Millennials Are Hungry for Training and Career Development

As a leader in the staffing industry, businesses regularly come to us for advice. Since we're a specialized recruiting firm, we make it easier than ever for businesses to recruit the talent they need. While we provide a variety of employer solutions for recruiting, businesses often have questions about what they should do next. For example, we're commonly asked what can be done to help boost retention. Specifically, businesses want to know how they can keep their millennial employees around for longer.

Understanding the Millennial Mindset

In order to figure out how to retain millennial employees, it's important to first understand their mindset. With previous generations, most people viewed working for the same company as the key to long-term security. Their belief was that if they showed their loyalty through decades of hard work, the company would take care of them over the long-term.

While there are plenty of examples of relationships which worked that way, things started to dramatically change around the time of the financial crisis. Since that event and the subsequent fallout caused all the rules to be thrown out the window, the initial experience many millennials had with the job market was one that reflected an "every person for themselves" mentality.

Add to that the fact that countless millennials have struggled to get the types of jobs they want out of college as a result of not having the right experience, and it's not hard to understand why most millennials have no problem jumping to the best opportunity that presents itself.

Gaining Millennial Loyalty is Possible

Although millennials don't default to long-term employer loyalty, it's not impossible to build this type of relationship. The key is understanding what millennials are looking for. While a competitive salary is important, it's generally not the top priority for most members of this generation.

In personal terms, surveys show that millennials desire scheduling flexibility. This can be in terms of smaller issues like coming in earlier and leaving earlier (or vice-versa), as well as having the ability to take time off to travel. Providing those types of lifestyle benefits can be significant for millennial retention.

On the professional side, there are two very important factors for millennials. The first is feeling like they're part of something bigger than themselves. This is why it's so important for businesses to have a clear mission statement and strong company culture. Surveys also show that millennials are very interested in receiving company support for training and development. Putting those types of programs in place will go a long way towards keep millennial employees around for as long as possible.

If your company wants to work with a team of experienced recruiting staff who can help your business thrive, be sure to contact us to discuss more about how we can help.