As ever more Baby Boomers progress closer to retirement age, attracting and retaining young talent is becoming a central focus for many companies and firms. Developing new staff members takes time, and if your company isn’t yet making that a priority, you may find yourself struggling to catch up in a few years as older workers retire.
Below are seven tools and techniques your firm can use to attract and retain young talent:
Company Policies – More than previous generations, Millennials (those born in the late 1970s to early 1990s) value their own personal time and seek to strike a balance between time devoted to work and time spent on personal pursuits. Retooling your company’s policies to take this into consideration can go a long way toward making your company attractive to fresh new hires. Offering things like working from home, flexible schedules, and generous paid vacation will not only help in recruiting new talent but will also make them eager to do a better job for your company since they’ll feel valued.
Technology – Utilizing cutting edge and up-to-date technology not only attracts higher quality talent but can also help your company function more efficiently, perhaps even with fewer employees overall. Often, investing in better technology on the front end helps your company run more smoothly while also garnering the interest of tech-savvy Millennials (surely, a win/win).
Mentoring – Not only can younger staff members benefit from working alongside senior team members, your company benefits too because institutional knowledge can be imparted via these relationships, helping to ensure the long-term viability and success of your company. This set-up can also help your company determine which of the newer hires will eventually fill roles of soon-retiring Baby Boomers. As an added bonus, mentoring allows for the real-time feedback that Millennials crave in their work.
Career Path – Though Millennials are often maligned for their lack of loyalty to companies, many of them can be better retained when shown clear career path opportunities. Being able to demonstrate how they can grow with your company and contribute positively to growth and development (while developing themselves in the process) is critical to attracting and retaining young talent.
Office Space – The preferences for office space varies by generation. While Baby Boomers and many Gen Xers are used to having private offices, younger Millennials are more used to open floor plans and collaborative work environments. Be sure to configure your office with a mix of spaces: open casual rooms for brainstorming and collaboration, private work spaces for deep thinking and work, and mixed use rooms that allow for working solo or in groups.
Meaningful Work – Another key is making the job about more than just collecting a paycheck. Millennials want to know that what they do matters and that they’re making a difference. They want to feel like they’ve accomplished something so being able to give them meaningful work is a critical way to ensure that top talent chooses your company for employment. It keeps them interested and makes them more productive overall.
Outsourcing – When outsourcing support staff roles and non-essential job functions, your company then frees up funds for better pay and/or incentives for younger talent. Reinvest those savings in team building events, upgraded office amenities (coffee and snacks), reconfiguring/modifying existing office space, or improved bonus structures. Outsourcing also frees up young talent to focus on the core of their job functions and not have to worry about handling low-value administrative/clerical tasks like records retrieval and file management.
Attracting and retaining young talent should be a top priority for all firms looking to grow and continue to succeed in the long term. By creating employee-friendly policies and utilizing cutting edge technology, your company can offer an attractive employment option to the younger generation. Offering mentoring, career path opportunities, and meaningful work helps ensure that Millennials see themselves growing with your company and thus staying longer. Finally, by upgrading (or re-thinking) your office space and utilizing outsourcing, you help make sure that your younger talent feels like they belong and that they matter to your company.
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