Millennials are the largest workforce that we’ve seen in recent years. The issue, though, comes not at how to attract Millennials to your organization – it’s about keeping them. According to a report by Deloitte, Millennial retention is at a record low. And companies can’t afford to lose out on the influence of this generation.
According to the Deloitte report, two-thirds of Millennials have a desire to leave their respective organizations by 2020. Two-thirds. That’s a huge chunk of the overall workforce. This also goes beyond Americans – Millennials from several countries across Latin America, Europe, and Asia were also surveyed and reported high percentages of Millennial employees wanting to leave their current organizations within the next five years.
The Cause Behind the Job-Hunt Mentality
But why do Millennials feel this way? Well, there’s various factors that have to be taken into account when analyzing why Millennials reject traditional employer loyalty. As the report states:
“More than six in 10 Millennials (63 percent) say their ‘leadership skills are not being fully developed’…last year we observed that ‘regardless of gender or geography, only 28 percent of Millennials feel that their current organizations are making ‘full use’ of the skills they currently have to offer.”
The image of the job-hopping Millennial may be a persuasive stereotype, but it does have validity. However, the issues that Millennials encounter regarding professional responsibility and expectations can be a large motivator for their job-hopping.
All About Leadership Skills
Leadership skills also play a key role in Millennial employees’ attitudes about their organizations. A stunning 71 percent of those “most likely to leave in the next two years are unhappy with how their leadership skills are being developed”.
For those who have no plans to leave their organizations at this time stated that they’re more likely to agree on two key factors: they want and support training available to those wanting to take on more of a leadership role, and they like the encouragement younger employees receive to aim for leadership roles.
Likewise, two key reasons why Millennials want to leave are rooted in: being overlooked for leadership roles, and having their leadership skills not be fully developed.
Where’s the Middle-Ground?
So, the main question arises: how do we retain Millennials at their companies while also addressing their concerns regarding leadership? It’s the responsibility of the company to best utilize their workforce, no matter what generation they’re part of. Millennials carry a large amount of influence in trends that affect a majority of career paths, and it would be detrimental to the growth of the company to lose out on this.
Retaining Millennials and keeping them happy comes down to understanding how to incorporate their concerns into the company mission – allowing them to rise up and take on responsibility for carrying the company’s mission forward on their terms.