6.

Recruiting and Retaining Members of the Newer Generations

The previous sections provided a detailed discussion on the characteristics of the newer

generations (also known as Millennials, Nexters, or Gen Y1), the opportunities they can bring to

the business, and the different approaches that can be adopted in managing such young

workforce. This section is concerned with the strategies that businesses can follow in order to

attract, recruit, and retain those young talents. According to Harber (2011, p. 45), “organizations

need to align management, Human Resources, strategies, and policies to suit the values and

views of each generation and to have managers trained to lead collaboratively rather than

hierarchically”.

On the one hand, recruiting and retaining employees should be on the top of the priorities of all

businesses since it is the workforce of any company that defines and shapes its success. On the

other hand, recruiting and retaining members of the newer generations could be challenging and

requires a great deal of flexibility and adaptation to match and accommodate their mindset. The

following are the key elements that need to be considered for effective recruitment and retaining

of Gen Y talents.

6.1 Pay and Financial Benefits

As a matter of fact, pay and financial benefits are key elements for both employees and

employers. However, Trunk (2007) states that financial security is not the only factor that attract

members of the newer generations since most of them depend on their families and parents for

housing and for receiving some financial support especially at the beginning of their work life.

Conversely, a survey conducted in Canada, included over 900 Millennials, found out that all of

1
People born between 1981 and 1996 as defined by Merriam-webster online dictionary (2022).
the survey participants selected the extrinsic work values as being of more importance than other

values in the workplace; extrinsic values include pay and financial benefits (Kuron et al., 2015).

Accordingly, pay is not the only motivator for young talents, but this does not mean that

businesses can simply neglect it. Rather, this means that offering a good salary is vital but not

enough; it should be accompanied with other points that matter the most for Millennials, which

are discussed in the below sections.

6.2 Flexibility and Workplace Culture

We live in a highly dynamic world, which requires all businesses to be flexible enough to be able

to cope with the new demands and changes. Naseem (2015) explains that young talents

appreciate a flexible work culture concerned with getting the job done rather than focusing on a

routine 9-5 work, which allows employees to get time off whenever they need.

A good example of this could be noticed in some of the translation firms who adopt a flexible

work culture through assigning their employees a daily or monthly quota (certain amount of

wordcount) that they can translate based on their time preferences whether during the day or at

night and whether on the company premises or remotely from home.

6.3 Communication Styles

In her online article published on Harvard Business Review, Knight (2014) urges businesses to

add questions to the annual employee survey concerning the preferred communication style. This

shows the importance of choosing the right communication style/approach with all employees

and particularly with members of newer generations. Rogers (2021) affirms the fact that

Millennials have grown up alongside the internet and state-of-the-art technologies like artificial

intelligence and virtual reality.

Millennials tend to prefer crosswise communication approaches as well as utilizing technology to

facilitate and speed up communications through the use of channels like WhatsApp, Zoom,

social media, and other chat apps. This does not necessarily mean that other communication

channels like emails or face-to-face meetings are not preferred by Millennials. Younger

generations usually opt for a hybrid approach of communication that gathers both ways.

Accordingly, a smart management would take this into account when selecting the

communication style to be adopted within the organization.

6.4 Professional Development

Rogers (2021) states that members of young generations are concerned greatly with their

professional development since most of them occupy positions of the entry or middle level,

which requires more trainings so that they can move up their career ladder. Additionally, a good

tool of recruiting Millennials is the use of internships since this allows companies to identify the

qualified strong candidates and provides Millennials with hands-on trainings, an opportunity to

get to know the company, and to experience the job responsibilities (Delcampo et al., 2016).

As such, smart management should make it crystal clear in any of its job announcements that

they provide continuous professional development programs and plans to their employees. This

would attract Millennials to a great extent since they value feedback and mentorship from their

managers. Another idea that companies can do to attract and retain young talents is to add in the

job descriptions the skills that will be learned and trainings that will be offered to employees

during their work duration.

6.5 Innovative Benefits

There are several innovative ideas that can be done at the workplace that could strongly enhance

the work atmosphere and make employees love being at work. Examples of such ideas include

outings, gatherings, outdoor activities, fitness and sport devices, free beverages, dish parties,

surprising gifts, volunteering activities, etc. These are some of the examples that companies can

take advantage of, but it does not mean that all of them should be applied; this depends on the

nature and industry of each business. However, it is a must for all businesses to consider such

activities to change the daily work routine and recharge their employees’ power. If a company

applies any of such activities, they should highlight them during the recruitment process.
References

Kuron, L.K.J., Lyons, S.T., Schweitzer, L. and Ng, E.S.W. (2015), "Millennials’ work values:

differences across the school to work transition", Personnel Review, Vol. 44 No. 6, pp. 991-

1009. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-01-2014-0024

Harber, J. G. (2011). Generations in the Workplace: Similarities and Differences. Electronic

Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1255. Retrieved from https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1255

Delcamp, R., Haggerty, L., Haney, M., and Knippel, L. (2016) Managing the Multi-Generational

Workforce: From the GI Generation to the Millennials. Routledge. London and New York.

Trunk, P. (2007, July 5) What Gen Y really wants. Time. Retrieved from

https://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1640395,00.html

Knight, R. (2014, September 25). Managing People from 5 Generations. Harvard Business

Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/09/managing-people-from-5-generations

Naseem, S. (2015, November 23). Old Vs. New – Generational Gap at the Workplace.

Destination Online Magazine. Retrieved from https://destinationksa.com/old-vs-new-

generational-gap-workplace/

Rogers, S. (2021, May 26). From Boomers to Zoomers, Here Are the Characteristics of the

Different Generations at Work. GetApp. Retrieved from

https://www.getapp.com/resources/characteristics-of-different-generations-in-the-workplace/