5 Training Strategies To Help Engage and Retain Millennial Employees

Millennials are now the largest generation in the workforce, making it more important than ever to understand and motivate them in the workplace. Retaining millennial talent can be an ongoing challenge for employers. Only 50% of millennials plan to stay with their current employer long-term; willing to leave for better pay, benefits, or career growth. However, 86% of millennials would rather stay with one employer and grow than move from new job to new job. They recognize the benefits of stability,

but are willing to look outside of their current employment situation to reach their career goals.

These statistics, combined with that fact that “80% of Millennials said that an emphasis on personal growth is the most important quality of a company’s culture,” tells employers that they have a great opportunity to make an impact with their learning and development initiatives.

Here are 5 strategies that employers can add to their learning and development program that can help engage and retain millennial employees.

Strategy #1: Set Goals With Your Employees

Some millennial employees are trying to figure out what their career goals are, and some may already have career goals that they are working towards. Either way, incorporating goal setting into a learning and development programs is a great way to help ensure that millennials feel like they are learning and moving forward in their professional development.

eLearning is an excellent way to help your employees create, track and meet their goals. Setting goals allow managers to:

• Better understand what employees need from them in terms of training opportunities
• Provide the training opportunities employees are looking for so that they don’t look elsewhere
• Strategize with their employees to help them meet their goals while still aligning with company goals

Strategy #2: Connect Millennial Employees With Mentorship

As highlighted in G2’s Crowd’s article on 2019 HR statistics, 83% of employers believe attracting and retaining talent is a growing hiring challenge. One way to combat this statistic is by providing employees, especially millennial employees, with access to mentors. Whether your organization offers online mentoring or connects employees with on-site mentors, they can provide great growth opportunities for employees and employers.

What are some specific areas where a mentor can help more junior employees?

• Mentors can expedite onboarding. Mentors can help with the informal aspects of training, like introducing the new employee understand their role and the company’s culture to make onboarding an easier, faster process.
• Mentors correct mistakes before they become big ones. A close mentor relationship allows an experienced employee to be aware of what the employee is doing and make corrections as needed to improve employee performance.
• Mentors promote millennial employee retention. According to a study by Deloitte, “millennials planning to stay with their employer for more than five years were twice as likely to have a mentor (68%) than not.”

Strategy #3: Provide The Material Needed To Promote From Within

An emphasis on developing employees and promoting from within is a great way to engage, motivate and retain millennial talent while benefiting the company.

• Rewarding loyalty
• Allows for a path to career growth
• Faster training
• Higher retention
• Encourages employees to keep developing themselves and showing leadership

Millennials may learn differently from previous generations. They grew up with technology, which means that they are familiar and comfortable with it.

Strategy #4: Train Millennials In A Way That Is Meaningful To Them

Here are 4 points about millennial learning to keep in mind as you create or revamp a workplace training program. Because millennials learn so much differently than previous generations, adapting workplace training to align with their learning styles can help make a significant difference in engaging and retaining millennial talent.

1. They are used to learning online
2. Their short attention spans mean shorter training is better
3. They want to be able to quickly search for an answer to their questions
4. They expect learning to be personalized to them

Generic company training can be necessary, but as technology becomes more advanced, it is possible to also personalize training offerings to specific employees.

Strategy #5: Personalize the Training You Offer

Tools like learning management systems help personalize training by allowing administrators to set specific learning paths for employees. The system can also facilitate the ability for learners to identify and take training that they think is most beneficial to their goals. Personalized training promotes more engagement from millennials and shows them that the company cares about their professional development and career goals. It can be a gradual process to create or revamp a training program, but these are some great strategies to keep in mind as you do it. Millennials are an important part of the workforce and they are very different than previous generations. Taking the time to build a training program the aligns with the way that they learn can be rewarding for the employee and the business.

About Knowledge Anywhere

Knowledge Anywhere is an eLearning company focused on providing flexible, modern learning and development solutions that enable organizations to harness the power of an engaged, knowledgeable workforce. Our Learning Management System, Virtual Reality Training, and Course Development services, combined with our experience and customer support enables our users to create a learning and development program that boosts sales and drives company growth.