Guest post by a new author for us, Derry Holt of Stormburst Studios, on the 3 things you should be doing to engage the workforce of the future.
We live in a world that’s changing faster than ever. 10 years ago Facebook wasn’t the de-facto social media platform, the first Iron Man movie wasn’t even being produced and iPhones didn’t exist, but I bet you can’t even remember that time – I sure can’t! Changing with the times is essential to success in a business and with the “times” comes new people with evolved wants and needs.
Millennials are set to make up 75% of the global workforce by 2025 so now is a great time to make sure you’ve got the processes in place to accommodate them otherwise you could see them walking off to a competitor. But what is it they want? Here are a few things to consider as part of your on-boarding strategy for your soon-to-be Millennial workforce.
MODERNISE YOUR TRAINING STRATEGY
Restaurants like McDonald’s have used online training for years to allow their employees to learn at their own pace and in their own time. Although it won’t apply to everyone, most Millennials like taking responsibility for their own development whether it’s work-based skills or personal ones. Throw in a few quizzes and tests and it becomes a competition – compare their scores to the average and you’re likely to see them striving to beat everyone else.
Consider using training videos under 3m long as anything longer will result in your audience shifting into “cruise control” and only picking bits of information that they want. CISCO’s network engineer qualification courses are broken down into chapters which always have a test at the end – you have to pass each test before you can sit the final exam.
INVOLVE THEM
The title for this section sounds somewhat obvious, but if you can communicate your vision and mission statement to your staff effectively they’ll feel more involved and engaged. Don’t stop there though – let them think for themselves. If you were to walk into a classroom where the teacher is reading from a textbook you can guarantee you at least 70% of the students won’t be paying attention. But if you walked into one where there was audience involvement through discussion or lab exercises, it’s likely that that drops to below 10%. Ask your staff questions, get their feedback, make them feel that they’re more than just an ant in a worker colony – let them feel valued and you’ll reap the rewards.
GAMIFY THEIR WORK
I know, I know, “Games? At work?! Blasphemy!” – give me a minute. This rising tide of Millennials have grown up playing Pokémon, Mario, Call of Duty and a myriad of other games. Competition and collaboration is hard-wired into their thinking process so utilise it! Throw up a few leaderboards, run a couple of incentive schemes – the truth is, some jobs are dull but the process of doing them doesn’t have to be. These gamified elements don’t even have to be related to the work their job entails – it could be something like “If 98% of you arrive on time to work for 2 weeks, we’ll double your tuck shop budget next week” or “Recognise someone else for a job well done and we’ll let you share a bottle of bubbly”.
These are just a couple of ‘soft’ examples of gamification for Millennials, but that’s not to say your whole team won’t appreciate their work being gamified. Other generations accept it – Millennials want and expect it.
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Derry Holt is a former games developer determined to change the record on gamification in business. With a passion for entrepreneurship he’s spent the last 14 months developing Spirit along with his business partner James Heath. Derry s on Twitter and LinkedIn
