Here's Why Millennials Keep Walking Out Your Door

I’m writing a book and it starts with a meeting I have over and over again. A senior leader, let’s call him Baby Boomer Bob, is frustrated because Millennial Malcolm just walked out the door. “Another one!” he shouts. “We invested in them!” he complains. “We trained them!” he bangs a frustrated fist on the table. “We even gave them foosball!” he casts an angry glance at the quiet breakroom behind him. “Why do they keep leaving?” He looks at me for the secret sauce to save his company.

OK, maybe my meetings don’t go quite like that. But they’re pretty close. And my answer is simple. I tell Baby Boomer Bob the same thing I tell everyone. “They leave because you aren’t leading them.”

See, recruiting and retaining millennials takes a lot more than an in-house caterer and courtside seats at the Lakers game (though truly, they don’t hurt). Those are perks. What I’m talking about are necessities. What does it really take to not just keep millennials in your workplace, but to make sure they soar and succeed?

So here they are – Inclusion Nation’s top rules for recruiting, retaining, and most importantly, leading millennials.

Make Autonomy Matter

When my clients ask me what my number one suggestion is to get millennials to stay, these are the questions I always ask: What work are they in charge of? How much responsibility do they have over that work? And crucially, do they have space to re-design the result?

Millennials want flexibility in designing their work, they want ownership over that work, and they want to use the skills they have refined over their lives to excel at the work you trust them to do. If you’ve been micromanaging your millennials and only having them do repetitive, non-creative work because that’s the way it’s always been done, then please don’t be surprised when they leave for workplaces that allow them that creativity.

Instead of banging your fist on the table, think of how the work “that’s always been done this way” can be changed, how your millennials can help design that change, and how both can still align with the mission of your company and the needs of your demanding customers and clientele. 

Make Transparency Matter

Millennials love transparency. We seek clarity in roles and progress. We aim for flatter organizations rather than top-down ones. We want honesty. We appreciate it when companies are completely clear about how people are hired, promoted, and compensated.

Think of your company. What does “behind the curtain” look like? How are salaries and bonuses calculated? Is the promotion path obvious and clear, at every level? Or do we have a secret path that only some in the in-group know about, and that out-group, well every once in a while someone makes it, but that’s because they worked hard AND got lucky. That’s not enough. Millennials want to know what it will take for them to succeed. Make it accessible. Make it public. Watch them soar.

Make Achievement Matter

Yes, we are the trophy generation! And proud of it. See, millennials were raised by some very hard-working parents, parents who ensured their kids would be over-achievers from Day 1. Which is why achievement matters. Being the best. Doing the best. We want to work in companies where achievement matters too.

But it’s not just the performance; it’s the recognition. Ever since the days of MySpace, we’ve been broadcasting those achievements for the world to see. Being recognized for our accomplishments. Getting those stars, getting those trophies, getting that validation that what we’re doing is worthy. Us special snowflake trophy kids are now in your workplace and we want to be recognized for our work. Is that so hard to do? Promotions, awards, public acknowledgment, introductions to higher-profile clients, faster access to more complex work. Make achievement matter.

Make Community Matter

Community is what the baby boomer suburban dream was all about. Finding that sense of community for the children. And that continued through millennial childhoods and into our young adult lives. Millennials worked in teams, in study groups, in cohorts, in travel groups. And then we go online. What is Facebook but your own carefully curated community of thousands?

We look at what’s happening in our workplaces right now, where our companies are working extraordinarily hard to re-create that sense of community for millennials. And there are hits and misses – not everyone needs a bowling alley in their break room – but in a world that is becoming increasingly atomized, how do we continue to refine that sense of community to make the phrase, I belong here, a reality for everyone?

So answer these questions: What community exists for millennials? How is that community nurtured? How does that community grow? Then answer one more question for me. To paraphrase the great Dr. Cristina Yang, who is their person? Who can they turn to for advice? Who can they lean on for support? Who is looking out for them? Make someone that person. Make a lot of people that person. And please, don’t just rely on women and minorities to do that work. So often, women and minorities are called on to carry the emotional burden of everyone else. This should not just be some people’s jobs. This should be everyone’s job. And it should be valued throughout the workplace. And speaking of values …

Make Values Matter

When I do my speeches and workshops on millennials, I always start by surveying the three generations immediately before us. Because values matter and they have changed over the past one hundred years, both inside and outside the workplace. Values about community, worthiness, self-expression, gratitude, pride, justice, equality, money. If you happen to work for an organization where your values are reflected in the work you do, that’s wonderful. But the truth is, a lot of corporate America is still trying to sell values that mattered a great deal to older generations, that just aren’t mattering as much to millennials. Values matter, and they matter even more when you work in a space where you don’t see the values you care about reflected in the culture of your organization or the work you do. Ask yourself what values matter here when you see another Millennial Malcolm walk out your door.

Make Differences Matter

Here’s the last one. “Millennial” is an umbrella term for an age cohort that encompasses millions of different cultures and races and ethnicities and beliefs and families and histories and stories. Make those differences matter. Because we are all different. We have different lives. We come from different spaces. We communicate differently. We compete differently. We work differently. Create a workplace where those differences are not ignored but instead given space to matter.

What client relationships can millennials build? How can we find them? What technologies can we use? How can we form teams? How can we manage teams? How can we deliver feedback? When can we receive feedback? What types of external vendors can we use? How can we involve clients in our work? Innovate compensation. Innovate leadership. Innovate work. Make differences matter.

I love getting calls from Baby Boomer Bob or Gen X Denise or even Older Millennial (“I’m really a X’ennial”) Jennifer. Because I know they want to change the system to make it better for everyone. To not just bring people in, but to make them stay and succeed. That’s the mark of a true leader. Millennials are soon to be 75% of the workplace. Are you ready to do the hard work to stop them from walking out your door?

Michelle Silverthorn is the Founder & CEO of Inclusion Nation, a diversity consulting firm delivering presentations, workshops, and e-learning to companies across every industry. She's the author of the forthcoming book, "Change the Rules, Change the World: How to Recruit, Train, and Lead a Diverse Workforce." Want to learn more about Inclusion Nation? Sign up for our newsletter or email Michelle at [email protected]