How To Increase Millennial Loyalty In The Workplace
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Millennials are not job-hoppers. They stay with a company just about the same amount of time as the prior generation — 4.2 years in 2018. Considering a college graduate will spend over 40 years in the workplace, this equates to about ten different jobs in the life of a millennial. That is a lot of change.
It’s also costly for employers. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the average cost to hire an employee is $4,129, and the average time it takes to find a new employee is 42 days. This dollar amount doesn’t include the thousands of dollars it costs to train a new employee. Turnover is a significant drain on a company’s cash flow.
What Millennials Want
If business owners and department managers will treat millennials like they want and deserve to be treated, they’ll stay with a company for the long-term. What exactly is it that millennials are leaving one company for and hoping to find with a new employer, besides more money? They crave:
Respect. Millennials are a much-maligned generation. They’ve been characterized as wanting things handed to them on a silver platter, as having such a poor work ethic that they won’t take the initiative to help themselves and their employers succeed. This couldn’t be further from the truth. I know because I’ve worked with hundreds of millennials. If they are shown proper respect and courtesy, they are as loyal a group as you’ll find anywhere.
Meaningful Work. Millennials want to make a difference. They don’t want to perform mundane tasks each day for the sake of earning a paycheck. They want to know that they are contributing to the success of the organization and that the work they’re performing will be of benefit to the end recipient. They care about people more than they’ll admit, and they want to do the right thing.
Training. Millennials believe that a job worth doing is a job worth doing well. They’re willing to admit they don’t know everything, and they’re eager to learn what they don’t know. They want knowledgeable, engaging trainers to show them the best way to do their work; they then want the autonomy to get to it. Show them how and stand out of the way. They’ll get the job done.
A Fun Environment. If they’re going to spend the day somewhere, they want it to be someplace they enjoy being. You’re making a mistake if you try and corral them into a cubicle. Give them open offices with plenty of options on where they can set up to do their work. Have games available so they can blow off some steam during the day.
Shorter Work Days. Millennials are happy to break open the laptop when they’re not at the office. And they’d prefer not to be told to be there for 8 hours, especially if they have to attend unnecessary meetings. They resent having their time wasted. Let them work six hours a day with the promise they’ll spend at least one hour working remotely. And let them pick what time of day they’ll work remotely. Many of them are night owls.
These are some suggestions on how to increase millennial loyalty in the workplace. Don’t hesitate to run these ideas by the millennials at your workplace and ask them for feedback and suggestions on more ways you can inspire them.
