Businesses have a love-hate relationship with millennials. You love them because they bring a different kind of creative energy in the workplace. You hate them because just before their creative energy gets maximized, it’s gone, as they move to the next job. Say what you like about chronic job-hopping and the psyche of millennials, but they’re a bad loss when they leave your business. You miss a great potential. You suffer the high costs of replacing an employee. With that said, prioritize retaining these chronic job-hopper generations in your business — here’s how to do it:
1. Give them learning opportunities
Millennials see their workplaces as avenues for growth. In fact, according to surveys, it’s among their top priorities when deciding whether to stay or not at an organization. So, if you want to keep your millennial-employees, it’s important to offer skill-building programs as part of your corporate culture. This can manifest in different ways. For one, you can provide opportunities for mentorship. Let them be on training under competent leaders at your company, so they could see that there are so much to learn in the business.
Another thing you can do is training sessions per department. Peer discussions would greatly help in drawing out different insights on different career matters. Of course, you may also consider sending them to conferences outside your company, even outside the country. All these opportunities to grow and learn will be huge perks a millennial can’t say no to.
2. Prevent burnout
Contrary to what most people think about millennials, the Gen Y are hard workers, to the point of the majority being obsessed workaholics and job perfectionists. They can’t even ‘unplug’ when on official leave, fearing that they might miss an email or whatnot. As you know, millennials are very much influenced by the flawless world of social media, and that to achieve the jetsetting lifestyle, they need to work hard and be financially secure. As a result of hustling hard, they’re prone to fatigue. When left unaddressed, this could ultimately take a toll on how they view their jobs, and eventually, make them jump to another. To prevent this, encourage mental health breaks. Promote maximizing vacation leaves. Or better yet, to reward their hard work, at the same time, ‘force’ them take a break, organize corporate incentive trips. Give them a taste of the jetsetter’s life even for a few days, and you’d instantly earn a ‘like’ from them.
3. Strengthen corporate social responsibility
Millennials are ‘woke’. They’re very much aware and involved with social issues. That’s why they love an organization that cares for a society, that gives them opportunities to find a purpose even outside their careers. If you don’t have a CSR project yet, considering creating one. There are plenty of opportunities out there, but the key in selecting is your core values. Go back to what you stand for and what you believe in, and from there, focus on a project. To strengthen your team’s ownership of the activity, let the millennials be involved even in the planning process. If you do have a CSR project already, evaluate it and identify opportunities for improvement. Again, engage your millennial-employees in this.
4. Keeping Millennials
Judge millennials all you want for being chronic job-hoppers, but you can’t deny the fact that they’re worth keeping. Work hard then in retaining this generation in your business. Soon, you’ll see a great difference.
