Attracting and Retaining Gen Y Employees

By 2025, millennials (those born between 1981 and 1995) will account for 75% of the U.S. workforce.  Don’t wait until then to start planning for their arrival in your business. Take a close look at how millennials work in order to understand how to work with them.

As employees hailing from Generation Y, they have the ability to be a positive influence on the culture of a workplace based on their enthusiasm for networking and collaboration. They can assist current leaders with newly emergent challenges. They desire to join the succession pipeline for their supervisors’ positions because they have high expectations of themselves. They want to be challenged and make meaningful contributions right away. They want opportunities to use the knowledge, skills and talents they have to solve problems, innovate and lead.

Millennials have gotten a bad rap.  They are perceived as entitled, insubordinate, lazy and ungrateful.  However, the truth is that they are anything but. More than any other generation, millennials want to make a difference, and they’re willing to put in a lot of time and energy to do so. In addition, they do what their managers tell them to do more frequently than those of any other age group. 

To make better connections with millennials, keep these ten (10) tips in mind:

1. Let go of your stereotypes and focus on their positive attributes.
2. Pair them with executives who can support their careers while having millennials teach executives about new technologies.
3. Focus on their results more than where and when the job gets done.
4. Use social networks to engage them — not to just post jobs.
5. Don’t restrict Internet usage; if you block social networks, they may not want to work for you.
6. Establish internal hiring programs to give millennials — and all members of your workforce —opportunities for growth.
7. Align your company’s message to a cause to give them a sense of fulfillment at work.
8. Sit down with them and be open about the company’s health, their performance and the future of your group. They will trust you in return.
9. Millennials want to make a major impact at your company, so give them the tools, support and resources to do so.
10. Develop gamification applications to engage millennials and build your brand.

Other Takeaways:

•    #1 Complaint?  Hearing you say, “When I was your age…”
•    No news is bad news.  Feedback is essential.
•    Technology allows work and personal life to overlap.
•    Remember. They can’t imagine being as old as you are. 

Generation Y wants to keep learning and be developed incessantly.  Every single day more than 10,000 baby boomers reach the age of 65. That is going to keep happening every single day for the next 19 years. Generation Y is in the pipeline to replace them all, but they can’t prepare themselves without proper mentoring, development and succession planning.  Ask yourself and your company leadership this question: What are you/we doing to help our company prepare for the future?  The times to act is now, and keep the lines of communication open.

Cathy Hulsey

VP-Human Resources

EPL, Inc.