Catering to Millennials

Posted on by ASCENT: Administrator Support Community for ENT

You may be getting tired of hearing about how to make your practice more Millennial-friendly, but that is not going to change the fact that they are the largest population in the workforce today. This should encourage business owners to look past the stereotypes and integrate this generation into their human resources practices.

Why cater to Millennials?

Ignoring this group can result in high turnover and cost your practice time and money to hire new employees. Millennials tend to job-hop and are spending an average of 12-36 months at each job according to this Forbes article. According to this People Keep article, that means businesses are spending six to nine months of a position’s salary on recruiting a new employee. So, it would be a wise financial decision to keep Millennials in their positions and prevent job hopping.

How can you cater to Millennials?

There are a few reasons why Millennials leave their jobs. They include:

  • Work/life balance.
  • Pay.
  • Growth opportunities.
  • Impact on the organization.

Knowing these reasons can help you craft your workplace to be more Millennial-friendly and encourage them to stay with your practice longer. Here are some ways to make your office more Millennial-friendly.

  1. Offer more PTO. You don’t have to have an open workspace or unlimited PTO program or remote positions, but offering a little more PTO than other workplaces can help you stand out.
  2. Really review pay increases. Millennials who job hop stand to make more than 50 percent more in salary than those who stay at the same job. Giving employees a standard one to five percent increase during their annual review is not going to cut it. Try setting up SMART goals that can result in impactful pay increases and see if your employees rise to the occasion.
  3. Don’t just fill a position, but rather create a growth path for a position that a newly hired employee can travel. If a small practice hires a receptionist/appointment scheduler, their path could be a promotion to scheduler specialist and then ultimately scheduling manager. Each move should include more responsibilities and reporting as they grow with their position and can absorb more tasks. No matter the generation, an employee always wants the opportunity to grow and move up in an organization.
  4. Along with a growth path, build ways into a position that an employee can make a difference. Try encouraging employees to look for weak spots in processes that can be improved and ask them to develop solutions. You can also have your team select different philanthropic opportunities for your practice to participate in. Walk for life marathon, anyone?