My Take: "Millennials and Gen Z want skill development at work or they'll quit"

Many younger professionals are feeling left behind in the post-pandemic era of work. Recently a study released by?Workplace Intelligence,?in partnership with Amazon, determined that 74% of Millennials and Gen Z are ready to leave their jobs within the next year if their employers do not provide enough support for learning and career development. This alarming finding needs to be understood and addressed as a top priority for any company that cares about building for the future. I?posted a link?to a recent article from Fortune that summarizes the interesting findings and is worth a read.

Fortune: "Much has been made about the learning loss endured by students during the pandemic. But workers, especially younger ones, have also suffered a loss in skills that concerns them—and that should also concern employers."

My Take

It is no coincidence that many younger knowledge workers are feeling this way because so many have spent some of the most formative years of their careers working mainly remotely. The biggest threat for companies who have decided to pivot to a Fully-Remote work strategy (or even a poorly executed Hybrid strategy) is younger professionals are feeling isolated and unsupported, ultimately causing them to quit. Access to online training and webinars in these environments is insufficient to move the needle for young professionals who are starved for networking opportunities and career advancement.

However I believe there is a “people and place strategy” that can address the needs across generations, but requires careful calibration and customization to meet the diverse needs of any organization. Although industries like Wall Street investment banks and individuals such as?Elon Musk are pushing for five days of in-office attendance, most innovative companies have enacted more flexible work arrangements in recent years. Below are three modern work strategies that seem to be emerging as frontrunners that innovation-oriented enterprises are considering or are deploying.?

Strategy 1:?Organized Hybrid?is where employees who live near an office come in two or three days per week with a purposeful focus on career development, knowledge transfer, problem-solving, mentorship and building networks. Although some heads down work can undoubtedly occur in the modern office, collaborative activities are prioritized to build social capital across generations of workers. Outside the "in-office days,” focused work is performed primarily while working from home.

According to? Nick Bloom , an economics professor at Stanford who has been studying work from home (WFH) for twenty years, a successful hybrid model should feature an engaging employee experience that maximizes flexibility while still ensuring that a critical mass of colleagues is on-site?at the same time?to achieve the above-stated purposeful focus. Yesterday, Professor Bloom had an excellent interview with CNBC which makes a very compelling case for the Organized Hybrid model

Strategy 2:?Fully-Remote?models are seen as a distributed workforce living throughout the U.S. (and/or globally) interacting mainly digitally. This model can be ideal for small early-stage start-ups and companies with primarily older and more tenured workforces with established reputations and networks. However, statistics show that quit rates have increased under these models because the remote job market is so fluid and frictionless. Quit rates are especially higher for younger workers, which suggests that they struggle to align with the company mission and brand values at a distance, while likely not receiving the career development and mentorship offered in a face-to-face setting. As such, innovation and organizational health will likely stagnate over time at Fully-Remote companies.

Strategy 3:?The Sweet Spot is a … carefully-tuned and?customized combination?of Organized Hybrid and Fully-Remote where more than 50% of the overall workforce is Organized Hybrid to form the physical nucleus of the company. If done properly, the trusting relationships and an innovative spirit that emanates from the nucleus will have a positive impact on the entire firm.

The balance of the workforce is Fully-Remote and distributed, which would enable the company to tap into a seasoned supplemental talent base that has already established professional relationships and networks, and may not place as much value on career development or networking. These may be older Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers.

By meeting the needs and career objectives of younger employees with the physical nucleus, organizational health will be promoted by ensuring innovation and knowledge transfer continue at a high rate. Fully-Remote employees could visit the physical nucleus of the company a few times a year to build social capital with colleagues and managers and for continued career development and learning opportunities.

A custom-tailored version of an Organized Hybrid?nucleus?with a Fully-Remote?satellite system?could be the winning combination for companies seeking to attain high retention rates of talented Millennials and Gen Z to accelerate innovation while still tapping into a more tenured workforce that prefers working from home.

Beware of “Messy Hybrid”

A poorly executed version of a people and place strategy becomes "Messy Hybrid" where the purpose of place is not properly explained, and the hybrid employee experience is sub-par. The result is that no one comes to the office, and the company unintentionally becomes Fully-Remote. The organization could slowly (or quickly) lose the oxygen of youth, knowledge transfer, and corresponding innovation.

Hopefully, senior leaders and middle managers alike will be willing to lean heavily into this critical issue in the coming months because their companies' long-term success will depend on it, as well as the long-term success of our innovation sector as a whole.

Note: This article represents the personal opinions of Eric Lonergan and not necessarily any company or organization that he is affiliated with.