Tips on Retaining Younger Workers

It’s common knowledge that younger workers in Generation Y and young Gen Xers are much more likely to become job hoppers than their boomer parents.

I’ve written about this before. There are many reasons behind this, including boredom, career growth opportunities, the job market, and old fashioned work environments.

Regardless of the reason, when you invest money into a worker, in the form of training, benefits, and growth opportunities, you want to see them stay at your company for a couple of years before moving along to the next big thing. Essentially, you want to see a healthy return on investment. Who doesn’t?

As a younger worker, and as somebody who has had the ability to go to school with, and work with, other younger workers, we definitely want something different from our jobs than our parent’s generation does (or did).

Of course we can’t lump together an entire generation, but studies show the things that younger professionals want in a job and a company, so there are a few things you can do to help with retaining younger workers.

Allow for Opportunities for Growth (& Don’t Make Them Wait Too Long)

Gone are the days when talented professionals would stay at an organization for 20 years. If your company can’t provide young workers with the opportunity for advancement, they’ll be running out the door as soon as they’ve realized their potential in your organization.

I’ve worked for organizations who have entry level positions, in which they have placed high-potential individuals, but the only obvious career move for those individuals is to wait 5-7 years to get into the mid-level role one rung up the ladder.

Gen Y doesn’t want to wait 5-7 years, and fortunately for them, they won’t have to, considering how many boomers will be retiring and leaving vacancies behind in the next decade.

A general rule-of-thumb is to start grooming your young professional for a high rated position two years into their tenure with your company. They should be able to transition within three. Clearly, if you don’t see the potential in the individual, you won’t be doing this, but just keep in mind that three years is a long time to stay at one company for a Gen Yer without any prospect of growth.

Invest a Little

There’s no doubt that you have a few workers in your organization with whom you are not maximizing potential. Invest a in them in order to retain them. Career development opportunities are important to Gen Y’s professionals, so a small investment to send them through a program, course, or even to sponsor a mentorship program, will go a long way with your young worker. It doesn’t have to be money that you invest, either. Invest your time and foster the individual’s growth.

It will also show them that you believe they have potential and that they have a shot at a higher rated position sooner rather than later, which may keep them around for longer.

Embrace Their Different Perspectives

A diverse team is considerably more effective, and it doesn’t have to be just culturally diverse. Look for age diversity too. Don’t exclude young workers based on their age; recognize that they earned their stripes to be at the table by going to school and getting a job with you. Use your young workers in as many focus groups, work teams, and projects as you possibly can.

If you can get them to stay, they are the future of your company. They’ll remember if you discounted their perspectives because they are young (which, yes, is discrimination) which can be very demoralizing.

Put Emphasis on Work/Life Balance

Study after study concurs that Gen Y professionals crave work/life balance. Those organizations with a high level of work/life balance realize a marginal turnover rate when compared to those who don’t, particularly with young workers.

It’s 2013, not 1952, and men are spending more time with their families, women are working and still having children, and the landscape in North America is becoming more culturally diverse. In decades past, the middle class Caucasian family was the norm, with two kids, and two parents; the mom did not work outside the home while the father was the primary bread winner.

Now you have single parents, grandparents raising children, a drastic increase in twins, triplets, and other multiples, mothers being the primary breadwinners and fathers becoming stay at home parents, same-sex couples and families living in multi-generational households. You will also experience many families with not only childcare needs, but also elder-care needs.

The traditional family portrait has changed drastically, and workplaces need to be able to keep up by providing some flexibility for their workers to retain employees.

Encourage Initiative

For this one, you may need to sit down and reflect on your previous actions that may be preventing, instead of fostering, initiative with your young workers.

I’ve had managers and supervisors who likely don’t know it, but who squash their worker’s initiative quite easily and readily, even though that’s not the intention.

Young workers particularly don’t want to believe that they shouldn’t have any extra time to take on projects. If they really want to take on projects, they’ll make the extra time! Don’t make them feel as if they are wasting company resources and time by wanting to volunteer for something or start a project. Encourage initiative by rewarding it; you’ll be surprised as to how much will get done.

Can you think of any other ways to help with retaining younger workers?