To keep young workers, businesses need to give them a reason to stay.
Millennials are three times as likely to hop jobs than their older counterparts as they look for the next opportunity, according to the Harvard Business Review. Within the last year, 21 percent of millennial workers left their job for something else, be it college, another job, or something outside the labor force.
One reason millennials are leaving is because, as the Gallup report noted, millennials aren’t engaged with their work. “The majority of millennials (55%) are not engaged, leading all other generations in this category of workers,” Gallup found.
That means millennials aren’t “emotionally and behaviorally connected to their job and company,” possibly from underemployment or ending up in a job that wasn’t their primary goal. With student loans and scarce jobs, millennial graduates would “settle” and work until they could find another job offer.
As depressing as that might sound, it’s a positive situation. Engagement could be higher, but jumping to the next job is a sign of an improving economy. Millennials, and Americans of all ages, have pushed the “quits rate” to pre-recession levels, according to The Atlantic. It “indicates a more confident workforce, even as hiring was down last month,” Adam Chandler wrote.
The millennial employment churn is a sign of indifference, not entitlement. The thought process is “another job will be a step in a better direction,” not “this job is below me.”
“Many millennials likely don’t want to switch jobs, but their companies are not giving them compelling reasons to stay. When they see what appears to be a better opportunity, they have every incentive to take it,” Gallup noted.
The opportunity for growth, manager quality, interest, and advancement rank highly for millennials. “’Are millennials really that different?’ The answer is yes — profoundly so,” Gallup Chairman Jim Clifton said.
That’s overdramatic. Like most workers, millennials want an interesting, useful, and stable job that improves their job skills. The differences come in the individual goals or management style younger workers prefer.
If anything, a workforce inclined toward job-hopping makes a stronger economy. An economy that offers better positions for workers encourages employers to compete for the best employees and incentivizes employees to be more productive so they can advance. That means a higher-skilled workforce for employers, competitive wages for employees, and higher-quality products at a lower cost for consumers.
