As millennials enter the workforce, they are more interested in exploring a variety of different careers in temporary jobs rather than staying with one company for a longer period of time and making their way to the top (In fact, temporary jobs are expected to grow 13% over the next five years, according to a new study by CareerBuilder).
This attitude that millennials have about jobs being temporary is making an impact on the way companies go about hiring employees. Employers are having to tweak the way they approach job candidates to show why staying with their company will benefit them in the long run.
When hiring millennials in these changing times, employers should use these tips to help grow employees and build a successful company culture so that they can retain millennial talent.
Recently, PWC.com, a multinational professional services network, conducted a Millennials At Work Survey. The results were:
- 38% of currently working millennials said they were actively looking for a different role
- 43% of currently working millennials said they were open to job offers
- 18% of currently working millennials said they expect to stay with their current employer for the long term
“Gen Y’s notoriously short attention span has even transferred over to the workplace, where it’s not uncommon for a 20-something to have worked for three or four different employers just in the last few years,” said Nicole Fallon in an article for Business News Daily.
Here are two ways employers can retain millennial talent:
1. Put yourself in the shoes of the potential employee.
“No matter how passionate you are about your company, it’s important to always look outside a person’s job responsibilities and guide them to focus on areas where they want to develop themselves in,” said Aaron Harvey of Ready Set Rocket.
If you’re hiring a new employee, take a second and put yourself in their place and consider these questions:
-Will I be able to use the skills I have to effectively do this job?
-Will the skills I have currently improve from this job?
-Will I gain skills that will be useful to me later in my career?
-Do I have the opportunity to learn additional skills that aren’t required for this position?
-Will this job open up opportunities for me in the future?
-Do I fit in with the other employees here?
Of course these questions are rather broad, and depending on the industry that the company falls into, they will vary.
Additionally, when hiring a new employee, while it’s important that the potential employee can handle the job responsibilities, it’s also important that the employee has the opportunity to develop other skills that might not necessarily be needed to do the job.
If the company ends up hiring this person, they can entice them to stay in the position by offering professional development programs.
2. Help employees see their future with the company.
“Your employees will want to be in your shoes one day,” said Harvey, “help them paint that picture. If you’re not tying someone to the big picture, then you’re not doing it right, you need to let them see what they are trying to achieve.”
Starting at the top of a company from the beginning of your career is nearly impossible unless you’re starting your own company. You can’t expect to be hired as an upper level manager or executive immediately after graduating from college.
However, what many recent graduates can expect is an entry-level job that will likely involve a lot of grunt work that’s not particularly rewarding. While grunt work needs to be completed, if employers can show millennials that doing the grunt work will eventually pay off and earn them a higher position with the company, then the company will be able to better maintain millennial talent.
“For millennials, their jobs are everything,” said Alyson Krueger in this Forbes article. “Their job is everything – how they introduce themselves at parties, what they think about during their free time, how they make friends, even how they express themselves creatively. Because it is the center of their lives and their identity, they are concerned with how they are going to advance in their career and succeed.”
