How to support millennials in a multigenerational work environment

Americans are leaving their jobs – and millennials and Gen Zers are leading the way. A survey conducted by LinkedIn and CensusWide in late 2022 found that more than half of U.S. workers – 61% – were contemplating leaving their job or a career change in 2023. That number was even higher when looking explicitly at younger employees: 72% of Gen Zers (ages 18-25) and 66% of millennials (ages 26-41) said they were considering a career change in the next 12 months. That’s compared to 55% of Gen Xers (aged 42-57) and 30% of baby boomers (aged 58-76).

While it may be easy to chalk this trend up to younger employees being disloyal or entitled job-hoppers, it signals the need for a culture change.

Younger employees, particularly millennials, are the future of business. Currently the largest generation in the U.S. labor force, millennials will make up 75% of the global workforce by 2025. As a generation, millennials are highly adaptable, have a disruptive nature, have a strong desire for professional growth, and have a strong sense of social responsibility. These are all qualities companies need for the future.

But many companies are not optimizing millennials to their fullest potential. A Gallup research study found that millennials are the least engaged generation – mentally and emotionally tapped out from work. Disengaged employees are less likely to put in extra effort, often don’t want to go to work, and are unlikely to recommend their employer to friends and acquaintances.

About 55% of millennials are not engaged, and 16% are actively disengaged. At Dermavant Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in immuno-dermatology, we’ve found the best way to engage our millennial talent is abiding by three core values: heart, mind, and soul.

Heart: Creating an intentional community

For many millennials, when a recruiter refers to their company as a family it is a red flag – a toxic and potentially abusive environment. But at Dermavant, our “familial culture” is rooted in a shared purpose. We hire team members who are dedicated to developing and commercializing life-changing dermatologic therapeutics. We look for people with the experience, expertise, and passion to bring inventive medicines to patients.

In the past three years, we have significantly grown our workforce from a 40-person team to 300-strong. Happy employees love to tell friends, so we tapped into our highly talented team to fill those roles. To ensure we hire a diverse team, we’ve encouraged our team members to look beyond their core groups to find the best candidates. We also recognize that the top talent isn’t necessarily located near our offices. So, since 2018, we have had fully remote or hybrid teams across the U.S. This allows talented candidates who are interested in the work we do to join us without needing to relocate. We have developed guidelines for our hybrid and remote employees to ensure they feel included and connected to our in-office staff, even virtually.

We are an organization that works best when we work together. From our inception, we were committed to getting rid of the silos because greater collaboration improves morale and builds team spirit. We extended that to our leadership approach – everyone within our organization has a voice and is known by our leaders. We are constantly collecting employee feedback to understand their needs better and adapt our policies and benefit offerings to meet those needs.

Mind: Empowering team members

We know the people we hire at Dermavant are exceptionally talented and highly intelligent individuals – especially our millennials. The key is giving them the power to act. We offer our team members autonomy, which leads to better performance. It also frees up our leaders to focus on the big ideas that will propel us forward. We ensure team members know what is expected of them and hold them accountable for their work. But more importantly, we support them to achieve their goals.

In addition to our remote work options, we have created flexible working conditions, which allow team members to focus on getting their work done and not clockwatching. We recognize our team members, especially our millennials with growing families, have lives outside the office, so if they need to take a break during the day to go to the doctor or attend their child’s recital, they can do that.

Soul: An honest and direct environment

At Dermavant, we genuinely believe honesty is the best policy. Our team members grow and work better together if they receive honest communication from leaders. As we grow and evolve as an organization, we discuss our decision process and ensure everyone understands their role and how we can move forward together. Employees are more likely to feel engaged when we are candid and are more likely to feel a high level of trust. We have found this process helps with retention – as team members, particularly millennials, are attracted to authenticity.

Related: Beyond inclusion: Cultivating belonging for Gen Z in the workforce

We also encourage respect throughout the entire organization. We don’t expect or want everyone to think the same. When team members interact, we encourage them to share their unique perspectives, learn from each other, and, if they disagree, have a respectful conversation.

Most importantly, we apply these standards consistently. Each year, we recommit to serving our employees so that they can help us better serve patients.