Young blood – how to help youthful employees thrive

Young blood – how to help youthful employees thrive

As the millennial generation continues to move into and eventually take over the work force, it is becoming more and more important to adapt business thinking to keep these younger employees engaged, interested, and thriving in the workplace.

After all, if you’re not able to keep young workers engaged, you are likely to suffer as talented potential recruits take their skills elsewhere.

With that in mind, here are some tips on helping these employees thrive:                          

                                       

Training and learning

The young are ambitious – perhaps now more than ever. This means that your younger employees are keen on advancing and improving their knowledge, as a path to upwards movement.

You’ll want to nurture and allow this impulse to thrive – after all, the more skilled they are the greater their contribution to your business – and an ideal way to do so is through mentorships.

A culture of mentorship with respected management figures not only helps young workers feel fulfilled, it encourages their growth to the benefit of the company.

Flexibility

Today’s young employees want a flexible approach to work – companies like Google are famous for their ability to combine work and fun.

This dedication to flexibility needs an outlet, often characterised in a ‘work hard, play hard’ mentality.

For modern businesses, this increasingly means allowing flexible work hours, or even work from home days. The easy availability of technology is facilitating this, as it makes it easy to have meetings and do work wherever you happen to be.

Taking this step does require some trust in your staff – you need to know work will be completed regardless of hours worked. But you’ll likely find that the young workers of today will reward your trust, and excel.

Culture

Workplace culture has become a necessity for the modern youth. No longer can jobs just be jobs: they need to be fun, engaging and collaborative.

This also means giving youthful employees responsibility – it shows a healthy respect and trust for what they have to offer. Alongside this, it’s important to allow young employees to give voice to their opinions.

Most of all, however, you should try to encourage a familial feel in the workplace. This helps employees feel happy and productive, less like they’re at work and more like home.

To create this sort of feel, you can arrange fun events for your employees, or even just install a foosball table.

Feedback

Millenials in the workplace welcome feedback. Reaching targets and being recognised for their effort is expected, showing them that their work is worthwhile.

The trick here is to do so in a way that doesn’t rankle with older employees. However, you will likely find that your older employees embrace the changes millennial culture brings to the workplace wholeheartedly.

All that’s left to you is to reap the rewards.