As much hype as there may be about trendy new office perks — foosball tables, massage chairs, gym memberships — companies that seek to lure millennial workers are probably better served sticking to the basics.
OK, but what are the basics? Good pay and benefits are obviously part of the equation. But there are other fundamentals that are especially important to young people who are beginning their careers.
First, millennials have expressed a strong interest in working for an employer whose mission they believe in. A global study of millennial employees by Deloitte found that half reported having refused to undertake a task at work because it conflicted with their personal values, and 56 percent said they had ruled out working for a particular employer for similar reasons.
It’s not unusual for young people to be idealistic and to hope that their job and colleagues inspire them, but what some experts say distinguish millennials from the young people of yore is that today’s youth truly are committed to a collaborative team-oriented work environment.
Hence, the evidence suggests that companies that offer young employees mentors have a much better chance at retaining and developing good workers. The Deloitte survey found that two-thirds of millennial workers who reported having a mentor said they intended to stay at the employer for another five years, while only a third of those without mentors were willing to make the same commitment.
Clearly, however, many employers are falling short in fostering the type of environment that millennials seek. That’s why the majority of young employees indicate they plan to leave their employer sooner rather than later. Two-thirds told Deloitte they don’t anticipate sticking with their current organization until 2020.
That may be partly because of negative perceptions millennials have about business in general. Although the Deloitte survey showed that millennials believe in the concept of capitalism and business, 64 percent said that businesses tend to focus on their own agendas rather than their impact on the society at large, although a narrow majority said they believe businesses tend to behave ethically.
Barry Salzberg, a former global chief executive officer of Deloitte who now teaches at Columbia Business School, told Neale Godfrey, a financial columnist at Forbes, that he has detected a significant change in the priorities expressed by young professionals since he started at Deloitte in the 1970s.
“The bright, young students I teach are yearning to join companies who share their core values and who have a purpose beyond making a profit, and demonstrate it in what they do every day,” he says. “They want a company that not only does financially well, but has a culture of making a broad impact in the world.”
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