Entry 19: Making the Millenials Stay

Making the Millenials Stay

My mom has always been a highschool teacher for as long as I can remember. She has spent decades in the same school. At present, she can still say she's happily employed. I could not imagine myself in her shoes though - perhaps, nor can people my age.

After graduation, I jumped into three jobs within the same year. Thousands of yuppies share the same story. Notre Dame Colleges Online Program found that 91% of Millenials, those who were born between early 1980s and early 2000s, expect to stay in a job for less than 3 years.

After three Christmas parties, yuppies resign. Pretty gutsy?

Who can blame them? The odds are statistically in their favor. In fact, studies show that one third of Millenials can find a job in less than a month! If a young professional finds reasons to resign, there is little chance he or she will stay unemployed for more than a month.

Because of this, employers look for ways to break the three-year resignation timeline. They've been racking their brains for strategies to keep their yuppie employees.

As a yuppie myself, I think I have a simpleton yet true-to-the-core answer: value and growth.

First, Millenials need to understand the value they bring into their work - not just for the company, but for the community, their stakeholders, and their country.

In the Philippines, the BPO Industry stands as the catch basin for many yuppies looking for a job. While the BPO world offers exciting and fresh solutions to old world problems, the nature of BPO work is routinary. Baby boomers and Gen Xers may have been fine with putting up with routine work but the Millenials lack such tolerance.

Millenials embrace change, enjoy updates, and prefer newer versions. They learn faster and get bored easily. Hence, when office work turns into clock work, Millenials look for reasons to stay. One good reason to compel them to stay is to make them see that behind the fabric of clock work is an intricately woven output or service that benefits (1) people, (2) communities, (3) or the environment.

Sure, it's convenient to pull up old tricks: raise their salary or add more benefits. But that won't work in the long run. Millenials are "new dogs". Old tricks won't sustain them. 

Rather, I suggest internal motivation. Fire up the Millenials' drives by opening their eyes on their value. Show them how much value their work brings and how much MORE value they can bring if they grow WITH the company.

This brings us to my next point: Growth.

Grow the company, institution, business, or what-have-you by growing the people. Millenials are all for "level up" skills, knowledge, and expertise. Give them that leverage and they will be like smartphones - ever inspired to be better every second.

This is my message to the employers on why you need to keep the Millenials: This is the generation that will define the flow of the century. It would suck to know that you've had the next Steve Jobs or a Social Media genius under your wing AFTER you approved his or her resignation letter.