One of the main catalysts that ignited my passion to speak, blog and podcast about next generation talent was when I experienced “buyer’s remorse” about a job I took. What I was sold in the recruiting process did not match up with what I eventually experienced day to day. I felt duped. My passion and energy to contribute and have an impact quickly faded.
As I spoke with my Millennial friends about this unsettling realization, I discovered I was not alone. There seemed to be an epidemic of squandered potential across the country. There had to be a better way and I wanted to help leaders find it.
Millennials have tremendous talent. But that talent will remain raw potential until companies draw it out. It’s my hope that leaders decide to focus on the potential rather than Millennial's shortcomings and what they still have yet to learn. An investment in their potential will lay a solid foundation of trust that will lead to fierce loyalty.
Once you’ve leveraged the 32 Millennial Recruiting Tactics to get fresh talent into your organization, stamp out “buyer’s remorse” and rise up your next generation leaders with these retention tactics.
30 Millennial Retention Tactics
- Start a young professional employee group. Promote this as a place for new Millennials to connect.
- Make orientation a high priority. Millennials want to know the culture so they can feel confident they’ve made the right employment decision.
- Align company goals with Millennial's personal goals.
- Communicate clear expectations. Millennials need and want to know exactly how you want them to perform.
- Provide mentors and/or company handbooks. The first month on the job largely determines the degree of Millennial loyalty.
- Involve them wherever possible in the decision process.
- Change "Employee Reviews" to "Talent Management Reviews.”
- Expose them to senior leaders.
- Make company culture or history come to life. Provide old photos, product progression displays, or original video of the founders journey.
- Signify completion of projects, training or challenges by providing tangible outcomes.
- Give ownership of projects. Put the info-hungry Millennials in charge of weekly or monthly updates.
- Track and communicate career progression and development. Such as an individualized career map that shows now and where they can go.
- Provide wacky and fun company memorabilia (aka SWAG).
- Routinely ask for Millennial’s input and opinions.
- Embrace the latest tech. Millennials are tech dependent and will expect to leverage the latest and greatest.
- Unleash creativity by offering creative scheduling.
- Decrease the amount of content (emails, reports, etc.) but increase frequency. Think short bursts of info.
- Encourage them to accessorize and customize their work space. This will offer a glimpse into what’s important to them in order to connect with them.
- Turn tasks into challenges.
- Create unexpected, one-of-a-kind experiences for your teams.
- Create space (physical or digital) that allows Millennials to share personal breakthroughs or tools/services that help them be more productive.
- Focus on the results not the potential repetition of processes.
- Limit social media restrictions. If you don’t trust Millennials to represent your company well online, you’ve made a hiring mistake.
- Foster collaboration with the physical workspace as well as with group participations/discussions.
- Create 3min success celebrations for the small daily wins.
- Support non-work goals that they have. Much of a Millennial’s identity is in what they do outside work.
- Specify communication preferences (who to contact, preferred hours, and which mediums). Strive to find common ground. Compromise will build loyalty.
- Provide options for volunteer work. Offer 1 paid volunteer day.
- See them as an individual first and an employee second.
- Perform exit interviews. Boomerang Millennials (those that leave and then come back) can become a company’s strongest ambassador because they know how good they have it.
Question: What aspects of work keep you engaged and retained?
