Retain Millennial Employees by Making Good on your Brand Promises
Many organisations struggle to engage and retain Millennials, which is an alarming rate given they are the largest generational group in the workforce and a new hire costs a company 1.25 to 1.4 times of their base salary.
Yet 68% of Millennials say they will only stay with one employer for up to three years, while the majority of US workers only spend 15 months in a role.
Organisations like Kimberly-Clark are recognising the need to shape the perceptions of themselves as an employer of choice. “We felt we needed to do a better job to appeal to top Millennial talent, especially given the tight marketplace,” Frans Mahieu, Global Marketing Director, People Strategy at Kimberly-Clark.
Projecting an employer brand to new hires must also match the experience of working in the enterprise. Studies have shown engaged Millennials are more loyal and less likely to leave. If creating a positive customer experience is necessary for retaining customers, why not also focus on the employees responsible for delivering that experience? Enter employee experience. Airbnb has created a new role for this purpose — Chief Employee Experience Officer (CEEO) — to manage all the dimensions that impact employee engagement including: How to recruit new hires; how to develop talent; and how to create the work environment Millennials crave. The engagement scores skyrocketed: 90% of Airbnb employees recommend Airbnb as a great place to work.
Delivering a differentiated and engaging work environment for employees involves identifying their key retention drivers. According to a Gallup survey, 87% of Millennials state their professional or career growth and development opportunities are important to them. And 68% of those who believe they received ample development opportunities in the previous year intend to stay with their employer for at least another year.
Providing worthwhile opportunities to learn and grow can be a challenge in fast-paced environments. Fewer than one in two employees surveyed strongly agree they had opportunities at work to learn and grow in the past year. Of those that did garner opportunities, only 33% believed it was worth their time. And rather than ask managers for more opportunities, Millennials seek new jobs that offer the development they want.
Talent retention needn’t be this precarious. You can deliver on your brand promise and increase retention by following a few simple steps:
1. Discuss your new employee’s aspirations.
2. Show them their future trajectory within your organisation.
3. Map their future path using development opportunities available within your organisation.
4. Provide engaging coaching that prevents your top talent from leaving.
5. Use the digital communication tools that Millennials prefer.
WERKIN’s tech-enabled solution uses behavioural science to prompt employees to complete mentoring and development activities and achieve organisational on-boarding, career development and retention goals. Visit getwerkin.com.
