Millennials are rapidly changing the workplace. And in as few as 5 years, millennials will make up 35%-40% of the workforce.
Many managers have felt challenged in how they can improve millennial engagement and productivity in the workplace. Millennials prefer transparency, direct dialogue, and better work-life balance. As a result, millennials have confronted established organizational practices like no generation before them.
Now as the millennials take on managerial roles at the workplace, organizational leadership has to come up with strategies to better engage with them.
Check out these five tips on engaging millennial managers listed below. It is based on what we at Thanks have learned from working with hundreds of companies on their employee engagement programs.
Tip 1: Listen Closely to Your Millennial Managers.
Millennials are more candid at voicing their opinions, and they don’t necessarily seek anonymity to do so. Millennials are more likely to state their stand on issues upfront. This is the case even when there is a tall managerial hierarchy. Nor do they hesitate to show dissatisfaction by walking out of the organization.
Millennials often do not require anonymity. But, many appreciate the chance to give feedback through anonymous surveys. This allows them to be more blunt and focused than they already are.
Surprisingly, unlike previous generations, millennials don’t seem to change their approval of the organization as they move up the ladder. It takes specific, fundamental changes to alter their perception.
As a result, companies must institute mechanisms like open collaboration and communication platforms. These platforms must adequately capture the opinions of millennial managers. Millennials are more comfortable and familiar with technology than any other generation. They often value collaboration more than other tangible benefits of employment.
Tip 2: Promote a Culture of Equality.
Studies have shown that millennials tend to demonstrate far higher levels of sensitivity to inequality than their predecessors. Managers in this generation like to win, but they don’t necessarily seek to win at all costs.
To better engage with managers, the workplace must be seen as one that is fair and equitable. This includes choices such as job allocations, pay, and promotions.
This sense of fairness and equality translates into how millennial managers respond to company policies and feedback from higher management.
Millennial managers are more likely to respond to a peer-to-peer approach than a dominant top-down managerial approach. They are also more likely to approach their team from a consulting and coaching standpoint than to ask for obedience to archaic rules.
When millennial managers understand the whys of a rule, they are more likely to engage. They can then bring their millennial teams to engage with the guidelines and values of the company. below
Tip 3: Get the Employer Branding Right.
The millennial generation has proven to be one of the most astute and conscious generations when it comes to the employer brand.
One study shows that millennials who are proud to tell their friends and families about where they work are almost 20 times more likely to have an extended career with the company.
Thus, companies must use all means at their disposal to promote their brand internally. Millennials care about global and social good.
It’s important to communicate how your company’s mission, services, and goods help individuals or the community. Highlight how your company solves problems and helps others. Talk about extra activities, donations, and non-profit support.
Technology platforms today let companies customize layouts and encourage employer branding in ways that were previously not possible.
It is time for HR to take a page out of the Marketing team’s playbook and better engage with their clients – the employees.
Tip 4: Leadership Has to Walk the Talk
Millennials have demonstrated time and again that they prefer transparency over hierarchy. Millennial managers must see authenticity from their leadership in order to be convinced of the direction the company is headed.
In short, leaders now have to walk the talk. When leadership tells their millennial managers that they care, they better mean it. Research has shown that millennials respond well to leaders who show a genuine interest in them.
Some of the questions most often asked of leaders by the millennial managers are:
- What makes our company unique?
- What makes us different and what do we do that will make us win ethically?
- Why does leadership seem to say one thing and do another?
- When the going gets tough, how do we stick to our stated principles?
Honest answers to these are the minimum threshold leadership needs to cross to convince millennial managers to better engage further on with their teams.
Tip 5: Leverage Technology to Facilitate Bi-directional Conversations
Millennials don’t like to be ordered around. They prefer to participate in conversations, even if some conversations are contentious and uncomfortable ones. They also want to feel connected, not just to the world around them, but to their work and coworkers.
Plus, as a generation, they believe far less in power distance from the top management. As millennials move into management roles, they are increasingly showing a preference for platforms that enable them to receive real-time and transparent feedback. They like feedback not just from their superiors, but also from their team members.
They want to collaborate, connect, and converse with their team members. Often this includes communication via technology. Non-millennial managers are having to reevaluate their views of social media at work.
Social platforms may feel like a time-waster in the workforce. But, the connection it fosters among millennials may actually increase productivity by helping millennials to feel connected with their work and coworkers. This can increase collaboration and decrease millennial turnover.
Technology platforms like Thanks, empower companies to get those conversations going seamlessly. This generation has been referred to as the digital natives. Subjecting them to formal, hierarchical, unidirectional, top-down communication simply doesn’t engage them.
Conclusion
The author Simo Sinek in his book Start with Why demonstrated the uncomplicated framework leaders can use to better engage with their millennial managers. He said;
“Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. By WHY I mean your purpose, cause or belief – WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care?”
About Thanks
Thanks is a leading provider of a recognition-based platform that increases communication, builds teamwork, and makes recognition a part of company culture. Fast, easy and simple Thanks makes it easy to bring data-driven employee recognition to your entire organization. O.C. Tanner purchased the Thanks platform in 2019 to fulfill the recognition needs of smaller businesses.
Thanks customers benefit from the same decades of research in employee motivation and company culture that O.C. Tanner enterprise clients enjoy, but in a product that is geared for fast, easy and simple deployment. Whether you’re starting a recognition program or improving and expanding on what you already have, Thanks has everything you need to engage your people with effective, scalable recognition. Thanks is a subsidiary of OC Tanner.