitive and inquisitive workplace.

As a group, millennials—75 million of them in the U.S. alone, ages 19-35—are digital natives who yearn to learn and grow on the job. What’s more, they have their fingers on the pulse of the consumer marketplace, with US$1 trillion in buying power. Millennials are a talent pool with a lot to offer, and it is up to us as business leaders to successfully recruit, engage and retain them. This will mean shedding a hierarchical mindset that many of us use, and instead conveying a vision that welcomes a diversity of ideas and the opportunity to be part of a team. (more…)