Freedom Does Ring for Millennials

More and more, college students and young professionals are looking for specific characteristics within the workplace, not just a secure salary. This article mentions that 40% of Millennials, those born between 1981-2001, would accept less pay for more autonomy.

Where do they want the most autonomy?

In their mobility – both physical and throughout the digital frontier. Mobile phones, social media, and flexible hours are all important to the young workforce.

So what does this mean for your organization? In order to attract innovative minds you may need to rethink your digital policies. In fact you may not even want to call them policies since that sounds too restrictive.

Think about finding ways to work social media into the normal workday. For example, employees could be encouraged to create social media accounts to act as representatives and brand ambassadors for your organization. They can set up their accounts to reflect the name of the company with some guidance on interaction from you. Giving them this type of freedom has the potential to create internal evangelists for your organization.

Sweat Leaf Tea, based in Austin, TX, has done a tremendous job in this arena, empowering their employees to grab hold of social media and use it daily to their advantage. Not surprisingly, many of their employees are Millennials.

Two other ideas include:

• Develop excellent expectations of your employees. Focus more on achieving goals and less on actual work hours. Allow employees to work from home or off-location, with clear deadlines.
• Allow Remote Access. If your organization is more team-focused, let the team work off-location, if the work allows for it.

What are you doing to keep and attract young innovators? How is it working? Let me know…