Five tips for making a workplace great for millennials

Millennials, or Generation Y, born between 1981 and 1999, are expected to make up more than 60 per cent of the workforce by 2022, according to most forecasts. Shaped by the digital revolution, they are bringing different attitudes with them into the workplace and tend to have a very different outlook to the generations who preceded them.

This presents challenges for HR professionals – who not only have to figure out how to attract this new generation to come and work for their companies, but how to hold onto them as well. Great Place to Work America’s certification programme leader Kim Peters addressed this issue in a recent blog on the organisation’s US website, and offered five tips for making workplaces better for millennials.

Peters pointed out that many of the steps already taken have been counterproductive. For example, the addition of gaming rooms and loosening dress codes have not led to any improvement in employee retention. Instead, research from Gallup reports that about 60 per cent of this most fickle of all generations are exploring new job opportunities. Furthermore, turnover among millennials is three times higher than for their older colleagues.

Peters’ five tips are based on Great Place to Work surveys carried out among almost 400,000 employees in the US, and they are actually quite simple.

1. Listen closely to your millennial managers

According to Peters, many millennials are now in their mid-30s and stepping into leadership positions, but aren’t responding to the promotion in the same way as previous generations.

It is usual for people to rate their workplace more positively as they move up the career ladder. This is not altogether surprising as it would be fairly understandable for people to be appreciative of the higher pay and improved fringe benefits that tend to accompany promotion.

That doesn’t appear to be the case with millennial managers, however, and they are twice as likely to leave as their Baby Boomer and Generation X counterparts. The solution, according to Peters, is to communicate with millennial managers to find out what they are looking for in their jobs and ensure they are getting the professional development and mentoring they need.

2. Give them something to identify with

Research has found that millennials like to work for employers with a purpose they can share. But Peters notes this can be difficult in the case of a retail chain. She suggests looking at ways for employers to move beyond their core business in this respect. This can include capitalising on a reputation as an industry leader, being a known disruptor, working in the community, and other strengths that will help employees feel part of something different.

3. Lead with authenticity

Everyone wants to feel important and appreciated, but this applies to millennials in particular. They want their managers to take a personal interest in them and the GPTW America research found millennial front-line employees who say their managers show a sincere interest in them as people, and not just as employees, are eight times more likely to be innovative and demonstrate organisational agility.

4. Strengthen your employer brand

Millennials are possibly the most brand-aware generation in history and are keenly attuned to the reputation of their employers. According to Peters, the research indicated that millennial employees who are proud to tell others where they work are a quite astonishing 19 times more likely to plan a long-term future with those companies. That means employers have to promote the positive aspects of their workplace just as strongly as they do their products and services.

5. Invest in an equitable workplace

One of the more endearing characteristics of millennials is that they tend to demand fairness of their workplace and have higher expectations than other generations of what that means. At the companies studied by GPTW America, 68 per cent of millennials said they were paid fairly for what they did. That’s a smaller share than for previous generations and one of the biggest generational differences in employees’ experience. “Millennials want to know that they and their co-workers will be treated equally, regardless of their background, gender, age or role within the company,” says Peters. “Businesses that commit to equity and transparency will earn points with younger talent.”