By now, you’ve likely heard how large of a generation the Millennials are. Because of that, it’s likely you’ve even been working hard to attract younger people to your business both as customers and employees. If you have, you don’t want all that hard work to go to waste with them leaving shortly after they accepted the role. 

Millennials are often described as “job hoppers.” Part of the reason that’s said is that they know exactly what they want and if they don’t find it with you they know they can find it elsewhere. Because the job market is so good right now they’re able to pick and choose the kinds of companies they work for. 

So if you’ve made some recent efforts in recruiting members of Gen Y, or if you plan to, you don’t want to stop there. Make sure you run the kind of business that they want to be a part of. Here’s how you can do that:

 

7 Ways to Retain Young Talent

Move Past What You Do

Millennials want to work for a company that is making a difference in the world in some way, even a small one. Recruiters and HR generally do a good job of conveying this in the interview. However, when the employee starts the job and begins the day-to-day work,  the benefit of what they’re doing to make a difference can often be lost. Make sure your employees feel that what they’re doing is beneficial. Remind them at meetings, share testimonials with every person in your business, and tie every action back into who they’re serving and how they’re helping. This type of personification will help them feel like their efforts mean something and it will get them through the tough days that are a part of every job.

 

Give Them Something to Shoot For

The most common reasons people leave their jobs are because of a manager or because of a lack of advancement opportunities. If you want to retain young talent you need to make sure the advancement opportunities that are available to them are quite clear and the amount of time required to advance is understood. While you don’t need to give exact numbers such as, “in three months you’ll be promoted,” you should be giving your young talent an idea of how long it takes the average person to be considered for a new role or responsibility. 

If you know ahead of time you will not be promoting anyone before a 2-year mark it’s important you share that with them. While it may seem like it’s not beneficial to you to do so, and that it might turn people off during the interview process, it’s good practice in helping to weed out the job hoppers. Job hoppers can cost you a lot of money in training employees who don’t stay. If you make it clear that it takes people two years to learn the business before they can be promoted, you’ll attract the kind of people who have their minds set on the long-term.

Make professional development a priority. Whether your company pays for additional classes, sends employees to conferences, or even works with the local chamber to allow employees to attend chamber lunch and learns, publicizing your professional development opportunities is just the first step. 

You want to make sure that managers are taking the time to have goal-oriented discussions with their direct reports. These conversations should be business goal-oriented and individual/professional goal-oriented so that the employee knows what’s expected of them in the business and is moving toward fulfilling their own professional goals as well. 

 

Ensure They Have a Place at the Table

Millennials have been raised in an educational environment that involves a lot of group work and crowdsourcing of ideas. They are used to being asked for their opinions in school and this expectation will continue into the workforce. Because of this, and if you want to retain young talent, ensure that their voice is heard. That means promoting conversations with their manager, listening to them in staff and company meetings.

 

Let Them Know Where They Stand

While we could argue all day about the pros or cons of participation trophies, the reality is that this generation received awards for just showing up. That doesn’t mean you should feel obligated to give them an award just for sitting in a seat but it has set their expectations. So if they’re doing a good job they expect to hear it. Make sure you or your managers are taking time to tell your most talented team members that you value what they’re doing.

You may also find that some of them are very sensitive when it comes to receiving negative feedback or if you voice concerns about how they’re doing the job. You may have to deliver constructive criticism in a little gentler way than you have with previous generations but it’s still important that you give the feedback. 

Don’t ignore the opportunity for conversation with your employee just because you know they’re not going to take it well. If you don’t provide any feedback to them, there is not the opportunity to improve nor is there the chance to figure out what’s behind the lackluster performance. In these situations, you need to have a conversation. But be prepared to receive feedback on your role as well.

 

Make Them Feel Valued

Help Gen Y feel like part of the team. As you likely have noticed the younger generation really enjoys photo opportunities. They like to take pictures of themselves going about their day. You can assume at some point they’re going to take pictures of your business. This can be a lot of free advertisement. Make sure your employees have plenty of company swag. Apparel, desk items, bags, beanies, branded chairs, or a host of other branded things can ensure that you’re employees are promoting your business on social media.

However, at the same time you’re providing the swag, follow these other tips to ensure employee happiness and satisfaction. If not, your attempts at free exposure with branded swag can actually backfire. While Gen Yers love to take photographs/videos of their lives, this can be a challenge for businesses. Look what happened to Panera when an employee photographed how their mac and cheese is made. You’re younger employees will be less likely to do these types of things if they’re happy in the workplace.

 

Be Familiar with Your Reviews

There’s little recourse for a bad review on employment sites like Glassdoor. But you can do something. As you’re interviewing and deciding if this candidate is a good fit for your team, they’re researching you. Know what others say about you online. Sometimes a potential employee will share that with you in an interview. More often, they will simply make a decision without letting you know what they saw.

If you’ve seen some unfair reviews of your business online, bring them up in the interview. That shows them that you appreciate transparency and it also allows you to give your side of the review. However, transparency doesn’t mean brutal honesty. If the employee who wrote the inflammatory review has “issues” don’t share them with the new hire. Handle the situation with tact.

 

Be Flexible

Millennials are serious about work-life balance. They don’t want to put in long hours in the office or on the showroom floor. However, they don’t have a problem checking emails after hours. Most of them prefer to stay plugged in and tuned in but they don’t want to be at the office. That means in order to retain young talent, you’ll need to be flexible. You could institute flexible work hours, telecommuting, or time off for overtime worked.

Flexibility is one of the easiest things businesses can do to attract and retain young talent. Some businesses can’t function if employees are working from home, like retail and hospitality. But there may be things you can do to help with work-life balance. For instance, in both retail and hospitality the hours can be long. If an employee exceeds expectations, give them a few hours or day off to show your appreciation. These types of little time bonuses make a big impression on Gen Y.

If you can do these things, you should because these types of perks are difficult to walk away from. For instance, you may employ a young mom or dad with school-age children. Giving them the flexibility to come in early in order to pick up their children from school provides a perk that few companies allow (although we’ll likely see more of it in the future). Maybe they can get online in a couple of hours to work from home during the early evening hours. Again, those types of benefits make you the type of employer who is difficult to leave.

 

If you want to attract and retain young talent you have to listen to their ideas, make them feel valued, and show them how they can contribute to an amazing cause. These things may seem overwhelming at first, particularly if you’ve been in the business world for a long time. You may feel like you’re catering to them. But it’s the reality of how they were raised and educated. These things are expectations for them now. As long as there are businesses meeting those expectations, if you want to be an employer of choice among younger talent, you will need to meet them as well.