How to retain your millennials

I listen to employers moan about their youngest workers, but what’s their side of the story? We talk a lot about leadership in organisations, but we’ve forgotten how to manage. Millennials leave organisations because (unlike their older colleagues) they don’t tolerate ineffective management.

Here’s what to do about it:

We all know the views on 'entitled, self-obsessed millennials':

These youngsters are unencumbered either by work ethic or loyalty. They might be highly educated but they lack stickability. At the first sign of ‘conflict’, i.e. normal work hassles, they’ll throw in the towel, take a break to travel and #recharge, then turn up at a more exciting but smaller competitor, who appreciates their uniqueness.

You hire a replacement, who again proves a disappointment and drops out after a year or two. It’s doubtful if you truly recoup your investment on recruitment and training but no one does the numbers to own up to this.

 What’s the other side of the story?

You’ve hired a young thoroughbred, so why treat them like an old carthorse?

Common sense dictates that the employment conditions and leadership styles that worked for one generation might not work for another, very different one.

These golden kids are sceptical about our institutions and structures and they value entrepreneurship. They see working with big brands as an incubating phase, ready to move off to somewhere with more challenge and freedom.

If something displeases them they move on; they don’t have to suck it up. Nothing wrong with that.

 The real problem is that we don't manage them properly or inspire them. 

 Is working for you an anti-climax?

 Do the promises of your whizzy recruitment process match daily reality?

Is your jaded work culture too dispiriting to be around?

 People in their 40s and 50s often sandwich caring responsibilities and are burdened by hefty mortgages. We look at work through a very different lens; it’s become a means to an end rather than a purpose.

We come from parents who lived through wars and rationing, who valued safe employment and jobs for life and saw change as a threat. We’ve internalised these values. Work has become a strait jacket.

 We can feel physically fragile, vulnerable to being upstaged by bright young things in the boardroom, and frankly aware of our mortality and expendable value to an organisation.

 Whilst we are working through this phase, in comes these golden kids, all about authenticity and being true to themselves.

When skills levels are low, you need to manage and direct

 Degrees in classics and Duke of Edinburgh awards give this cohort many great skills, although not necessarily all they need to do their job effectively.

 HR have complex performance management systems, balanced score cards and KPIs. All great processes but the trouble is on the ground: how they are managed from day to day? People don’t leave an organisation because of its HR department. They leave their manager.

 These youngsters have come from very structured education processes, arguably used to being spoon-fed.

To get them up to speed and then retain them, you have to give far more granular, daily guidance and milestones, than you ever had. I know you worked it out for yourself; good for you. People learn differently now.

 We have to manage them better.

 We assign our worst managers to our most valuable talent

Millennials’ managers are often one of them - newly promoted, overwhelmed with their own workload and with rudimentary management training. They are good at their job, so get promoted to build their own team. 

These are the worst kinds of manager: poorly trained, time-poor and selfish.

 We need to rethink how we train them and fill in the gaps.

• Rethink your hierarchy. Why do the people who need the most time and training work for the managers who are least equipped to give it to them? How about getting your energetic senior managers (or inspired returners) to go back on the floor to train, mentor and inspire the newbies?
• Explain the strategy, why you do what you do. Tell them the purpose of what you want to achieve, so they get the big picture, then break it down into exactly what you want them to do and what standard you want from them.
• They expect challenges, so give them small challenges to start with and increase them as their competence improves. Challenge, feedback, reward, repeat. They are used to passing tough exams. Give them milestones and tests. Make them work for success, so they value it more. Long-term goals, regularly monitored, will stop them leaving for fresh challenges.
• Give constant, fluid feedback. So often I find that once the graduate scheme is over, new hires are left to get on with things, with only formal appraisals. Attrition rates are high because managers assume everything is OK whilst problems fester. These people over-think issues and don’t have the tools to nip them in the bud. When did you last take the time to ask, ‘how’s it going?’ or have a basic career conversation over a coffee with them? Don't let them make assumptions about the career opportunities available to them or the areas they need to develop on.
• Millennials are raised on diets of shouty soap operas and aggressive social media. They expect to get their needs met but lack soft skills and political nous. Train them to ask for what they want in an assertive, non-confrontational way. Encourage them to ask questions, to take feedback constructively, not personally, and to develop thicker skins. 
• High performers (from homes and education systems that see B grades as a disaster) need to be encouraged to take risks and see mistakes as positive, not as failures they can’t come back from. They can’t leave when things go wrong, in the way they dropped subjects at school. Help them to separate their ego from their performance and work their way through hard times. Again, lots of milestones, so they always see what they are working towards. 
• Listen to them. Why hire people for their brains, then stifle them? Maybe they are right, that your monotonous long-hours culture inhibits innovation and stifles creativity? Perhaps if you explained what you are trying to achieve in a task they could come up with a more effective way of getting the end result? 

Like most of human relations, it boils down to conversations. They have joined you to be successful themselves and help you to be more successful. They’ll work hard for you. In return, you have to give them far more explanation, challenge, feedback, space and support than you are doing now. You'll be surprised at how long they can wait for promotion, as long as the pathway to achieving it is crystal-clear. 

 I'd love your feedback on this, in particular from organisations who are brave enough to rethink their management hierarchy and learn the difference between coaching, management and leadership. Or want some help to do this.

Warm wishes

Zena Everett- Careers Expert: Coach, Speaker & Author

#jobsearch #careermanagement #leadership #millennials #management #careers #careeradvice #careerchange

www.zenaeverett.com