It is the time of the year getting prepared for performance review and appraisals. It is a common trend among organizations that millennials projected to make up more than half the workforce by 2025, employers looking to attract and retain top-notch talent need to better understand what motivates the millennials. Below are some notes prepared by our Millennials’ colleagues on the 5 most important aspects they care about for their career, and how they feel about the company they are working for.
—---
The Tech.
Millennials are born and raised around technology, we are a digital generation surrounded with smartphones, tablets, laptops, smart watches, smart televisions… basically everything is “smart” around us. The way technology revolutionized us has changed the way we connect and interact with one another and the rest of the world. We enjoy working in organizations which adopt the latest technologies, or the easiest, such as cloud communications and databases. Ideally we could access our work easily everywhere.
The Purpose.
Millennials are the generation that buys from and works for organizations that have a purpose at the core, and we want our core values to be aligned with the company’s one. A job does not mean just a paycheck to us, we are driven by purpose. Some of us are even willing to take a pay cut to work for a value-aligned organization.
The Salary.
Money isn’t a priority. When it comes to finding a career Millennials love, we are willing to put money on the line. When it comes to getting hired, six in ten of us didn’t negotiate the financials at all. Which means if organizations want to hire or retain a Millennial, flashing a big dollar sign next to the job title isn’t going to be the main means of persuasion.
The People.
We believe that the team, the people we work with are an incredibly important part of our experience and growth. We place significant value on the team, managers, mentors, and friends in the workplace.
The Growth.
Career growth is a constant necessity. The number one value for us in our careers is development. We seek to grow knowledge, experience, and expertise as quickly as possible. Feedback is a reinforcement of our impact, organizations need to organize recurring check-ins with the team, the frequency should up the game from annual performance reviews to twice or four times a year. Not only does this constant feedback help us monitor our career growth, but also it creates a personal connection to the team. Millennials don’t leave jobs — we leave managers.
Attracting & Retaining Millennials:
Create an environment so Millennials can develop friendships, make sure managers have time to connect and build relationships, like a community at work. Having close relationships with colleagues in the office will further help retain Millennials.
For SMEs, developing a great company culture, atmosphere, and hiring grade A team players are likely to be the driving force to retain Millennials; organizations can also consider sponsoring continued education or offer periodic training to keep us challenged and learning.
Trust drives Millennials' performance, managers set partial goals for ourselves and go over our accountability can help us discover more drive towards work as we will be focusing on personal growth and instill a sense of prideful ownership.
To avoid Millennial feeling no connection to or ownership to the outcome of our work and actions, organizations need to build a strong mission and embed the corporate values and culture into daily tasks. Making sure that Millennials see the vision, and communicate with us to explore how we can personally match our growth and skills to the mission of the company.
Organizations with strong corporate social responsibility are often top of the choices among Millennials.
Millennials want and need personal development, managers need to help us to access development; we are eager for opportunities, and would appreciate it if our managers help us strategize about what we want in our careers and understand what we need, from our perspective.
Actively investing in upskilling. Providing educational and professional development opportunities, both onsite, online, and outside of the organization. Offering benefits such as tuition reimbursement, student loan assistance, memberships in professional associations, and industry event attendance fees.
Millennials also like to feel like we are genuinely appreciated. Providing feedback about what we are doing well and constructively framing how we could improve or be a better version is useful and can motivate us. Set up a weekly or monthly meeting to review projects and make sure we are receiving the support and feedback we yearn for to keep growing.
Autonomy is very important to most Millennials, we like to be able to have a certain amount of freedom when it comes to determining schedules and processes; which allows us to leverage our strengths, including creativity, inventiveness, and problem-solving.
Showing gratitude is often a good practice for all leaders, but Millennials in particular value this level of feedback the most, providing individualized guidance and holding coaching conversations rather than merely assigning tasks or delegating responsibilities are important.
Millennials, more than others, require timeouts due to overloading. Implementing an open-door policy, encouraging mental health breaks can do wonders to relieve stress.
If you want to manage Millennials well, you need to understand how we think and build your engagement strategy around that. We crave a sense of purpose and like to see how our work is making a difference towards the organizational goals. We like flexible working hours, strong collaboration within the team and a healthy work-life balance. Overtime work and appraisals that come around only once a year would no longer serve the purpose, we crave continuous feedback and are ready to switch jobs when we do not see future growth prospects with a company.
If you have any doubts or queries, feel free to reach out to any of us here at DNA Recruit Partners. Our team is happy to assist you with market insights, learning and development advice, and career consultation.
Book for a free consultation today!