Managing Millenials | Tips on Retention & Engagement

If your company is employing millennials, this means you’ve successfully wooed them with a laundry list that starts with career opportunities aligned with personal goals, and a brand of curiosity with a proven track record of internal hiring. Awesome start! But, how do you keep their attention? Try these proven employee retention strategies for managing millennials.

Keys to Retaining Millennials

Infuse inspiration into everyday interactions.

Millennials want to work with bright, creative, disruptive people in a 360-degree capacity. The occasional motivational speaker is their everyday reality on the TED Talk app. 

Ensure training has a grounded and futuristic element.
Skills must be transferable. If the information is only relevant to today, then there’s little to no perceived knowledge value and it isn’t worth retaining.

Reward the daily hustle. 

It’s the little things that matter like recognizing when their hands are up or their heads are down. Both are significant, so make them feel this way.  

Make work meaningful.

The “rhyme/no reason” approach is the fastest way to raise questions about lack of transparency. Show them why it’s done, and let them figure out the how.

Infuse Millennials into the company story.

Millennials want to feel like they are part of the fabric of every organization, woven in from past to future. Allow them to see themselves in the DNA of development and destination by giving them a seat at the table.

Mentor, Mentor, Mentor.

Millennials want to work for, with, and next to the modern day hero. Create a mentoring program that’s the envy of the Google and Apples of the world.

Millennials are joining the work force with more experiences acquired through traditional and new media than any prior generation. Their quest for knowledge and experience is a way of life. The absence of knowledge in the workplace will not deter them from seeking this elsewhere at home, at play, or at your competitor’s workplace. Millennial retention is a generational and operational risk mitigation and long-term employee loyalty strategy for your organization. What risks, if any, can you afford to take? None.