Five Ways to Engage Your Millennial Employees

Any workforce today has a mix of Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials. While Baby Boomers continue to form the largest section of the employee population, by 2020 they are going to be overtaken by the Millennials. Already the Millennials account for the second largest proportion of the workforce, ahead of Gen X.
The rise of Millennials in any organization has a strong impact on the organization, especially its culture. For instance, managements across organizations have implemented a certain style of employee engagement strategy for years. However, now that needs to change. Millennials have been raised in an environment which is markedly different from that of their predecessors. It is prudent, therefore, for organizations to take a close look at their strategy to engage millennials.

We have listed down five key areas that organizations should consider while revamping their employee engagement policies for the millennials.

• Flexibility: Millennials enjoy flexibility in the way they work. For example, according to a recent study conducted by Millennial Branding, 89% of Millennials prefer to choose when and where they work rather than being placed in a 9-to-5 position.However, this fondness for flexibility is not just limited to logistical elements like work timing. Millennials also like having the autonomy to do their work in their own way, which might very often deviate from the tried and tested methods of the past.

• Clear Career Path:The new generation is very career focused. However, they also want work life balance.Being cognizant of where their career is heading helps them in planning their life ahead. This in turn, helps them to constantly maintain that balance between their profession, and their interests outside of work. Hence, if an organization wants to engage and retain any millennial talent, it is imperative that s/he is taken through a well chalked out career plan. This eases his/her anxiety pertaining to his/her career, thus enabling greater focus on delivering their best for the organization.

• Role: Stemming from the clarity of their career paths, another critical area to engage millennials is to offer them roles which challenge them. A typical 9 to 5 job is not something that excites the new generation. Studies show that professional growth & development is one of the strongest motivators for millennials. They need to be offered roles which allow that to them. Their role should judiciously utilize their capabilities, and challenge them to push themselves further to innovate. In fact, according to a recent study by Deloitte, nearly 70% of Millennials prefer working for organizations that actively reward employees for innovative ideas.

• Continuous Feedback:The millennials are a generation of here and now. They are used to getting things immediately (almost!). The ever so reducing delivery time offered by e-commerce companies (same day delivery!) is a testament to this drive for instant gratification. When it comes to the professional front, it is no different. Millennials expect instant feedback. The gap between annual, bi-annual appraisals is too huge to keep them engaged. It is important that their managers share their feedback with the millennials regularly. Importantly, this feedback shouldn’t be limited to the positives and negatives of what they are doing, but also include specific inputs on what are the areas/skills that they need to improve to get ahead in their career.

• Socialization: There was a time when employees wanted to keep their professional & personal lives separate. However, for the millennials these two worlds are closer than ever before. Be it adding colleagues on ‘personal’ social media sites like Facebook & Instagram (as opposed to a more professional networking site like LinkedIn), or spending post work evenings bonding with colleagues at a pub, the millennials are more open to bridge that gulf between what’s personal & professional. Socializing comes more naturally to them, than their predecessors. This is also reflected in the fact that millennials enjoy working in teams, juxtapose their predecessors who preferred contributing individually. Any engagement strategy for millennials ought to look at this motivation for them as well.
In conclusion, millennials are the immediate future for organizations and it is critical that they engage them well. One of the first steps in this initiative is to understand the specifics of what drives the millennials in their organization. An employee engagement survey would benefit greatly in achieving this. Based on the findings of the survey, organizations can then lay down a strategy to engage their millennials, which would help organizations grow in the long run.

InpireOne’s employee engagement survey, in partnership with IBM Smarter Workforce, empowers organizations to drive business performance through in-depth insights on the pulse of the organization.

Assessments Outcome - InspireOne

When including assessments into the recruitment process, most clients we speak to are keen to know the outcomes and often focus on reduced time to hire and lesser turnover.

As a consequence of introducing assessments, other improvements such as consistency in the process and a better idea of which sourcing channel is identifying better candidates are also very much possible.

We like to think of these as Tier 1 metrics or the ‘non-negotiables’. Unfortunately, most organizations do not build up on those improvements to realize possible improvements in business outcomes. We define these as Tier 2 metrics and they largely vary based on the job role.

For instance, for sales roles, what is the improvement in sales productivity as a result of introducing new organization assessment solutions? Or for quality & product development roles, has selecting the right employee translated into better brand quality?

In order to realize this, it’s important to view assessments as a long term (5 to 10 year) investment decision. That in turn enables organizations to view immediate and long term benefits that result from the out-years and are correlated with business performance.

The best starting point for implementing such a strategy is to first identify the most critical job role in any organization or industry. This could be a Store Manager or Assistant Store Manager in Retail, a Branch Manager for Financial Services firms, a Developer for Software or IT organizations or a Warehouse Manager for eCommerce companies.

So how long term & strategic is your assessment approach?

Let the Project Management Begin!!

The account is closed and the monies start rolling in.  We’ve bagged the client and it’s a brand name that is worth bragging of for the years to come.  The account manager has earned his incentives for a job well done.

Then begins the interesting albeit overwhelming phase of project management.

The question that most project managers grapple with is this: Is Project Management the SCIENCE OF MANAGING THE PROJECT OR THE ART OF MANAGING THE CLIENT? There are some sticky situations that we, as project managers tend to get into. I’ve touched upon a few key ones below:

Sticky Situation 1: Creepy Crawlies

The client asks for additional deliverables that were not accounted for in the project scope. These requests creep in subtly but may soon snowball into a large-ish scope extension which impacts the project financially

What can we do? Ask the right questions initially which will define the scope of the project more tightly. Also evaluate the client request to see whether it can be accommodated with minimal cost and resource implication

Sticky Situation 2: Pass the Parcel

Your internal delivery team members are not on the same page as you when it comes to what needs to get delivered for the client. This is a sticky situation which presents itself more often when there are multiple delivery consultants working on the same project.

What can we do? Communication is the key! Always keeps the communication flowing between client and delivery consultants. You need to make sure that any recent information is passed on to the other party with the suitable context so that there is no room for misinterpretation

Sticky Situation 3: You just missed the bus

How often does it happen that you’ve communicated the deadline for a client delivery internally to the project team and delivery team right at the beginning of the project and they still miss the date?  You had prepared a detailed project plan and even marked a reminder on your calendar.  But you end up losing credibility with the client.

What can we do? It’s a good idea to have in-process steps within your project plan. For example, if a communication mail needs to be sent out on 15th September, it’s not merely enough to have the 15th September highlighted in your project plan. Plan for the interim steps and work backward so that you have a deadline of 10th September to create the draft invite, 12th September for internal approval, and so on. Also, have a reminder in your calendar to remind your project team of the approaching deadline!

Sticky Situation 4: Oh oh! Didn’t see this coming

The faster you learn that you are not God, the better! Not everything is in your hands and unexpected circumstances at the client end can change the scope in a project sometimes.  You haven’t accounted for this change and now your entire plan around costing and resourcing flies out the window

What can we do? Ever heard of a ‘Plan B’? At the inkling of an unexpected scenario, sit with the client and discuss the potential risks to the project. Then, do the same with your internal project and delivery team. Pick on each other’s brains to come up with contingency plans around the given cost and resources. You’d be surprised to find out that the dumb-looking guy on the project team is actually the brightest bulb!