In an often-sited 2014 retention study from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median tenure of workers ages 25 to 34 years is 3.0 years. If the numbers still work in 2016, which there is every indication they do, this means that the 27 year-old or 36 year-old you just hired is more likely to come on board and stay for no longer than 3 years.
While this may be problematic on its surface, a deeper dive into this subject can actually present a unique opportunity to set your team apart from the crowd. Think about what you’ve heard from most established media outlets: millennial workers are often vilified as a narcissistic and whiny group who hate to work. Thus, they will inevitably move on every few years because they just can’t get it together.
What if there was a way to incentivize your new millennial hires? We know that most millennials are not primarily motivated by money, so where do you even start? While we could exhaust this topic in posts for the rest of the year, the best way to get to the heart of the matter may be to look at your hiring process.
Have you articulated to your prospective millennial bankers how they are able to positively impact the trajectory of your organization?
According to a Jan 2014 article in Forbes, “64% of millennials say it’s a priority for them to make the world a better place”. If we take this mindset to the work place, it stands to reason that the best way to retain your millennial talent is to show them how they can make an immediate and positive impact on your organization. Even before you hire them, show them step by step how and where their actions will change the company, and by extension their world, for the better.
Once millennial workers have this road map, you may be surprised to see how many buck the trend and stick around much longer than 3.0 years.