It is a well-known fact that millennials are all set to represent 75 percent of the global workforce by 2025. Having said that, for organizations, millennials hold the key to success in a highly competitive business ecosystem. For taking your business to the next level, you need some exceptional millennial talents to be on your side.
It is a well known fact that millennials are all set to represent 75 percent of the global workforce by 2025. Having said that, for organizations, millennials hold the key to success in a highly competitive business ecosystem. For taking your business to the next level, you need some exceptional millennial talents to be on your side.
There is no denying the fact that millennials come with exceptional talents, zeal, and exemplary skills that can offer competitive advantage to a business. However, it is also true that millennials are known for changing jobs too quickly. Parallel to millennials’ talent and skills, high attrition rates among millennials are also a highlight of this generation.
Besides, that clubbed with the era of ‘The Great Resignation’ makes it quite challenging for companies to retain their top millennial talents. From employee engagement to employee retention, millennials pose a complex challenge to HR professionals. But can you afford to see your top millennial talents switch to other companies? Are you ready to lose your competitive advantage to your competitors?
Well, you certainly do not want that to happen. Despite the fact that there is a plethora of job seekers in the job market, skillful and creative millennials are rare. Each millennial employee you have is no less than an asset to your company. Having said that, you need to have some effective employee retention strategies in place to retain your millennial employees.
In this blog, we shed light on the most effective millennial retention strategies. Besides, the best part is that these strategies are fabulously actionable, easy to implement, and quite inexpensive. So, let us get started without further ado.
Actionable ways to retain millennial talents
1. Promote leadership opportunities: Do you offer enough leadership opportunities to your employees? What you need to understand is that every employee loves the idea of career growth. Speaking of millennials, the appetite for career advancement is much higher in them. Millennials want their organizations to appreciate them and offer them fair advancement opportunities.
So, when you offer leadership opportunities to your millennial workforce, they will feel valued and empowered. This will give them a strong sense of satisfaction in terms of career growth. A leadership role may be as inconsiderate as leading teams during employee engagement activities. But for your millennial employees, it will be a sign of progress that will add to their motivation. This motivation will further pave the way for greater employee engagement and allegiance among your millennial workforce.
2. Enhance workplace learning experiences: As per Gallup, 87 percent of millennials are of the view that workplace learning is important. Workplace learning and development are among the most vital expectations that millennials have from their workplace. In fact, if you ask any sincere employee, they hold professional development in the highest regard.
Having said that, if you want your millennial employees to stay with you for the longest, you need to ensure that you are delivering valuable learning experiences to them. You need to find new, innovative, and engaging ways to add value to their learning. Some effective ways in which you can provide enriched learning experiences to employees are given below
- Introduce thoughtful mentorship programs
- Enhance learning experiences through gamification
- Bring Learning Management Systems (LMS) into the picture
- Offer flexibility in workplace learning
3. Be a purpose-driven business: Do you know that most millennials want to work for purpose-driven companies? This is something that HR managers and employers need to acknowledge. One of the best ways to make your millennial talents stay is to associate your business with a purpose.
To explain, millennials have strong virtues linked to corporate social responsibilities. They expect their companies to look beyond profits and contribute positively to social or environmental causes. To substantiate, as per Forbes, more than 80 percent of millennials want to work for organizations that have strong virtues for collective welfare.
Hence, if you want to boost your millennial retention rates, you need to revamp your company’s core values. You need to align your values and business objectives with virtues of social or environmental welfare for greater retention. At the same time, you also need to care for the internal environment in the organization. Remember, millennials denounce workplace ethical issues and they will not want to stay in an organization that has a negative or unethical environment. Caring for a purpose and a positive working environment will also help you in establishing your company as an attractive employer brand. Not only will you be able to retain your top talents but also attract new talents that are uncompromising in their desire to work for a purpose-driven business.
4. Offer greater flexibility: Flexibility is the new normal in the modern workplace. Now that everyone knows that remote working arrangements are quite feasible, employees expect greater flexibility from their employers or HR managers. In fact, a large number of employees are more than willing to quit their current jobs for an organization that offers greater flexibility.
To validate, as per Built In, more than 75 percent of employees desire to join an organization that offers flexibility. Speaking of millennials, flexibility is one of the biggest motivators. They feel that flexibility can help them facilitate a better work-life balance and also adds to their productivity. As per Deloitte, around 67 percent of millennials feel that flexible working arrangements help them achieve a better work-life balance.
Hence, if you are not willing to offer flexibility to them, there is little chance that they would want to stay for long. They very well know that there are many organizations offering flexibility if their current employer is not. Hence, they may not even think twice before they put in their resignation. Hence, flexibility is the need of the hour to ensure high employee engagement and retention in a millennial workforce.
5. Cultivate a culture of feedback: Last but not the least for sure is the strategy of fostering a culture of continuous feedback. Millennials want to keep evolving professionally through regular feedback as a catalyst for continuous improvement. For them, feedback is important for evolving, growing and getting better each day.
When they start to feel better about their progress, it adds to their confidence and gives them a worthwhile sense of belonging. Having said that, a culture of continuous feedback will not only create a natural learning environment but also promote greater inclusion and belongingness.
All in all, when you engage your employees in consistent feedback sharing and create a mechanism that helps them get better, they will reciprocate with greater allegiance. This allegiance will further be visible in terms of greater engagement and retention.
To encapsulate, it will take a millennial-centric approach to retain your top millennial talents. You need to understand what millennials expect from their jobs and then frame strategies to deliver on those expectations. In the pursuit of boosting millennial engagement and retention, the above strategies will definitely give you an upper hand.
