Here are some surefire strategies to keep your well-performing millennial employees from hopping away from your company.
Huge corporations and small & medium enterprises (SMEs) alike deal with the most common manpower issue today: millennial employees who cannot seem to maintain long tenures in one organization.
According to the October 2015 Labor Force Survey, there are 42 million millennial Filipino employees who are part of the workforce. In the near future, almost 88% of employees will be millennials. Does that mean you’d have to accept the fact that you would be constantly managing resignations from these employees in the coming years?
Management systems being used today were developed in the 1980s. It was in that circa that human resources (HR) was first considered as an integral function of business organizations. This factor is another reason why your current workplace culture does not cater to the professional needs of the biggest pie of your workforce: the millennials.
Simply put, as an entrepreneur, you’re going to have to change your business and management approach if you want to attract and retain workers within the millennial generations. Here are 5 ways to strategically create a company culture that will make your high-performing millennial talents to stay:
- Provide regular feedback.
International studies say that millennials are inevitably driven by instant gratification, what with the constant notifications and comments they get from their social media platforms. Facebook and Instagram have impacted their lives so much that they are used to getting feedback as quick as they post their selfies.
In traditional workplaces, employees are used to having performance reviews every six months, which does not add up to how fast these millennials get attention in a jiffy in their online lives. Just like they want quick info from their mobile apps, millennial employees want to regularly know if they are doing good at their jobs and are actually contributing to achieving the goals of their companies.
The good news though is that honest and constructive feedback and comments about their performance do not always have to be given formally to these young employees. You can implement an “open door policy” where millennials are free to come in your office and share their suggestions. You can also shoot them a brief email sharing your pointers on how they can improve their processes at work, and send messages of appreciation for a job well done.
- Offer self-care activities.
The millennial generation is pretty huge on self-care and wellness. There’s a reason spa centers and short online courses are well-patronized today, because millennials value their opportunities to cater to and improve themselves.
“Millennials are actually very hungry in terms of self-development and self-nourishment,” said Mark J P. Aranduque, Marketing Manager of Venteny Inc., an employee engagement platform in the Philippines. “They want themselves to be more fruitful and advanced on a certain level.”
Purposeful Stewardship Inc. (PSI), an American-founded self-empowerment school established in the 1970s and introduced to the Philippines in 1986, offers short courses that aim to strengthen self-awareness in people for them to experience living an extraordinary life. This educational organization provides classes that may help your millennial workers develop their fullest potentials through fun classes on attracting desired wealth, improving one’s relationships by understanding one’s strengths and weaknesses, creating more balance in their key areas in life and learning how to develop positive habits.
Investing on the self-improvement courses of your millennial workers can make them think twice about leaving your company. You may enroll your employees at PSI thru https://psipoint.org/ and 0917 723 1976, or visit its academy at 6/F Soliman Corporate Center, Makati City.
- Give away perks and incentives.
Happiness is equal to productivity in workplaces. And for some millennials, happiness could be as simple as having a Zen space to rejuvenate their minds briefly from work, having a pet party where they can bring their dogs to the office, or being appreciated and rewarded with lovely perks for the milestones they have achieved for the company.
Venteny, a Filipino-founded employee engagement platform,delivers happiness through human resources technologies, perks and discount programs as well as financial solutions.
“We simply go to the offices of employers to study their challenges and then build tailor-fit employee engagement programs for their employees. We make their employees feel motivated in their everyday lives by hooking them up with reward programs offering 60% discounts on selected restaurants, hotels and clothing stores,” Aranduque said.
If you want to avail of Venteny’s programs, you may visit their site www.venteny.com for inquiries.
- Encourage your millennial employees to incorporate passion projects into their jobs.
Ypulse, an international leading authority on Millennials and Gen Z generations through surveys and researches, stated that “76% of millennials would rather have a career they are passionate about but doesn’t earn a lot of money, than have a high earning career that they are not passionate about.”
Millennials often quit their jobs in the hopes of eventually landing on their dream posts that deeply connect to their passions. If they do not see your company as related to their interests, they will see your business as a temporary stint that can put food on the table, but not as their long-term home.
You can address this by knowing what drives your millennial employees and engaging them in assignments that are close to what they love doing. If your IT officer is passionate about writing, then you may maybe assign her to handle your company’s blog. If your finance manager is into photography, then assign him to cover your company’s huge events. If your payroll assistant is passionate about volunteering, then maybe let her take on some tasks in your company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.
- Be open to flexibility and personal time.
One of the biggest reasons why traditional HR policies from the 1980s do not work for the modern office setting is that there were not much technological advancements during the 80s compared to today.
According to a study by Deloitte US, an independent firm available worldwide that provides audit and assurance, consulting and risk management services, the number one priority for millennials in choosing a job is having the time to maintain work/life balance by maximizing their gadgets and the Internet. This means that companies which are open to offering flexible schedules have better chances at snagging and retaining a top millennial talent.
You may inject flexibility into your company by allowing your millennial counterparts to work on projects from home or hours better suited to their lifestyles and productivity. Millennials tend to be more creative in comfortable work conditions, which will then affect your company’s performance.
When at work, give them some free time to think and have quick coffee breaks.These personal breaks allow them to rest their minds and return to their desks feeling refreshed, and ready to take on their huge tasks that can help you gain revenues. Take the time to get to know your millennial employees and their preferred time to juice out their ideas.