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Millennials come out of college with a higher capacity and capability than in previous decades. If they are bored and not challenged, they will leave, and quickly. How do you motivate them and make them feel challenged, so your company is a career for them and not a stop? Here are four key ways to keep millennials in the manufacturing industry.

Focus on Engagement

Employees of the millennial generation are interested in doing work that keeps them engaged and intellectually stimulated. The manufacturing industry is full of opportunities to capitalize on these goals. The IoT and digital revolution is bring manufacturing into a very exciting era. Managers can leverage this by having their fingers on the pulse of each team members’ overall engagement level and interests, as well as their performance. Creating an open conversation about goal setting and career development will bring the long-term interests of an employee into the forefront of the conversation.

Understanding the interplay of skills and how team members provide value within the context of the projects they work on is critical. This provides the information you need as a manager to directly engage and maintain their interest in the work.  Offering the opportunity for regular one-on-one meetings or mentorship programs can help make employees feel that their leadership is fully invested in their engagement, their success, and their overall happiness.

Adjust Your Communication Style

Millennials are unique in that they demand to be included in decision making processes, and really communicated with – rather than spoken to or managed. You can provide those opportunities and make adjustments to communication styles as needed to help attract and retain the sorts of employees that will bring a renewed energy into your daily work. These simple adjustments might even bring some new energy into your older employees as well, as an engaging corporate culture is sure to benefit the team as a whole.

Show Your Appreciation

One of the greatest contributors to unhappiness in the workforce is a feeling of being unappreciated. With millennials, they simply won’t stick around long enough for that to happen. Appreciation can take the form of appropriate financial compensation, but more often than not it is a simply about recognition. Each employee has a different way in which they feel appreciated, and managers are regularly tasked with finding out how their top performers prefer to be recognized and rewarded for their successes.

Create a Strong Culture

In terms of overall worker happiness, the modern millennial workforce is looking for more than the basic benefits and compensation packages. There will always be another company willing to offer a little more money to retain their top employees, but consider what you can offer beyond a pay bump. It really comes down to work culture in the end. Offering extra paid time off, sick leave, maternity or paternity leave will help show that you value their happiness outside of the workplace as much as within. Encouraging staff to maintain healthy lifestyles with a paid gym membership or extracurricular activities helps create the work-life balance that maintains emotional contentment.

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