Employee retention strategies for Millennials
Millennials are not only the future of employment in the services industry, they have slowly become a major force within businesses everywhere. This generation of workers has forever changed the workplace environment and it is critical that companies understand how to meet their cultural expectations in order to retain them. According to Deloitte (2014), Millennials will account for 75% of the workforce by 2025. As the workforce changes, business leaders need to understand how to not only attract Millennials to their companies, but how to keep them around. The employers need to develop positive work environment, flexible workspaces, effective training programs, provide constant feedback, maintain transparency and engage the millennial workforce keep millennials motivated.
Develop positive work Environment
Millennials seek a great work
atmosphere and culture that values collaboration, innovation, and empowerment (Stewart
et al., 2016). Like every generation, enjoying where they work and how they
work with others is critical for Millennial employee retention. But the
standards for what makes a positive work environment are rising. Millennial
employees want to be surrounded by individuals that encourage them to do their
best work while helping them along the way. Collaboration is key to any
successful business; therefore, it is important to create a space where
Millennials feel comfortable to share their ideas and bring creativity to their
work. These different perspectives can ultimately lead to a more innovative and
profitable company.
Create flexible workspaces
Flexible hours are essential for
Millennials (Emeagwali, 2011). This generation has been provided flexibility
throughout their entire lives by modern approaches to technology,
communication, and education; therefore, they seek the same in their careers
(Brack, 2012). Ideally, productivity should be measured by the amount of work
that is being completed rather than the amount of hours worked, allowing for a
healthy work-life balance. In order to keep Millennials around, companies
should give employees the option to customize their schedule and work remotely.
Technology has made it easier to work from home and provides individuals with the
necessary tools to complete their tasks while keeping them connected with their
departments.
Design and implement effective Training Program
According to the 2018 Deloitte
Millennial Survey, eight out of 10 Millennials say that on-the-job training,
continuous professional development, and formal training led by employers will
be important to help them perform their best work.
Provide constant Feedback
The more a company is invested in
a Millennial employee’s work, the more likely he or she will be invested in the
company. However, this investment into an individual worker’s performance looks
different than what past generations may prefer. Instead of formal annual
reviews, Millennials prefer instant feedback on what they’re doing well and
what they are doing wrong, along with tips for improvement (Myers et al., 2010).
Engage
Ideally, they want an environment
that lets them better see and understand the company’s decision-making process
and provides them with the opportunity to contribute to the company in more
ways than one (Holmberg-Wright, 2017). This can help Millennials feel like they
are an integral part of their company.
Maintain transparency
Millennials are more likely to
maintain their loyalty if a company is transparent with them (Chou, 2012). Open
communication helps millennials to engage in the business activities and contribute
effectively towards progress.
Millennials in Seylan Bank PLC
The Bank annually experiences
employee turnover due to resignations due to higher education, migration,
change in career path, lucrative offers from other corporates and other
personal reasons. Resignations among employees below 30 years are high.
Employees belonging to 21-30 years category are millennials whilst below 20
years belong to Gen Z.
Figure 1.0: Employee turnover by age and gender
The bank failed to bring necessary
changes to the workplace to retain millennials and Gen Z. Most of the employees
belonging to millennials and Gen Z leave the bank to further their education.
The Bank should create flexible workspaces to retain talent of the future.
Therefore, organizations should consider
these strategies to retain future talent workforce.
References
Brack, J. (2012). Maximizing
Millennials in the Workplace. UNC-Kenan Flagler Business School. Retrieved on
May 05, 2021 from http://execdev.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/hubfs/White%20Papers/Maximizing%20Millennials%20in%20the%20Workplace%20-%20Final.pdf
Chou, S., Y. (2010). Millennials
in the Workplace: A Conceptual Analysis of Millennials’ Leadership and
Followership Styles. International Journal of Human Resource Studies, Vol. 2
Issue:2.
Deloitte. (2014). The Deloitte
Millennial Survey. Deloitte. Retrieved on May 03, 2021 from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-dttl-2014-millennial-survey-report.pdf
Deloitte. (2018). 2018 Deloitte
Millennial Survey Millennials disappointed in business, unprepared for Industry
4.0. Deloitte. Retrieved on May 02, 2021 from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-2018-millennial-survey-report.pdf
Emeagwali, N., S. (2011). Leading
the charge for Change. Techniques: Connecting Education and Careers. Retrieved
on May 03, 2021 from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ925286.pdf
Holmberg-Wright, K. (2017). More
Than Money: Business Strategies to Engage Millennials. Business Education
Innovation Journal, Vol. 9 Issue: 2, pp. 14-23.
Myers, K., K. & Sadaghiani,
K. (2010). Millennials in the Workplace: A Communication Perspective on
Millennials’ Organizational Relationships and Performance. Journal of Business
and Psychology, Vol. 25, pp. 225–238.
Seylan. (2020). Annual Report
2020 - Seylan Bank. Seylan. Retrieved on May 03, 2021 from https://www.seylan.lk/uploads/3BdAqsoAMIYoAOSxbhKwIxTk52oJ__Seylan%20Bank%20AR%202020.pdf
Stewart, J., S., Oliver, E., G., Cravens,
K., S. & Oishi, S. (2016). Managing millennials: Embracing generational
differences. Business Horizons, Vol. 60, pp. 45-54.
Agreed with you and Adding to that, Retaining the talented, skilled, and resourceful sales employees is a major concern in today’s consumer durable industry (Bande et al., 2014).
ReplyDeleteVery contemporary article to address the issues faced by many organizations nowadays. According to Newman (2010) Millennials are the most educated and achievement oriented generation in history.
ReplyDeleteCoaching and mentoring programs has also been used as a successful strategy in retaining millennials, specially 'reverse mentoring' where the millennials share their technological knowledge with other generations along with tuition reimbursement programs which are also commonly conducted by companies in the world to retain employees (Brack, 2012).
According to the experience of the bank I work for, the retention rate for 2020 amidst the pandemic was 94% and employee turnover was 6% which mainly consisted of the clerical staff, this was mainly because of continuous learning opportunities through virtual learning and the bank’s own online training platform ‘talent space’ (in-person, virtual and webinars) where employees could enhance their knowledge. Together with that the promotions to Junior Executive and Executive level interviews were conducted online without any delay and the promotions were given.
Agree with you. Employee retention is extremely important for an organization to grow and having effective communication, hire a diverse workforce, hire appropriately skilled people and having employees development and training programs will retain the best people within an organization (Cloutier et al., 2015).
ReplyDeleteWhile agreeing with your views I suggest that talent management also reflects employee retention.
ReplyDeleteTalented employees leave the organization if they are not satisfied with the total rewards, leadership and organizational policies, these problems occur when proper talent management practices are not in place (Griffeth & Hom, 2001).
You have presented an interesting topic. Millennials have high levels of self-confidence and self-reliance and are well educated. They are independent, socially active and prefer teamwork (Shih & Allen, 2007). Millennials are career focused and they have high expectations of recognition, approval and being rewarded by their employers. To retain millennials, an organization should fine tune their strategies to satisfy the needs of the millennials by understanding their motivators and preferences and develop appropriate recruitment and selection processes, training and development techniques, rewards systems (Özçelik, 2015).
ReplyDeleteThank you for the informative article. Further, losing an employee is expensive. The process of finding and training a replacement can cost twice as much as your former employee’s salary. Then, once your new hire is properly trained and onboarded, keeping them engaged and loyal is the next challenge (McGrath, 2015).
ReplyDelete