With access to technology since a young age and a perpetual connection to parents, the millennial generation brings new challenges to the workplace.

At 11 years old, Kate Achille had a pager for her parents to reach her when necessary. At 13, she had a cell phone. Now 22 and working for a school, she e-mails her mother as many as five times a day and calls her on the cell phone several times a week.

Her mother, Jeanne Achille, CEO of Shrewsbury, N.J., public relations firm The Devon Group, says technology allows her to communicate regularly with Kate and her other daughter, who is 18. “I know where my daughters are constantly because we use these communications technologies to update each other: ‘I’m still at work,’ ‘I’m going to the gym,’ ‘I’m picking up dinner,’ etc.

“I would have never given my parents visibility into this level of detail in my day!” she admits.

But this is a different day. Kate Achille and her sister are part of the so-called millennial generation, now ages 8 to 29. This group, also called Generation Y and the Net Generation, is made up of 80 million people in the United States born between 1978 and 1999. They are the first generation to use e-mail, instant messaging (IM) and cell phones since childhood and adolescence.

Especially as millennials born since 1985 begin to show up in the workforce, HR professionals and psychologists are just beginning to see what effect the constant “tethering” to technology has had on the way millennials work, communicate, make decisions and interact. That effect, along with a tethered relationship to their peers and parents—sometimes to the extent that they have been deemed “helicopter parents”—presents challenges for HR professionals integrating millennials into the workplace.

For those who remember life without cell phones and the Internet, it may be difficult to understand how ingrained technology is in millennials’ lives. To prepare for millennials, it’s important to understand how cell phones and computers have changed their brain development, the enormous role their parents play in their lives well into adulthood, and what policies and training programs HR professionals will need to implement to transition these young people into the workplace.

Millennial Connectivity

Older generations that couldn’t wait to proclaim their independence can’t comprehend this generation’s need for parental guidance and influence. Years ago, “most college dorm rooms had one land line, and, if parents were lucky, kids called home once a week. Now, students may be going across the country, but they call their parents on the cell phone three to five times per day,” says Claire Raines, author of Generations at Work (AMACOM, 2000).

Another big influence on this generation is their peers. While previous generations also looked to their friends for advice and direction, today’s technology allows a perpetual connection to peers, leaving little time for autonomy. “Except for their mothers, these kids don’t have relationships with people outside of their generation. They spend 72 hours per week of connected time—by phone and IM”—seeking advice and input on the smallest decisions, says Jim Taylor, a futurist, author and vice chairman of Waterbury, Conn.-based The Harrison Group, a marketing consulting and research services firm, which has consulted for large companies on tapping the teen market.

What could be wrong with young people using cell phones and IM to keep mom and dad abreast of their every move? New research reveals a lot.

Scientists once believed the brain was almost completely formed by age 13. But, in the past two years, neuroscientists have discovered that parts of the brain—specifically the prefrontal lobes, which are involved in planning and decision-making—continue to develop well into the late teens and early 20s.

“The prefrontal cortex is important for decision-making, planning, reasoning and the storage of knowledge,” explains Jordan Grafman, chief of the Cognitive Neuroscience Section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Md.

That means millennials’ brains are still developing reasoning, planning and decision-making capabilities while they are depending heavily on technology—cell phones, IM and e-mail—as well as parents and friends at the other end of the technology. As a result, some experts believe millennials struggle to make decisions independently.

When parents give teens cell phones, it’s a double-edged sword. “On the one hand, this arrangement gives the adolescent new freedoms. On the other, the adolescent doesn’t have the experience of having only herself to count on; there’s always a parent on speed dial,” says Sherry Turkle, licensed clinical psychologist and professor of the social studies of science and technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

Stephen P. Seaward, director of career development for Saint Joseph College in West Hartford, Conn., agrees. “The majority of millennials never experienced life without a microwave, computer, ATM card or television remote control. Many had their first cell phones in their early teens with parents footing the bill,” he says. “This instantaneous gratification … may have fostered unrealistic expectations with respect to goal-setting and planning. That, in conjunction with extreme parental influence, can prohibit creative problem-solving and decision-making.”

A 2006 research report bears this out. Roughly three-quarters of executives and HR managers at 400 companies surveyed said that recent four-year college graduates displayed only “adequate” professionalism and work ethic, creativity and innovation, and critical thinking and problem-solving. Only one-quarter reported an “excellent” display of those traits in recent college graduates, according to Are They Really Ready to Work?, a report by the Society for Human Resource Management, The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

Helicopter Parents

While technology has enabled children’s dependency, it has also abetted parental oversight, making it easier for overbearing parents to “hover” well into adulthood. “Some hovering is good since some mistakes can be catastrophic. But small errors induce critical thinking,” and if children are not allowed to make small errors, they don’t learn through experience, argues Grafman.

“Parents’ most important task is to help young people to become independent and autonomous. When we infantilize our young, we stifle their development,” says Robert Epstein, visiting scholar at the University of California in San Diego, and West Coast editor of Psychology Today.

Epstein tells the story of a helicopter parent meddling in his college-aged daughter’s courses. “In class, I announced I expect hard work and sacrifice from my students and any professor who said less than that was cheating his students. This young woman’s father—a California Superior Court judge—sent a letter to the chair of my department saying his daughter was intimidated by my warning. His letter arrived on judicial stationery.”

Epstein brought the matter to the attention of the judicial regulatory board, which later reprimanded the judge. Imagine when this young woman enters the workforce and her father dislikes her workload, he wonders.

“Parental involvement in the lives of their offspring seems to be increasing every year. I’ve seen parents come to campus protesting a low grade. When I caught one student cheating on a paper, his mom called and demanded I let him write a new paper,” says Epstein.

Most colleges now hold orientation sessions for freshman students and their parents, separately. The parent orientation talks about how to “cut the apron strings.”

However, it often doesn’t achieve the desired effect, says Robert W. Wendover, director of The Center for Generational Studies, a research and training company in Aurora, Colo.

“The kids leave everything to mom and dad,” says Wendover. “The kids encourage it; they’re used to it. It’s easier to use the parent as a surrogate than to think for yourself. There is a point at which the child fails to learn resourcefulness. It’s a learned helplessness.”

Not everyone agrees this is detrimental or even prevalent. Barbara Dwyer, CEO of The Job Journey, a soft-skills training firm for high-school and community college students in El Macero, Calif., says, “This generation is closer to their parents than any other generation. They see their parents as friends. It’s a good thing.” Dwyer believes helicopter parents are a small percentage of the total parenting population.

However, many college professors and career counselors say otherwise. “Parents have called to set up interview appointments for their children. The students lose a sense of self-reliance,” says Toni McLawhorn, director of career services at Roanoke College in Salem, Va.

Helicoptering in the Workforce

As millennials move into the workforce, their hovering parents do, too. “Parents are writing resumes, applying to jobs and even attending interviews,” reports Steven Rothberg, president and founder of the CollegeRecruiter.com career site, headquartered in Edina, Minn.

Ann Reynolds, director of university career services at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, says she has received feedback from employers about “parents calling to find out why their child was not hired or offered more money. A few want to be involved in negotiating salary.”

Susan Revillar Bramlett, PHR, an HR generalist for a defense research contractor in Fort Wayne, Ind., and a millennial herself, “overheard a parent yell at the HR person because her daughter was turned down for a promotion.”

Wendover has another disquieting but increasingly common tale from a pharmaceutical company. “They had a 23-year-old new employee with a pharmacy doctoral degree show up for the first day of work with her dad. He wanted to see where she worked. The dad stayed for about four hours. The manager was aghast,” he says.

Another HR professional, who asked not to be identified, tells of withdrawing a job offer from a young candidate after he failed a required drug test. “Within 24 hours, his mother called me to say their family takes a lot of herbal supplements and we shouldn’t hold this against him. Then she kept talking about what a good person her son was and how he could do great things for our company. After I refused to discuss the situation with her, I didn’t hear from them again.”

When it comes to dealing with helicopter parents, there are two schools of thought: beat ’em or join ’em. HR professionals will need to decide to which school they subscribe and develop policies and procedures accordingly.

Some companies are courting the parents and applicants simultaneously. At many Enterprise Rent-A-Car offices, for instance, the company offers to provide information to the parents of prospective candidates, and about half of the candidates accept. Remember, though, any parental involvement should always be at the request or discretion of the candidate.

In contrast, if a company chooses not to communicate with helicopter parents, it will need to enforce strong privacy policies and train managers on how to deflect parental interference. The unnamed HR professional above refuses to discuss anyone’s employment with his or her parents. “I remain polite and explain we don’t discuss employment-related issues with [outsiders]. If they continue to push, I suggest they discuss the matter with their [child]. If the employee follows up with me, I say why it’s inappropriate, and I hope it won’t happen again.”

How To Prepare for the Millennials

Policies to manage helicopter parents aren’t the only preparation companies will need to consider for the millennial generation. Experts suggest HR professionals plan to: