A Few Secrets in Attracting and Retaining Millennial Talent

Dominate your Competition by Attracting and Retaining Top Millennial Talent

Let’s face it millennial’s have slowly taken over the workplace for the past decade. So, attracting and retaining millennial talent has become critical to the success of any business today.  Armed with different attitudes, creative talent and striking characteristics, millennial’s now outnumber Generation X and Baby Boomer generations.  This is the generation that has been labeled entitled, lazy and glued to their technology devices, but millennial’s are maturing in the workforce.    One major challenge businesses find in attracting and retaining millennial talent is they are not afraid of job hopping.  In a recent survey half of the employees surveyed say they are actively looking for a new job or watching for openings, and 35 percent of workers reported changing jobs within the past three years.

Why has attracting and retaining millennial talent so hard?    Why is this generation so likely to move from job to job?   Past generations held onto jobs, worried about how their resume would look.  Many of us have parents and grandparents who stayed with the same company their entire career.  This is far from the norm in the workplace today.  Millennial talent is not scared to change jobs on a dime.  This attitude is driven by the fact they are confident in their ability to find work in this economy and the need for good talent being at a premium. The more important factor is more now than ever the workforce is less engaged at work.  A recent poll found that only 30% of Millennials are engaged at work, but what about the other 70%?  The majority (55%) are just not engaged, so how emotionally connected or loyal are they to their current company?   The other 15% are completely disengaged, meaning in some way they are out to do damage to their company.

“When you have the right people, it’s rocket fuel for the business.”

Julie Walters,
Founder of Raremark

Businesses can’t afford to keep turning over the millennial workforce it is costing the economy billions on a yearly basis.  Having a tenured engaged staff helps businesses with customer experience and can drive a business.  So, what is the key to attracting and retaining millennial talent?  Keeping them engaged?   Businesses need to provide compelling reasons for them to come aboard and find a way to differentiate themselves from the competition for them to stay.   Here are some approaches in attracting and retaining millennial talent.

Security and Stability

Employers must facilitate a better work environment that drives a culture of job security and stability.  Corporate America has done a poor job in the past of showing loyalty to today’s workforce, which has help push the current lack of engagement by the millennial workforce and beyond.   More than half of the millennial’s that have switched jobs stated that job security and a stable company were very important in their decision to move to the new position.    They want to work for a company that is stable, poised for growth and a place where they feel they belong.

Flexible Work Environment

Every employee wants benefits and perks to their job.  But the millennials more than others value a work/life balance, they want a life not just a job.  The ability to have Flex-time scheduling and being able to work remotely at least part time are huge benefits to the millennial workforce.   Millennials love the idea of rolling out of bed to work or going to the local coffee shop to get caught up with work.  A recent study shows that employee engagement climbs significantly when they spend 3 to 4 days of the work week working offsite.   This gives, them a sense that the company trusts them to get their jobs done without micro-managing, leading to loyalty and engagement.

Unified Communications

The average employee utilizes 4 or more communications apps daily (Phone calls, texts, video/audio conference calls, CRMs, web meetings and more).  The promise of a digital workplace was supposed to help collaboration, make life easier and employees more productive.  But our application rich environment has created bedlam, slowing productivity and making work feel chaotic.  Throw in the need for millennials wanting a flexible work environment and the ability to work offsite the need to simplify and unify communications is more important now than ever.  A recent study showed that workers believed a unified platform would lead to achieve better work flow (67%), more productive (68%), make work more enjoyable (62%) and make it much easier to work remotely (65%).   A unified platform not only provides the millennial’s with the ability of working offsite, but it provides companies the right platform to communicate, collaborate effectively and generate positive productivity.

They Embrace Feedback

The days of quarterly or yearly performance reviews are a thing of the past.   Millennials demand ongoing and proactive feedback, clearly stated goals, along with an open line of communication at all times.  Regular feedback aligns the employees to the overall business goals, in turn making them more bought in to the success of the company and engaged.  The right unified communications platform can provide managers and employers with the ability to better communicate and collaborate internally along with tracking individual and team performance.

Millennial’s are shaping how businesses engage with the workforce and no doubt will continue to challenge the old way of thinking and doing things.  Utilizing technology like unified communications and creating a culture of open communication will help build the workforce of the future.  Traverse Technologies has a full suite of unified communications to offer with over 70+ vetted technology partners to help you attract and retain millennial talent.  When making any technology decisions give us a call for a free consultative evaluation.  Simply contact us today to learn more on how we can help you.