It's not them, it's you! Millennials, that pesky generation you HAVE to deal with! Here's how!

Have you learnt all the steps to the Millennial courtship dance? Take a look at the do’s and don’ts of attracting this generation into your workforce. Your recruitment process might need a revamp and your retention policies might need some re-evaluating.

How to Court and Keep Millennials in your Workplace

Millennials are the generation born between 1981 – 2000 and they rule the digital age school. By 2020 they will make up more than 50% of the workforce according to a Talent Trends survey. There has been a lot of “Hoo Ha” around this particular group with sweeping generalizations and slanderous terms thrown in their general direction. Everything from “entitled” to “lazy” to “selfish.” Under scrutiny these allegations don’t hold up. But we are really just talking about “change” personified by the next generation entering and defining the job market. These negative sentiments have been leveled against every new generation from Xers to Boomers and it’s essentially the recognition that the tide is turning and new recruiting and retaining methods need to be employed.

“Children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, disrespect their elders, and love talking instead of exercise.” Socrates 4th Century AD.

Uncomfortable Zone

You know you need this highly educated, tech savvy, socially conscious, competitive generation working at your company but you are going to need to change the way you have been doing things to attract them to your business. This makes you feel uncomfortable right? Here are some key elements to look at in your quest for employing the sought after millennial. It’s easier than you think.

Recruiting Do’s and Don’ts:

Do:

?     Highlight the compensation package with all of the perks and advantages (not the traditional kind). The salary offer is just one aspect of what they are interested in. They want to know if there will be opportunities for professional development and if there is a clear path to career advancement. They want to know if there is a wellness program or if the business is environmentally and socially conscious and active.

?     Relook at your value and mission statement –could they do with an update? Millennials want to be part of companies that stand for something, and that they can be part of in the future.

?      Tell the great story of your company’s origin and journey to the present. Millennials want to know every single thing about who you are so they can visualize being part of your ongoing story. Relook at your website and social media platforms to see if you are conveying an enticing narrative. 62% of millennials will do extensive research about your company on social media. They are also looking at how satisfied your current employees are by doing their homework on sites like Glassdoor.

?     Give the interviewee a tour of your offices so they can feel the environment and work culture in action. i.e. not just by describing it to them in the interview boardroom.

?     Outline the on-boarding process for new hires and the mentors that will guide their transition into your company.

?     Recruit across many online platforms and use job boards and social media sites to find the right candidates (social recruiting). You must make sure that your company is using the latest technology (e.g. mobile application process) and that your social media speaks relevantly to this group. It is often an after thought for many companies and they are not putting out any messaging that is going to be worth anything to a millennial. 94% of companies are using social media to recruit (Jobvite survey) with millennial using their smart phones as the primary method for job searching.

?     Consult your recent millennial hires for their feedback and advice on what could be improved in the recruitment process.

?     Don’t forget that your next hire could be an internal promotion.

“Millennials are often portrayed as apathetic, disinterested, tuned out and selfish. None of those adjectives describe the Millennials I’ve been privileged to meet and work with.” Chelsea Clinton

Don’t:

?     Try to come across hip and cool by using slang that you think will draw millennial attention. It doesn’t.

?     Don’t pretend your office is a party zone, when it really isn’t. An engaging company culture is not about happy hour, foosball tables and free office snacks.

?     Stop talking to the stereotype millennial you have in your head and start to recruit the talented millennial who is looking for career growth and wants to become part of the team.

?     Don’t talk about the long term path to reaching the top. Talk in 2-year sound bites of what they could offer the company in that time. Millennials love to be part of a community. Decade goals will scare them out of the interview chair.

“Don’t lie to anyone, but particularly don’t lie to millennials. They just know. They can smell it. Be yourself: if you’re old, be old. If you don’t know anything about pop culture, don’t pretend to know anything about pop culture.” John Green

The Retaining Rule Book

According to the Deloitte Millennial Survey  there are more than 53.5 million millennials between the ages of 18-34 looking for jobs and they have unique preferences and expectations.

Millennials want to know more about how to earn promotions and the route to ensuring raises. They want to know if you are flexible about allowing your employees to work from home. Do you offer lengthy vacation time or opportunities for mini sabbatical type leave? McKinsey allows for an unpaid ten-week recuperation period for employees between big projects to focus on their personal lives and interests, while keeping all of their benefits. While not every company has the resources or budget to be able to offer every possible perk, attempts must be made to bring a few to the table.

Working 9-5?

This generation is used to customizing every facet of their work and social lives and restrictive schedules and long work weeks will have them heading straight out of the door. They are not interested in super long work weeks -40 hours only. Millennials are already embracing the Internet of Things (IoT) where you are seamlessly connected to the internet at all times. This means there is no barrier between work and social life. There is a merging of the two and “work” doesn’t just happen between the hours of 9-5 anymore.

Your Socially Conscious Scale

Make sure your managers are setting clearly defined performance goals so the millennial truly understands what is expected from them. If they understand that the rewards grow with time as well as how to go about reaching targets and goals –they may stay around a little longer. Always give a millennial a higher purpose and a strong sense of meaning in their work. They want to be part of an organization that cares about society not only about bottom lines and shareholder profit. Do you have a volunteer program or charity drive that offers the millennial the opportunity to serve the greater community?

Real-Time Appraisals

Make sure you are giving loads of feedback on their efforts. In real-time. They are not interested in waiting for a full year to find out if they succeeded in their projects. What is the point in that process? They need timely feedback so they can continue to learn and grow.

In House Entrepreneurs

Many millennials are entrepreneurial and technology has ensured that building a business costs nothing to set up online. Encourage your employees to create “businesses” or projects within your company to appeal to these drives.

Debt and Gadgets

You can also help by offering student loan debt relief. This is one of the biggest burdens facing the over-educated millennial and if you can offer relief in this area you are building longevity in the relationship.

Make sure they have the right “gadgets to be able to stay connected with the internal team. Don’t block access to social media sites. In a break, they are going to get social and require that time to check out for a few minutes. Blocking this outlet feels like an amputation and they will go off in search of more social media friendly greener pastures.

Court and Keep

Are you ready to re-evaluate your current recruitment and retrenchment strategies to be able to attract millennials? Some of the old methods are going to need to go –they served you well in the past but now you want your company to evolve powerfully into the future.

I would love to hear from those that have done a lot of millennial hiring and what has worked for you! If you want a chat with me on some hiring solutions I can provide, book a time here with this simpe to use link: https://calendly.com/tyrong/consultation-solution-call