By Rony Zarom
The Millennial generation, those born between 1980 and 2000, is projected to make up 75 percent of the U.S. workforce by 2025. With an army of Millennials suiting up to take shape as our imminent workplace leaders, integrating and cultivating this generation into the workforce today is critical to the future success of your business.
However, this has not been an easy task for business leaders, as just like the generations before them, Millennials work, interact, and engage differently. Employers surveyed in a PwC “Millennials at Work” report admitted that reaching and retaining this talent pool is one of the biggest challenges they face. And it shows: a survey by Business Insider and News To Live By, found that 37 percent of Millennials left their first job after just two years.
On top of this, the Millennial workforce craves engaging training. When asked what benefits they most value from an employer, 35 percent of respondents said they were attracted to employers who offer excellent professional development programs and saw this as the top benefit they sought from an employer.
Clearly, there is a disconnect. Corporate training programs must be modified to resonate with Millennials, and the first step in doing so is understanding how technology has changed this generation’s behaviors. To better engage, onboard, attract, and retain Millennial talent, here are three ways companies can structure their training initiatives to meet our future workforce’s unique learning and working style.
1. Don’t be basic: Make learning MOBILE
As a generation of digital natives and the largest segment of smartphone users with 19 out of every 20 Millennial owning a device, Millennials naturally adapt technology to suit what is most useful or convenient for them, including learning. While previous generations needed to attend live classes, perform research at the library, and read required materials to succeed, Millennials began to rely on technology and mobile applications at an early age to get things done more efficiently.
This mobile-first generation has also spurred a remote workforce, as technology has broken down geographic barriers workers were once tethered to. Just as employees today have come to expect work-from-home options, they are similarly primed for remote training options delivered through mobile-friendly learning programs.
Whether it be creating a mobile app that provides access to pertinent training materials, allowing employees to videoconference into a session remotely, or creating digital employee manuals, mobile training presents vast opportunity for employers to engage and educate workers. This approach caters to employees who have become accustomed to flexibility at work, allowing them to learn at their own paces, and via their own devices. No longer a nice-to-have, a mobile-first approach is a mainstay for corporate learning programs of the future.
2. Speak their language: Make learning SOCIAL
As the true pioneers and stewards of social media, the Digital Age belongs to Millennials. This generation witnessed the birth of the World Wide Web and were the first curious adopters of digital collaboration tools like AOL instant messaging and online chat rooms. As result, this generation inspired the creation of social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, to meet their demand for constant social interaction. Today, Millennials are accustomed to ingesting news and information socially, and the process of interacting with the outside world through social media and mobile devices is instinctive.
Just as marketers have developed social selling approaches to reach consumers through their native social channels, corporate trainers must do the same. Training programs should be adapted to include scrolling feeds that emulate the look and feel of social networks and allow for real-time question and answer sessions that feel as natural to Millennials as Gchats or Facebook Messenger.
Millennials are also natural collaborators, with 88 percent preferring a collaborative work-culture to a competitive one, according to studies of Millenials by The Intelligent Group. Training programs that foster employee collaboration through social networking applications, especially those with videoconferencing capabilities, allow Millennials to learn in a way that’s most like their personal socialization habits. New technology that enables social group learning dynamics and breakout training sessions will soon replace the awkward corporate conference call of days past.
3. Use video to engage and mentor: Make learning PERSONAL
Certain elements of traditional training programs, like in-person mentorship programs, are worth reviving and improving. According to the “Millennials at Work” report, career progression is the top priority for Millennials, ahead of competitive salaries, which comes in second. And when it comes to climbing the ladder, Millennials place high value on gaining experience and wisdom from their peers, managers, and company leaders.
As a group of workers who delight at any opportunity to engage, interact, and learn from others, new digital mentorship programs and peer-to-peer learning can be achieved through video. Google is one company doing peer training well. In 2013, 2,000 Googlers taught classes, teaching 55 percent of the company’s formal training sessions. Add live, dynamic video to these sessions and voila -- personal mentorship and training at scale.
However, we must keep in mind that on-demand videos are commonplace for Millennials. A search for ‘‘how-to’’ and ‘‘tutorial’’ on YouTube yields 211 million and 106 million videos, respectively, according to Tim Conneally’s Forbes' piece, “Teach Millennials With Video.” While this generation learns innately through video, the new opportunity for corporate trainers lies in the ability to keep hold of the personal learning experience. And as machine-to-machine communication continues to grow, trainers will find increasing value in live, interactive video tutorials that allow for real-time, face-to-face learning.
A major shift in generational diversity in the workplace is upon us, and we must build a solid structure to bridge this gap. As teachers, we must understand the driving forces behind Millennial workers’ behaviors in order to better engage and prepare the generation that will soon become responsible for the future of today’s corporations.
