Millennials, born between 1982 and 2004, represent the largest generational group and continue to flood the workforce, making Gen X and baby boomer colleagues and managers nervous. This is understandable, since millennials have a reputation for being difficult to manage and having high expectations for their role. Managers need to develop millennial-specific management strategies to ensure these employees are productive, fit in the existing workplace culture, and remain loyal to the organisation.
WorkForce Software offers three tips to effectively manage millennials:
1. Create Schedules That Foster Collabouration
59 per cent of millennials are driven by competition and are more likely than other generations to compare their performance against their colleagues’.1 This makes a collabourative work environment less appealing to them, which can hinder the organisation’s innovation.
Managers should roster millennials to work with more senior employees, encourage intergenerational learning, and involve them in the collabouration process.
2. Offer Opportunities to Learn
Research shows that millennials are not looking to hop between jobs but are in search of new experiences at work.2 If they aren’t offered opportunities to learn, they are likely to leave the organisation. It’s important to retain staff as rehiring and training can be costly.
We know that 53 per cent of millennials are willing to look within the organisation for new career opportunities.3 Organisations can use robust rostering technologies to automate the rostering process and provide millennials with diverse experiences across the business. This can also be used to ensure millennials work alongside mentors, helping to develop their knowledge and skillsets, and increase staff retention.
3. Support Mobility
Flexibility is important to millennial workers who have grown up with mobile internet access at school and home. A workforce management solution can give them the flexibility to work from wherever is convenient, while holding them accountable for hours and outputs.
Managing millennials can be tricky and it helps to understand where they’re coming from. Having grown up as digital natives in a fast-moving, consumerist society, it’s no surprise that they tend to look for more meaningful work experiences. Being able to deliver those experiences through smarter rostering and planning will let managers get the best performance from their millennial employees.
1 “Building a High-Performance Culture that Creates Long-Term Organisational Success”. CEB Summit for HR Executives. Chicago. 17 Sept. 2014. http://img.en25.com/Web/CEB/CEB_Building_a_High-Performance_Culture_that_Creates_Long-Term_Organisational_Success.pdf
3 Ibid
2 Ibid