Recruiting Millennials: How to Retain Millennial Employees

Millennials are classified as people born around 1980 to 1999, and they are the generation that’s now part of the core working population. ...

Millennials are classified as people born around 1980 to 1999, and they are the generation that’s now part of the core working population. You might have noticed that millennials tend to possess characteristics and motivations that differ significantly from the previous generations. They are more confident, social, experimental, and passionate, and they tend to love technology, among other traits.

It is a group of individuals who have been brought up knowing they can become anything and have a right to have what they want. As an employer, you will need to understand their psychology, needs, wants and desires to connect with them and to bring out the best in them at work. Well, we have compiled a few tips to help you manage and retain your millennial talent better.

Top 6 Best Practices for Recruiting Millennials and How to Retain Millennial Employees

1. Improve your recruitment and onboarding experience

For starters, you should know that millennials tend to be more interested in short-term opportunities that present immediate results. That’s one of the reasons why recruitment and retaining them is a challenge to many employers. Well, you have to improve your recruiting strategy to suit them. Show them a sense of purpose, show that you will give them opportunities to grow, socialize better as you interact with potential candidates, sell your company culture, etc.

You ought to improve onboarding new employees to reduce turnover. Improve your orientation, your training, performance metrics tracking, feedback approaches, and the like. You can use employee onboarding software to help you improve your efficacy in this phase. This way, you can enhance the experiences of millennials right from the time they join your team.

Additionally, consider implementing a Recruiting CRM for free staffing to streamline your hiring process and better engage with potential candidates. By utilizing this tool, you can efficiently manage candidate relationships, track their progress through the hiring pipeline, and personalize communication to resonate with millennials' preferences. This level of organization and tailored interaction can significantly improve your recruitment efforts and increase the likelihood of attracting top talent.

2. Nurture their passion

Passion is one trait that the millennials possess and can be tapped for the greater good. As an employer, you need to see their work appreciate it, and give input where required. If you value their work, they will see that they are essential to the organization. Thus, they become motivated to do even better. Additionally, you should allow them to develop new ideas and express their passion at work.

3. Be a mentor, not a boss

Most millennials are more outspoken. They tend to know their rights and are not afraid to shift in case of discomfort. The discomfort could be as simple as the way the immediate supervisor handles them. The generation does not work with tyrants but with diplomats who let them see sense in decisions or procedures. As an employer, you have to inspire them to do better. You will have to offer directions and lead them by example, not by orders. Just try to understand them, and you will earn their respect. They do not believe in imposed leadership as they may rebel against it.

4. Flexible working environment

Millennials will also look out for work-life balance. They do not prefer working the traditional way where they are confined in an office for 8 hours or more to deliver. They are more result-oriented rather than focusing more on what it takes to get there. The good thing is that they are also experts in multi-tasking and would do different projects at the same time.

So, if possible, you can offer a flexible working environment where they can work from anywhere so long as they produce results. This will inspire them as their comfort and inspiration is catered for. Millennials will also appreciate a warm working environment where colleagues are more like friends than just workmates. This provides a safe and conducive working environment.

5. Permission to multi-task

One of the characteristics of the millennials is the ability to multitask. The character is greatly attributed to the way they interact with tech. You will find them taking notes while on phone calls or listening to music while working. So, you need to allow them to work in different departments to learn different things and immerse in new experiences. However, even as you allow opportunities to multi-task, you need to offer them direction and guidance.

6. Give them a purpose

Most millennials are driven by a purpose more than anything. It is about money, but they also want to impact society and the world. They want to know that what they are doing serves a higher purpose other than earning them a paycheck. In this regard, ensure you have a strong organizational culture that allows your skills and knowledge to serve humanity. Let the culture be consistent and robust, and they will be motivated to work better.

Conclusion

Millennials make up a more significant percentage of the workforce, and it’s time your business evolved to this reality. It is imperative to identify their unique characteristics and know how to exploit them to benefit them as well as the organization. Some of their traits can even lead to great innovations and business profitability. That’s why you have to adapt and know how to handle them and motivate them!