Ceren Cubukcu
Millennials are the generation born between 1980 and 2000. Currently, they make up almost 33% of the US workforce so one in three employees is a millennial. While millennials are highly educated and technology capable, they are unfortunately the most frequent job hoppers. Studies show that this generation generally stays in one job around 2 years. Employers obviously don’t like the fact that these employees are not loyal to the company and hop on jobs so easily and frequently. Therefore, they constantly look for ways to keep these employees in the workplace. Below are some tips to motivate millennials and make them loyal employees.
- Mentor Them: Millennials want to develop their skills and therefore, they need some advice and feedback. Keep them on track with frequent feedback. Don’t mandate them what they should do. Explain to them why they should do it. Also, if they want to do a task in a way different than yours and produce the same results, let them do it. Don’t tell them that they should do everything in your way.
- Offer Flexibility and Mobility: Work flexibility is very important for this generation. Since millennials are very tech-savvy, they prefer to work from anywhere with an internet connection in flexible hours. Also, they want flexibility in their job descriptions. Make a program for them in which they can rotate departments or different offices nationally or globally. Millennials are pretty mobile so they like to explore different places. If you force them to stay in the same environment for a long time or sit at a desk all day long, they will be unhappy and their performance will drop. Thus, let them be flexible and mobile.
- Invest in Them: Millennials want to grow professionally and advance their skills. They like company training programs or incentives for continuing higher education. They also like new challenges and solving these challenges. Provide them the opportunity to develop and use the new skills they gain by assigning them different projects.
- Let Them Use Social Media: According to a study made by Cisco, more than half of college students globally (56%) said that if they encountered a company that banned access to social media, they would either not accept the job offer or would join and find a way to circumvent corporate policy. Don’t forget that this generation likes to use social media to demonstrate their personal brand. Instead of banning social media, give them a similar environment such as a corporate chatter where they can keep showing their personal brand at the workplace.
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