MILLENNIAL MENTORS

JUNIOR OFFICE WORKERS once had a fairly predictable set of daily tasks. Write the sales memo. Build the PowerPoint, make the coffee.

Now, many young professionals have a new mandate : *Drag the boss into the 21st century*.

While businesses chase evanescent market trends and grapple with a fast moving future, millennial mentors, as many companies call them, have emerged as a hot accessory for executives.

Young workers, some just out of college, are being pulled into formal corporate programs to give advice to the top ranks of their companies.

Millennial mentorship programs represent a formalized mildly absurdist version of the advice junior workers have been giving their older colleagues for ages.

Some executives want the views of young people on catering to new markets and developing new products, while others seek glorified tech support -Snapchat 101, Twitter tutorials and emoji lessons.

These programs are not just a departure from the business world's traditional top-down management style. They are also a sign of how perplexed some executives are by the young people in their midst.

Companies like Mastercard, Cisco systems and Mars Inc. have experimented with these mentoring programs. Inga Beale, 54, the chief executive of the Insurance marketplace Lloyd's of London, has said that her junior mentor-

Who is 19 has ''a totally different perspective'' and leaves her ''inspired''.

Melanie Whelan, 40, the chief executive of SoulCycle, holds monthly meetings with her younger mentor, whom she has credited with helping her get ''hip with what the kids are doing these days.''

''It's like reconnecting with your lost youth,'' said David Watson, 38, a managing director at Deutsche Bank who has mentored by Fernando Hernandez, 29, an engineer in the Wall Street bank's global markets technology division.

He credited Mr. Hernandez with good tips for retaining young employees like giving them more flexible work-from-home arrangements and with helping him spot trends in the financial tech industry.

''It's valuable information,'' Mr. Watson said.

''When you're making decisions about budgets, or priorities, or hiring, you can actually put into practice what you learned.''

It was perhaps inevitable that older executives would turn to their young employees for advice.

As technology has changed the way businesses run, it hasn't also put power in the hands of digital natives, and left older, less-tech savvy executives angling for ways to keep up.