BY NANCY URELL
What”™s important to know about your organization”™s younger hires, the millennials? What do you need to do to attract, motivate and retain the best of the best?
Identified as the group of people born between 1980 and 2000, millennials will make up 50 percent of the globally employed workforce by 2020. Raised by supportive, involved boomer parents, millennials have different expectations of the workplace and their managers than the generation before them.
In 2013, PricewaterhouseCoopers executed the most comprehensive global generational study ever conducted, including more than 40,000 responses from millennials and nonmillennials across 18 global territories.
Here are this generation”™s top needs and what employers can do to attract the best of the best ”” and keep them on their payroll.
What are millennials”™ needs?
1. Work/life balance: A healthy balance between work and life ranks most important among millennials, more important than financial reward. This workforce is interested in increased flexibility, such as the ability to shift hours. The PwC study explains that millennials would gladly give up pay and delay promotions in order to have a more flexible schedule and more time for themselves and their own self-expression.
What can employers do?
Embrace a flexible work culture: To address these needs, companies can implement policies and practices that value and promote flexibility in their scheduling and work location. Companies should also provide training to their managers in creating a flexible work culture.
2. Teamwork: Millennials want a workplace culture that reinforces teamwork and a sense of community. Being part of a cohesive team supported by a culture of coaching and mentoring is critical to a millennial”™s job satisfaction and his or her decision to remain with a company.
What can employers do?
Encourage a sense of community: Create a team-based work environment where members learn from each other, provide peer coaching and feedback, and create their own unique opportunities to develop skills and build a cohesive unit. Meaningful work at a company whose values they share ranks high on the millennial criteria for job selection.
3. Transparency: Millennials value transparency, especially as it relates to decisions about their careers, compensation and rewards, according to the PwC study. Millennials also expect that they can provide input on their work assignments and development plans.
What can employers do?
Make yourself clear: Demystify your company”™s compensation decisions and provide greater transparency to employees regarding their career development. Offer flexible career paths and the opportunity to work globally.
4. Engaged managers: Millennials are committed to personal learning and development. They desire the opportunity to engage, interact and learn from senior management. Despite the perception that millennials primarily communicate by electronic means, frequent face-to-face feedback and recognition is a must for them.
What can employers do?
Provide regular feedback and support: In addition to the standard practice of annual reviews, managers should regularly offer feedback in order for this generation to monitor their progress and plan their personal development. Routinely acknowledge both large and small contributions.
Nancy Urell is the director of the Manhattanville School of Business”™ Corporate Learning Services, which provides education resources to help organizations stay competitive and recruit, retain and maximize their talent. To contact Urell, email nancy.urell@mville.edu.
