Turn Disengaged Millennials into High-Performers: An Executive’s Guide

By 2025, 75% of the global workforce will be millennials, according to Inc. This fact has raised multiple discussions among executives and training leaders for years. How will millennials change the business world? To what extent will they impact the future of work? How can you learn to speak Millennialish to better communicate with them and align them around your goals? Engaging millennials should be a central focus for business leaders.

One of the first things that come to mind when thinking about millennials is that they’re multitasking tech geeks with an incredible ability to adapt to the ever-changing world. However, they weren’t born with these superpowers. Since they were raised in a fast-paced technological world, they were able to train their “agile muscles” and outpace their parents and managers in being tech-savvy. 

As for their ability to change themselves and everything around them, millennials are actively practicing this agile skill, especially in their career. Consequently, only 50% of millennials want to continue working with their current company one year from now, according to Gallup research, and 60% are willing to change their job right now. How can companies go about addressing this? Do they have to get used to the idea that they will have to look for talent, spending $30.5 billion annually on their onboarding and training only to see them leave shortly after? 

You will lose millennials unless you stop making these mistakes

The truth is that the following issues you might experience in the workplace are not only related to your millennial workforce. This generation has just brought them up for us to act upon sooner rather than later. 

1. Telling them beautiful lies

The right way to disappoint a millennial is to oversell your job offering. Without a transparent and honest vision of a future role and opportunities to grow, they won’t trust a company either in the short term or in the long run. How can they believe you and plan another six months or five years as a member of your team?

2. Keeping their lack of enthusiasm unaddressed

As stated by Gallup, only 29% of millennials are fully engaged, that is to say, involved in and committed to their work. It doesn’t mean that others are actively showing a lack of enthusiasm though. On the contrary, they’re just indifferent to the tasks laid out before them. Not to mention the absence of their desire to keep searching for new challenges and opportunities without due regard to their needs and professional goals.

3. Not providing opportunities to make an impact

Millennials were raised to believe that they are mighty enough to change the world and break the wheel. That’s why they have a strong desire to make a difference. A whopping 94% of millennials want to use their skills to benefit a cause. You don’t have to turn into a non-profit organization to increase the social impact opportunities for millennials, but you definitely can focus on developing strong Corporate Social Responsibility programs as Samsung does. 

4. Not showing enough appreciation

As a PwC generational study points out, 41% of millennials want to feel valued for the contributions they bring to their company as well as be rewarded and receive feedback at least once a month. To provide immediate recognition, promote engagement, and make rewards personalized, it’s a good idea to leverage a data-driven incentive program. In such a way, companies can easily scale their rewards and recognition programs and make sure that each member of their organization is distinguished for their hard work.  

5. Ignoring their need for a healthy work-life balance

A FlexJobs survey indicated that 84% of millennials consider work-life balance their number one priority. Young people believe that their productivity cannot be measured by the time spent sitting at an office desk. They also prefer to work from home and to work flexible hours, as it adds to their productivity. 

What’s the most effective way to bring out the best in your millennial workforce?

You may think that millennial workers are cranky, stubborn, hard to deal with and impose a crazy amount of conditions. Nevertheless, they have incredible potential to contribute to your business’s growth as no one has ever done before. So, what’s the most effective way to bring out the best in your millennial workforce? Below are some tips for engaging millennials. 

1. Know their needs and aspirations

Millennials won’t work for a company for years if they do not feel like they belong there. It is all about engagement and opportunities to grow as a professional. If they care about the company and share its values, they will show incredible results. To have high-performers in your team, you should understand their pain points and aspirations: What is important to them? What skills do they want to develop? How do they envision the future of the company?

2. Make their work fulfilling

Pen-pushing is not for millennials. They won’t wait for Friday evenings to finally start living. Their job is a huge part of their lives. Millennial workers require challenging projects of their choice, a friendly team, a work-life balance, and an opportunity to work flexible hours without being tied to a single desktop. According to MetLife’s 16th Annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study, 81% of respondents said that having a work-life balance improved their productivity and 79% claimed that a work-life balance made them more engaged.

3. Look for cultural fit while hiring millennials

According to Gallup, 71% of millennials will work for their company for at least another year if they believe in what the company does and represents. They want to make a significant contribution. That is why it’s important to emphasize cultural fit while hiring a millennial workforce. Make sure that they share similar vision and beliefs as your company to remain engaged and productive in doing their job and taking your business to new levels. 

4. Mentor them, not micromanage

Millennial workers don’t need a shepherd to protect them and tell them what to do at every step. Micromanagement kills engagement and productivity. Millennials are ready to work independently, but they always seek mentorship and continuous growth opportunities. This is why personalized learning with just-in-time training and performance support has become a go-to solution to driving workforce performance improvement. 

By knowing millennials’ key traits and understanding their goals and values, you will bring the absolute best in your millennial talent by making them more motivated, engaged, and productive with the right tools on hand. Moreover, these tools will help you manage and develop your blended multigenerational workforce. Whether you’re struggling to find an effective approach to personalize experiences for Baby Boomers or getting ready for Generation Z, data-driven performance enablement tools will scale personalization for every individual. This way, your company will blend together wisdom, knowledge, and fresh perspective of all generations to increase innovation and competitive ability. 

Get a demo to see for yourself how Rallyware can help supercharge each and every individual in your organization and boost their productivity!