It’s no secret, millennials are taking over the workforce. By 2025, 75% of the workforce will be millennial. Are you preparing your leadership programs for this change? 

Maybe that’s the wrong way to start this blog. Maybe we should ask if you’re experiencing any of these realities:  

• Larger amounts of turnover
• Stagnant growth, innovation, and ideation
• Unhealthy culture
• Lack of youthful passion

Sound familiar? If so, you’re going to have to acknowledge something quite major. Your leadership programs have to be different.

Millennials are different, just like every new generation that has ever existed. With that in mind, it’s crucial that your leadership programs, and specifically how you develop these leaders, is relevant.

Here are 5 ways for you to better engage the millennial workforce:

1. Care about things beyond your business.

   Millennials look for organizations that stand for more than just being a business. So, be sure to talk about your values and missions outside of just developing your product / service. Why are you building? What’s the purpose? How are you going to impact the world? Answer these questions to your millennial employees.
   

2. Utilize digital learning / advancement tools.

   Millennials are the first digital native generation. This means they don’t remember a time without technology, or connectedness. Be sure to encourage technology within your culture; utilizing it for growth, efficiency, innovation, and even education.

3. Money does not always equate to enlarged motivation>

   For millennials work isn’t about money, it’s about creating a lifestyle that fits within their beliefs. So, motivate your millennials teams with more than just money. Give them more freedom, offer them unique opportunities to lead, and encourage them to find additional ways to expand your business (and it’s social endeavors). Motivation isn’t found in a paycheck every two weeks, it’s fostered through opportunity and encouragement.

4. Commitment is about commitment, not time.

   There used to be an unwritten rule that you should stay at a job for at least 1 year to show commitment. Millennials however, don’t connect commitment with a timeframe. They connect it with commitment. This means that nobody is grandfathered into a position; they consistently earn their position (and the acknowledgements that come with it). So, commit to your millennials, and they’ll commit to you. Be sure to think in terms of action, not in terms of time together.
   

5. They’re likely more educated than you.

   79% of millennials have bachelor degrees, compared to 69% of Gen Xers, and 62% of Baby Boomers. This doesn’t mean they are smarter than you, just that they grew up in a world that valued education – statistically – more than yours. So, encourage educational advancement as a form of both team development and individual growth. Education is powerful when harnessed in the correct ways.

As Millennials take over the workplace remember this: It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of how. How are you going to change your career development programs to accommodate this change.

-WCC Team