With Millennials average work tenure being 2 years, company loyalty is as elusive as a phone call from a Millennial. However, your new hire orientation could be the differentiator needed to solidify Millennial loyalty. The first 30 days of a Millennials employment largely determines their career trajectory with your company for the next 30 months.
Millennials want to know the culture so they can feel confident they’ve made the right employment decision. A properly executed company orientation should help them to see themselves long-term at your organization.
Years ago I read the brilliant book Y-Size Your Business: How Gen Y Employees Can Save You Money And Grow Your Business by Jason Ryan Dorsey that helped shape my work surrounding Millennials. I recently revisited the book to gain additional ideas around effective new hire orientation for Millennials. The below includes many of those ideas.
20 Tips To Enhance Your Company Orientation And Solidify Millennial Loyalty
- Everything else in a Millennials life is interactive, fast-paced, and hands-on…the orientation better be as well.
- Make Millennials first day so enticing that they cannot wait to return. They might even show up early the next day with roommates.
- They want an impact on day one. Let them.
- Ensure they receive genuine welcomes from current employees.
- Provide an overview and introduction to the culture and to their specific role.
- Set up a connection with at least one leader.
- Schedule a "bring your parents to work day." LinkedIn and Google have implemented this.
- Never start them on Monday. Current employee energy levels are typically higher later in the week.
- Start at 10am. This allows current employees to address urgent items before the new hires arrive.
- Send a pre-first day email or text to the them highlighting your excitement and what to expect.
- Have preprinted business cards with their name.
- Extend invites for them to join company social networks.
- Ensure all company issued hardware and devices are live and pre-loaded with their favorite utility applications.
- Consider a new hire scavenger hunt as a way to get to know the office, people, and culture.
- Standardize their orientation process for quality, consistency, and efficiency. Millennials need and want to know exactly how you want them to perform.
- Give Millennials SWAG (stuff we all get). The quirkier and more off-the-wall the better.
- Offer a "First 30 Day Handbook" with insights from employees, close places to eat, transit options, attire no-nos, recreation options, etc.
- Ask current employees (who have worked for the organization for less than 3 years) what they should have been told during orientation.
- Provide tangible outcomes that signify completion. Zappos offers $2,000 after orientation for folks to NOT take the job.
- After orientation, Millennials should have a basic understanding of the following: Culture / Values and Vision / Roles and Responsibility / Communication / Promotions and Opportunity / Training, Safety and Development / Ethics and Accountability / Respect and Leadership.
Choose a few tips from the above list and implement them. Let’s be honest, any person (Millennial or not) would appreciate this level of detail, appreciation, and acceptance on day one.
Question: What aspects have made your orientations positive or negative?
