I have a dilemma. We have too much turnover in my company. We hire young, energetic people that are from the millennial generation, for the most part. We hire the very people that Senator Bernie Sanders speaks to about free public university. These good people are defined, loosely, as people who were born from the early 80’s to around 2000. How many of these good people do you think there are? How about 80 million, making it the biggest cohort size in history. In comparison, there were 76.4 million baby boomers.

Next year, the millennial generation will comprise 36% of the U.S. workforce and by 2020, they will be nearly half of all workers. While this generation is the most educated and culturally diverse of any generation before them, they’re also notorious job-hoppers who do not conform to traditional hierarchies, leaving many business leaders scratching their heads, me included.

Tapping into this generation of workers is not easy. Coming from a generation (Generation X) that is widely considered the “middle child” because we are stuck between the baby boomers and millennial generations, I have to work extra hard to understand my employees and to understand what motivates them, because what motivates them doesn’t necessarily motivate me. So I digress and research and become one with the most powerful of search engines to find out just what it is that I’m missing.

So, if you are a business leader and all of this sounds too familiar to you, read on because I have researched and found a few ways to the hearts of this generation.

  1. Always explain your company vision as the millennial generation is not comprised of people who simply “punch the clock” for a living. Millennial’s have to buy into your vision and feel as though there is a purpose for supporting you. They must feel valued by you and as though they are making a difference in the lives of others.
  2. You must prioritize community service. The millennial generation will put more emphasis on this than on a high-paying career. This may cost you though and when creating line-items, you may have to create a line-item for “community service.” Using company resources to meet their desire for social consciousness is a big plus.
  3. Develop in-between steps and titles. When I worked in Corporate America I found out that waiting to be hired as a manager at Johnson & Johnson could take up to 9 years. That’s all I needed to hear to know that J & J was not for me. Advancing in my career is important to me and had I known that J & J had in-between steps so that my need for promotion could be satisfied sooner, I may not be writing this blog right now.
  4. Giving encouragement and regular feedback is huge and since we live in a world of instant gratification, it’s all this generation knows. Simple congratulatory words go a long way with this generation and knowing when and how to take this step is important. Setting guidelines and open channels of communication from the get go will make it easier to give credit when it is due.
  5. Offer your employees more flexibility. Since a person has to be physically available to teach learn-to-swim lessons, my resolve is to offer shorter shifts. My employees appreciate this because I know that work-life balance is important to them. I would rather them work less than work them to the core and be confronted with more turnover than the industry norm.
  6. Providing education and professional development is a must and since most of my hires are still in school, this is only true for a few of my employees. But the few that I am referring too are the ones that makeup the core of my business, so you bet that professional development and education is something that I will continue to develop so that I can hire and retain top industry talent. One of our greatest assets is the people that makeup the core of my company.
  7. Respecting your employees independence is key to knowing who this generation is. This generation is great at generating ideas, asking for help and wanting to be a part of making the ideas come to life. This generation does not march to the beat of our drummer, so to know them is to march to the beat of theirs.

So let’s get back to my company, Evolution Swim Academy and the turnover that I experience. When one person leaves this company, I take it personal and feel as though I am letting my clients down and to a point, feel as though I have let the outgoing employee down. I know that this industry is full of turnover and working with todays generation, it looks to get worse before it gets better. I know that when an employee leaves my company, many children get affected which is why I have decided to work on the controllable and that is, to continue to innovate and provide a place where my employees will always feel valued. I will make my vision crystal clear and show them that no matter how long they are here that they can make a difference in the life of a child. I promise to offer them feedback more often than not and look to tap into their choice of community services, and encourage them, with my help, to explore that side of their being. My employees will know that they can get paid more for consistency and if they want to make this a long-term endeavor, we have a place that will encourage continued education and professional development. In the end, I know that my employees are more about being valued than about being paid and knowing this, I look forward to building strong and lasting relationships with those that are interested in working for this great company.