What would happen to your business if your boomer employees suddenly decided to retire en masse? Hopefully, not much since you will have placed interns into an in-house mentorship program long before that happens.
Here are a few ways to pass the torch along to the Y generation so that your business continues to work smoothly as boomers retire.
Cultivate and Nurture Millennial Talent
Try to get Millennials off on the right foot before they take the reins of control by offering fresh grad jobs that balance their strengths and weaknesses with mentorship activities like:
Face-to-Face Interaction with Mentors - Your Millennials are going to want to text and email more than do a face-to-face meeting. They’ve grown up with technology, which can be a positive contribution in the workplace, but they may need help with their in-person people skills. In their fresh graduate job, emphasize face-to-face communication so they can learn the social business etiquette of these interactions and begin to learn how to handle different personalities offline, not just online.
Related Read: Reverse Your Stagnation With Reverse Mentoring
Institute Two-Way Feedback Systems - A top-down approach doesn’t work with Millennials. It’s important that they receive feedback, but they also want the opportunity to provide feedback at their entry level job without repercussions. Set up a system for this purpose to help multiple generations of workers team together to work productively without playing the blame game.
Related Read: Leadership At The Speed Of A Facebook Like
Talk About Social Value - You’ll keep your Millennial’s attention more on the job, if you can show them how their jobs promote a social value. Unlike the boomers, a paycheck is not enough to keep a Millennial committed, so it’s ideal to provide them with a greater sense of purpose.
Question: How do you effectively mentor Millennials?
This article originally appeared on FirstJob.com and has been republished with permission. Locate top-talent Millennials for your mentoring program at FirstJob.com.
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