How do you find and keep the next generation of high performers? Lindsay Eney, writing for Smart CEO, talks to some industry insiders and discovers the best ways to attract and retain Millennials.
1) Embrace social. If you want to attract the best of the Millennial generation, you will need to embrace social sites in your recruitment processes, says Colin Day, CEO of iCIMS. One in five applicants no longer uses a curriculum vitae to apply for a job, he adds. This generation prefers to apply for jobs through their social media profiles, such as LinkedIn. Ignore social and you are overlooking a vast proportion of this generation’s workforce.
2) Work on your culture. Start monitoring your organisation’s social profile, as Millennial candidates are sure to be checking out what it’s really like to work for you. Make sure your ideas about the company’s culture match those of your employees.
Marc Berman, president of Vector Technical Resources, agrees. Millennials want you to sell your company to them. They are attracted to organisations that suit them culturally.
Remember that any cultural changes you make need to be echoed throughout the organisation, warns Susan Hahn, Swan Consulting Group founder and president, or they simply won’t work.
3) Understand your people. Rather than simply monitoring engagement data, the best way to keep your people is to understand who they are as individuals, argues Susan Strayer Lamotte, founder of Exaqueo. Berman agrees, commenting: “In order to retain someone, you need to know their hot buttons.” In other words, you need to know what motivates them.
4) Earn their loyalty. Suzanne Kaplan, president of Talent Balance, claims that Millennials are three times more likely to leave a job if they don’t feel their job is important.
“They’re loyal to their team but not to the company,” she explains.
This generation have seen their parents’ loyalty abused. So CEOs need to work harder than ever to earn their loyalty back.
5) Be open and creative. Millennials might not always do what you expect, warns Karyl Leggio, Dean of the Sellinger School of Business and Management at Loyola University Maryland. Being open to creating new positions or allowing them to move in unexpected directions can benefit both you and your new recruits.
If your high performers are eager for promotion that is simply not available, Leggio adds, consider a lateral move that will help them develop new skills.
Lastly, the experts agree that these talent practices should not be confined to the new generation of employees.
As Kaplan argues: “If CEOs would use the Millennial strategy as a way of managing their whole workforce, engagement would go up, people would do a better job and the whole organisation would be more productive.”