Believe it or not, there are over 70 million millennials across the whole world. Their ages roughly vary between 18 to 35. Millennials are slowly taking over the workforce of the whole world and, by the end of 2020, millennials will make more than half of all the workers in the world. This means that employers need to recognize this fact and adjust their approach if they want to do business well.

Despite the fact that millennials are very culturally diverse, educated and more tech savvy than any other generation before them, they also don’t like keeping jobs for a long time and taking part in traditional business hierarchies. Simply put, they despise bureaucracy and this is causing a lot of problems for business owners.

A lot of business owners and managers are asking themselves how they can reach millennials, get them engaged, and get their trust. One of the biggest problems is to motivate millennials to become better at what they do and stay focused on one area for a longer period of time, and this is what we will talk about today.

1. Make them feel involved:

As mentioned before, millennials don’t like typical business hierarchies where everyone is closed off in his/her position and cannot have any type of impact outside of it. Millennials don't believe in this kind of strict system where they only have to do their jobs and have no impact on what’s going on on the surface.

All millennials have ideas and ambitions to change things and make an impact on the world and no matter how superficial this might sound, this is what drives them. They want their opinions to be heard as this makes them feel valued.

Millennials want to make a change in the world through their work and they want it to have meaning. Talking about your future plans and letting them give valuable feedback will not only make them engage with your business, but they also might give you some creative ideas you haven’t thought of.

2. Invest in their development:

One of the biggest reasons why millennials frown at the mention of long-term employment is because of the fact that, in most cases, they don’t have the freedom they need and, more importantly, a lot of employees limit themselves when it comes to their development.

A lot of employers think that investing in their development will make them leave their company, but it's actually quite the opposite. The better you are at successfully training and helping your employees grow into better professionals, the higher the chances will be of them staying.

This is why it is important to provide them with modern web based software solutions using which they can improve their skills and grow professionally. Apart from the fact that they will be able to learn valuable skills to do their jobs better, they will also satisfy their need to learn new things.

Additionally, e-learning is more engaging for millennials as they prefer using their gadgets to do everything. This means that they will quickly adopt online training courses and look forward to taking part in them.

3. Give them more flexibility :

When it comes to employee retention with Millennials, one of the most important factors is their balance between work and life. Since the millennial generation is very tech-savvy, and this allows them to work from anywhere, anytime, just as long as they have a connection to the Internet.

Because they are aware of this fact, they don’t enjoy arbitrary work hours where they have to sit at work during the whole day. On top of that, they don’t accept limitations really well and prefer to have the freedom to choose when they will work. A lot of millennials are even willing to take reduced pays for more flexible work hours and longer vacations.

This is why it is a good idea to offer flexible work hours, good vacation conditions, and the option to organize themselves as long as their productivity and performance are not jeopardized.

4. Allow them to have choose their own project:

Every day, your millennial employees should have the option to work on projects they deem interesting. Of course, this is only if you can afford this. But, even a small amount of time will still mean a lot to your millennial employees.

When employees have the freedom to work on things they want, they will feel like they have more control and they’ll get more engaged with your company, bringing innovative solutions to your business and figuring out new ways for you to profit and be successful. This is how the younger employees you hire will use their potential to be innovative and creative.

Additionally, it's generally a good idea to give them the option of choosing projects that they will work on. This is a good alternative if you simply cannot provide them with free time to tackle projects of their own.

5. Recognize their hard work:

Millennials like hearing that their work is recognized and, when they do well, you should praise their efforts. The earlier generations were simply satisfied with the fact that they made money from their jobs and this was enough for them, but not for millennials. Millennials want to know that there is someone who is monitoring their performance and will appreciate their hard work.

This is because Millennials think highly of themselves and the work they do. Additionally, as a part of this, millennials also have less patience when it comes to getting a promotion or a raise. This is why it is a good idea to develop smaller incentives for promotions and bonuses, to show appreciation.

Conclusion:

Create smaller title upgrades and you can require a certain amount of results that need to be achieved in order to get the promotion. This is how they will feel motivated to make progress in their career more quickly and be open towards self-development as well as investing themselves in your business.

If you keep in mind the things we mentioned today, you will have no problems keeping young employees and motivating them to work harder. In the end, it’s all about creating a natural work environment where everyone is involved and feels cared of.

Author Bio :

Kamy Anderson is an ed-tech enthusiast with a passion for writing on emerging technologies in the areas of corporate training and education. He is an expert in learning management system & elearning authoring tools - currently associated with ProProfs.