The Retaining Millennials in the Private and Government Sectors

Millennials are recent college graduates who entered the workforce between 1980 and 2000. Despite their youth, they are aware of the standards set by the various sectors represented by their employers. Given their high demand, it is obvious that keeping millennials in the private and public sectors is a difficult task. Additionally, studies have indicated that job switching is more common among millennials than it is among older generations, with nearly 2.85 times as many employment changes between 2007 and 2010 in this group. It's crucial to remember that this time frame encompasses their final year of school (Chambers, 2010). The young employees face stigmatization for not staying in a workplace long enough given the fact that they are the future primary workforce. Therefore, it has become the primary concern for the private and the government sector to improve the work environment that retains the millennials who form a substantial amount of the workforce globally.

Turnover costs have become high for employers in private and the government sector owing to the high replacement costs and lost productivity. In particular, both the private and the government sector incur approximately six to nine months' salary to acquire a new employee to fill an open position. The problem of retaining millennials is a contributor to these high turnover costs. However, it is important to note that millennials possess unique skills, are tech-savvy, altruistic, and hard-working (Kaifi, Nafei, Khanfar, & Kaifi, 2012). Thus, the mission of employers in the private and public sectors is to introduce incentives that attract them in a bid to retain them. They include offering career development opportunities, promoting a positive work culture, providing student loan help, better communication and directives, offering remote work and flexible schedules, giving them rent subsidies, encouraging diversity and promoting workplace wellness.

Mission and Purpose

Offering Career Development Opportunities

Millennials are the type of workforce that desires to continue learning while still working. In this manner, the gain more experience as days go by and grasp new information. Apart from the regular training that the millennials get when they join either the private or the government sector, they get more attracted to the employers who offer development programs. In particular, their preference is mostly on getting an opportunity to work with mentors and reputable coaches in the field they work (Chambers, 2010). The primary advantage this has to the respective sector they offer services in is that they can manage to engage and deliver their roles in a way the executives expect. Important to note is that the mentoring and development programs assist in relieving tension between the millennials and the older generations.

On the other hand, issues arise when it comes to the manner in which the private and the government sectors structure the career development programs to benefit millennials. One of the traits among the majority of millennials is that they auger well with technology. Therefore, coming up with online learning modules, interactive gameplay, and webinars can help promote this mission by the employers of both sectors. Moreover, promoting their learning in teams and using interactive tutorials is important (Sauser, & Sims, 2012). In particular, they desire to use structured objectives so as they can know openly what they need to achieve. Another aspect of their training and mentoring is that they require an immediate response, unlike the older workers who don't deal with matters with the same immediacy. Thus, it becomes the main disadvantage of offering such an incentive to attract millennials as most organizations in private and the government sector use annual reviews and not the regular responses the millennials want. Working as per the expectations of the millennials would mean that the organizations in both sectors will incur high costs.

Promoting a Positive Work Culture

A large portion of the millennials desires to work in an environment that prioritizes assisting the society while maintaining transparency. The advent of technology has made it necessary for employers in private and the government sector to regularly use social media to interact and engage the locals who form their customer base. Therefore, by doing this, the millennials will get the opportunity to know the goals of their organization leave alone how successful the company is through the assistance they give the society (Crosby, 2009). On the other hand, it is evident that millennials want to know the purpose of the job they do and how they can better their community. Thus, they prioritize working in environments which do voluntary work. Research has shown that approximately 45% of millennials have previously worked with an employer who gives back to the society (Thompson, & Gregory, 2012). For this reason, employers introduce volunteering activities that benefit the society to appeal millennials to stay.

Voluntary work is in most instances conducted by non-profit organizations falling under the government sector. However, not all organizations in private and the government sector are non-profit. Therefore, while non-profits can use this to their disadvantage, it can be an expensive approach for companies in both sectors. Besides, organizations should conduct an event to please but rather do volunteering to make a difference to the community (Kaifi, Nafei, Khanfar, & Kaifi, 2012). On the other hand, most millennials did voluntary work given the fact that it was a requirement in the institutions they learned. Hence, apart from using voluntary work as a way to promote a positive work environment, employers should strike a balance in the routine tasks that attract and retain millennials.

Encouraging Diversity

One notable trait among millennials is that they are willing to work either in the private or government sector provided their employer exhibits diversity and equality. On the other hand, most organizations do mention diversity, but it is not in practice. Specifically, the challenge that employers in the government and private sectors face is that female millennials are very sensitive to the issue of gender bias. Male millennials consider the treatment of both genders equal, more so, when it comes to the promotions. Besides, internal promotions form the area of concern when it comes to gender bias among female millennials. However, among these individuals, more males have a belief to succeed than females which create a separation when it comes to climbing the career ladder (Shwartz, 2014). Therefore, employers in both sectors opt to retain millennials in their workplaces by introducing practices that promote diversity in a move to attract diverse talent that will earn the organization competitive advantage.

The disadvantage of encouraging diversity to retain millennials in the workplace stems from the fact that integration issues are bound to arise if there is mishandling this approach. There is a possibility of the formation of small cliques from the same background and thus making it difficult for managers to control the employees. On the other hand, high levels of diversity mean that informal divisions in the workplace are inevitable (Ozcelik, 2015). The culturally diverse staff will avoid interacting with other foreign cultures which affect their exposure and ultimately their productivity in the organization both in the government and private sector. There is nothing negative about diversity, but if not integrated in the required way, it hinders sharing experience, knowledge, and skills. Hence, employers despite wanting to retain millennials, they ought to use the right approach while adopting diversity.

Offering Remote Work and Flexible Schedules

The ability of millennials working remotely and under flexible schedules lies solely on the manner in which managers and employers in the government and private sector issue their directions. However, it is important to note that the managers ought to exhibit active leadership. Thus, it is evident that millennials desire to work with freedom at their chosen location provided they have the know-how outlined clearly to them. On the other hand, flexibility is a treasure among the millennials as it instills the ability to self-manage themselves. Throughout their life, millennials have undergone experiences which do not subject them to rigid conditions. One example is that they are willing to work during weekends given that their schedules within the week are not fully packed. The experiences millennials have had similar to what they expect from their employers who require high levels of freedom while pursuing their careers (Crosby, 2009). Thus, employees might encourage remote working as it will assist in reducing overheads while at the same time attracting the millennials.

While remote working and flexible schedules are beneficial, most employers in the private sector only allow their workers to telecommunicate while they are away from work around 20 percent of the time required in the routine schedules. The main reason for limiting the time spent working from home is that it also has negative consequences both in the long-term and in the short-term. One of them is the lack of public accountability which mostly affects the government sector where follow-up is not instilled in the organizational culture. For this reason, millennials might take advantage of this incentive by employers to take a leave from the job while in essence, they do not commit to their responsibilities (Le, 2016). Ultimately, this might lead to low productivity and reduced revenues for the organization in both the government and public sector.

Promoting Workplace Wellness

Most organizations that manage to retain millennials do not only lay emphasis on the routine job tasks but rather encourage external engagement. They could include athletic leagues, dance workshops, body building competitions or cooking classes. For this reason, everyone in the job will have something from which they derive happiness. Most organizations in the private sector perform well when it comes to external engagement compared to those in the government sector (McEachran, 2017). Millennials like such events as they give them a chance to interact with their employers. Hence, the main advantage of these activities is that they foster good relationships in the workplace. Employers can conduct a survey to understand which wellness activities best suit their employers in a move to retain the millennials.

The introduction of external opportunities might serve as the best option to retain millennials. In particular, this is because they will have a higher job satisfaction and will have a high anticipation for such events. On the other hand, providing a range of options for the external engagements will mean that millennials will feel comfortable in the workplace. However, it is important to note that the costs incurred to provide the required items during such engagement events are high. Moreover, if dedicating more time to such activities and they are not in line with the routine job activities will divert the attention of the millennials. Eventually, there will be a reduction in the productivity of the employees. Thus, employers should come up with opportunities that support the wellness of millennials and other workers while keeping in mind the goals of their organizations both in the private and government sector.

Better Communication and Directives

Millennials, given the fact that they live in a technological era, place a high priority on communication. One of the advantages of clear communication is that it culminates the culture of strong relations. Therefore, millennials notice the means of communication used and assess it from the onset when they get recruited to the point they work their last day. In particular, not only should the employers or managers in the government and private sector communicate but also the millennials feel they should get a chance to air their views. The dissatisfaction that makes millennials to hope from one job opportunity to the other is due to the communication strategy used in the organizations (Ferri-Reed, & Sujansky, 2013). Moreover, millennials who choose to stick to their employment is mainly driven by the strong communication between the employer and employees. Research shows that the organizations, both in the government and private sector, doing well in employee retention have effective communication in common. Despite this finding, there is no causational relationship between the two. Hence, employers push for effective issuance of directives as it determines how successful the millennials become in their career.

Whereas effective communication translates to a higher retention rate in the government and the private sector, most millennials confuse it with leniency from the employer. Therefore, giving them such a room will be disadvantageous to the organization as they will not manage to meet deadlines leave alone working as per the required standards. Hence, employers in both sectors should not only concentrate on the millennials who wish to remain in their organization but those who have a potential in delivering results. They can do this by looking at their work history and examining their success rates in various tasks.

Upholding Millennial Values

Apart from pushing for ways management and employees should treat millennials, the organizations in the government and the private sector should align their values to match those of the millennials. The management styles used in offices should be less bureaucratic, and the hierarchy should desist from harassing the millennials. Moreover, the millennials are highly intolerant, and therefore management should adopt speedy processes. The fast-paced environment dominated by rapid changes will enable employers to assign millennials new tasks whenever they exhaust their current ones. For this reason, there is efficiency and managers will opt to create such an environment given the fact that they have authority. The defined attitudes created among these employees will translate into increased revenues and growth for organizations in both sectors.

Despite the advantages derived from upholding millennial values, whenever the pace introduced is too high, the end-result will be disgruntling and frustrating these employees. They will not manage to attain the set targets, and as a result instead of retaining them, employee turnover will be on the rise. Therefore, the management will have to incur replacement costs which are a major problem mostly in the private sector companies. On the other hand, if the employers fail to identify the causes of the weak relationships will mean that it will get worse by the day. Moreover, placing millennials in circumstances where they should solve complex problems will only generate negative consequences in the future. Thus, the disadvantage of fear of failure emanates, and the millennials will show the unwillingness to perform any tasks whether simple or complex. For this reason, employers in the government and private sector should uphold appropriate millennial values so as to retain their workers.

Conclusion

Millennials are new entrants into the job market born between 1980 and 2000. Research has shown that job hopping among millennials is more rampant compared to the older generations (Thompson, & Gregory, 2012). The young employees face stigmatization for not staying in a workplace long enough given the fact that they are the future primary workforce. The ways of retaining millennials in the workforce include offering career development opportunities, promoting a positive work culture, providing student loan help, better communication and directives, offering remote work and flexible schedules, giving them rent subsidies, encouraging diversity and promoting workplace wellness. Regarding offering career development opportunities, millennials are the type of workforce that desires to continue learning while still working. In this manner, they gain more experience as days go by and grasp new information (McEachran, 2017). However, issues arise when it comes to the manner in which the private and the government sectors structure the career development programs to benefit millennials. Hence, the disadvantage of working as per the expectations of the millennials would mean that the organizations in both sectors will incur high costs.

On the other hand, promoting a positive work culture means that the millennials will get the opportunity to know the goals of their organization leave alone how successful the company is through the assistance they give the society. However, apart from using voluntary work as a way to promote a positive work environment, employers should strike a balance in the routine tasks that attract and retain millennials in a move to increase efficiency. The ability of millennials working remotely and under flexible schedules lies solely on the manner in which managers and employers in the government and private sector issue their directions. Thus, employees might encourage remote working as it will assist in reducing overheads while at the same time attracting the millennials. Important to note is that working from home also has negative consequences both in the long-term and in the short-term. Lastly, apart from pushing for ways management and employees should treat millennials, the organizations in the government and the private sector should align their values to match those of the millennials. The defined attitudes created among these employees will translate into increased revenues and growth of organizations in both sectors. The only disadvantage is the fear of failure when they get assigned complex tasks.



References

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