How to Coach Millennial Employees
As I’ve written before, feedback is important for millennial employees. Whether they’re doing a good job or not, they simply want to know how their efforts are measuring up to your expectations. Many millennials grew up with responsive parents and participated in a lot of highly coached extracurricular activities such as sports and the arts, […]
Employee Perks That Work: Free Food is Nice, But a Great Career is Better
Lately, many of my clients and audiences have been asking: What employee perks actually work to retain millennials? Or, phrased another way: Do millennials really care about unlimited snacks and daily chair massages? This question has been discussed in the news lately as well. And I believe it’s an important topic: What actually motivates young […]
IBM Study Looks at Myths About Millennials in the Workplace
IBM recently released a surprising report about millennials, and their findings suggest that Millennials are not, in fact, self-centered snowflakes who can’t take criticism. The study, “Myths, exaggerations and uncomfortable truths: The real story behind Millennials in the workplace,” emphasizes the importance of creating a multi-generational workplace and outlines how millennials have many of the […]
Millennials Are Looking for a Strong Company Culture
Culture — if your company has a great one, you already know it. A strong company culture helps employees connect with their employer. Millennials in particular tend to look for a strong company culture — they want to know what’s important to their employers and how the workplace environment reflects that. This week, I’ve been […]
How to Create a Sense of Purpose at Work
Having a sense of purpose at work can help employees feel more engaged — like they’re part of something bigger. I’ve found that millennial employees in particular are looking for this level of fulfillment from their jobs. Employers that can articulate and provide a strong sense of purpose may more effectively recruit and engage millennials. […]
Are You Setting New Managers Up for Success?
Last winter I started doing yoga. As someone who is not naturally coordinated, calm or interested in chanting, I had no idea what I was doing at the beginning. So I took some lessons. Then I worked my way up to classes. And now, a year later, I can occasionally hold a crow pose for […]
How to Mentor Millennials at Work
Even though millennials love communicating with technology, they value face time and one-on-one connections as well. Today’s young professionals want to hear how they’re doing and what they could be doing better, and a mentoring relationship is a perfect way to fulfill that need. Mentoring can also give millennial employees leadership development opportunities, which they’re […]
How Training and Development Opportunities Boost Millennials’ Employee Satisfaction
Millennial employees love training and development — and it’s one of the top things they seek from their employers. When they have opportunities to learn and grow in their roles and prepare themselves to advance and take on new challenges, young professionals are more satisfied with their employers. And employers benefit, too, by having more […]
The Millennial CEO
I recently attended a party hosted by a startup run almost entirely by millennials. I had the opportunity to chat with the company’s twenty-something founder and CEO, who gamely answered my probing questions about his leadership style. (“So, you study people like me?” he asked politely.) What struck me most was the CEO’s lack of […]
How to Build a Flexible Workplace
Millennials are looking for flexibility in the workplace — they’re comfortable checking work email from home, but they also want to be able to check personal emails at work, for example. This can be challenging for employers, especially large organizations in which different employees are looking for different things, such as job-sharing, working from home […]