Imagine if a large chunk of your staff was secretly updating their resumes, talking to recruiters and going on interviews in search of new work. These days, this scenario isn’t too far from the truth. Saba, a talent management solutions company, along with WorkplaceTrends.com, recently found that one-third of employees plan to change jobs within the next six months. Their Employee Development Survey also showed that 60 percent of HR leaders believe that their companies provide employees with a clear career path for advancement, while only 36 percent of employees believe this is true. Why exactly do employees leave? Inadequate salary always tops the list, said Didi D’Errico, Saba’s vice president of brand advocacy. But it goes beyond money. Here, experts share five ways to help your staff reach their top potential while balancing that with praise.
How to Keep Millenial Employees Happy
1. Give regular feedback. Millennials in particular thrive on consistent feedback about their work performance. “There is less patience to the approach of ‘wait and see’ during a once-a-year formal review,” said D’Errico. “With that regular discussion should also come ideas on new projects and programs where the individual could engage.”
2. Personalize each job. “Personalization is the key to today’s workforce at every level and demographic,” D’Errico said. This means you should figure out your employees’ best individual qualities and give them meaningful work related to these qualities. “No one is content being a number any longer — especially highly skilled and well-networked people, who will be the first to leave when they find an organization that better values their individual merits,” D’Errico added.
3. Offer flexibility. Employees today are looking for flexible work options and hours. The 9-to-5 schedule is a thing of the past, and work-from-home options are in demand. After all, why do employees need to be in the office every day when the Internet allows them to work from home, from a park, from anywhere? “Millennials don’t understand why you would tether them to the desk,” said Lynda Spiegel, a New York-based career coach and founder of Rising Star Resumes. “They don’t understand the ‘goofing off’ mentality because they aren’t. They’ve always operated like this.”
4. Keep your staff in the loop. Companies typically only divulge news when you-know-what’s about to hit the fan, but what about when things are going well? Tell your employees what a great job they’re doing and how the company is growing, Spiegel said. This also makes bad news a little easier to swallow when it happens. Companies also need to communicate why they are in business instead of just focusing on revenue, added Dan Schawbel, founder of WorkplaceTrends.com and author of Promote Yourself. “Explain how your work is benefiting society and how your staff is part of that impact,” he said.
5. Keep the work interesting. We live in the age of ultra-short attention spans, so offering the same work for 10 years isn’t going to cut it anymore. One option is two- to-three-year “tours of duty,” explained in The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age, D’Errico said. This involves employees switching roles periodically to gain more experience and keep things interesting.
What keeps you happy in the workplace? Tweet us @BritandCo and let us know!
This post was previously published on Levo League by Corie Hengst. Photo via Getty.
