6 Ways to Keep Working with Millennials

working with millennials
Millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers as the nation's largest living population, and are expected to comprise nearly 75% of the working population by 2025. As your workforce keeps working with Millennials, knowing how to keep these valuable employees engaged will help keep your company running smoothly. Here are six strategies you can start using today:

1. Support their educational goals

Millennials are believers in life long education. Even after completing an undergraduate degree, they're eager to learn more!but they're limited by the student debt that's already weighing heavily on their shoulders. When it comes to educational assistance, one third of Millennials think their employer should help repay their existing student loans, while 50% expect financial support in paying for further education.

2. Give Millennials opportunities for career development

Contrary to popular belief, Millennials are actually quite ambitious. They want access to learning and development opportunities, and they're willing to make sacrifices in order to get them. In fact, 60% said they would pick a job with strong professional development potential over one with regular pay raises.

3. Provide support for their families

Millennials are waiting longer to have children, and will likely hold more advanced, mid-career roles when the time to start a family rolls around. In the absence of family friendliness, many may rethink their careers - roughly half of new parents have taken a new job, opting for less money, but more family friendliness.

4. Promote flexibility

Right now, Millennials range in age between 19 and 35. That means they have a variety of responsibilities on their plates - from work and financial duties to continuing their educations and caring for their children and elder relatives. And they're looking for employers who will make it possible for them to do it all...by way of flexible schedules and telecommuting.

5. Not just working with Millennials: mentoring them

It's not constant pats on the back and positive feedback that Millennials crave. They want guidance in their professional lives, and 79% of them say mentoring is crucial to their career success. A mentorship program can help employees adjust to workplace culture and give them invaluable on-the-job learning and experience.

6. Help Millennials help others

Giving back matters to them ; so much so that 55% said their companies' volunteer opportunities played into their decision to accept their job offer. And they care what you stand for, too. A recent survey found that nearly two-thirds of Millennials were at least somewhat more likely to want to work for a company that gave to charity than one that did not.

Millennials are the future of your organization. Knowing what matters most in the world of working with Millennials will give them a reason to stick around and will keep you a step ahead of your competition.
Bright Horizons
About the Author
Bright Horizons
Bright Horizons
In 1986, our founders saw that child care was an enormous obstacle for working parents. On-site centers became one way we responded to help employees – and organizations -- work better. Today we offer child care, elder care, and help for education and careers -- tools used by more than 1,000 of the world’s top employers and that power many of the world's best brands
working with millennials

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