How to Maximise Engagement with Millennials by 3 Top HR leaders

by Jayne Ronayne, CEO KonnectAgain

55% of all millennials either want to start or join a start-up company according to one of our panelists Fiona Keane, European Recruitment Manager at Airbnb. This was one of many comments and insights shared at an event we hosted on the topic of the rise of the millennial generation.

Other panelists on the day included Orna Holland, Head of Recruitment EMEA & APAC at Stripe and Rob Daly, Senior Director at CPL. Fiona Buckley who is a trainer, lecturer, speaker and all-round expert in all things related to workplace behaviour chaired the event.

Attended by over 30 senior HR professionals from organisations including Slack, Google, Twitter, Groupon, EY, Mason Hayes & Curran and many others. The event highlighted key trends for 2017 and both the panelists and attendees shared some interesting challenges and valuable insights….

1. Change of mindset

This new millennial generation is motivated by different factors and their surroundings are an essential ingredient to their success. As cultures grow and change it is essential that business leaders change their mind-frame to become more open to new workplace norms such as working from home, flexible hours, travel and a more transparent & open environment.

“The HR game changes yearly now and you need to update your strategy every year. You need to be agile enough to adapt to the new trends every year” Rob Daly, CPL

“Work is not about presence anymore – it’s about getting the job done. The Airbnb office is based off the idea that the office is fluid – you can work from anywhere in the office. Your team has a neighbourhood but you can work from anywhere – this model takes trust.” Fiona Keane, Airbnb

2. Culture & philosophy
Orna Holland who previously headed up recruitment for Google and Facebook spoke about the importance of company culture. The culture needs to be come from the founders especially in the early days and explained that co-founder John Collison still interviews every potential employee.

3. Personality trait of millennials
Long gone are the days of employees waiting patiently to be promoted up the ladder throughout their careers. Millennials expect to be rewarded based on performance not tenure. Millennials are looking to be promoted, to gain new skills and experiences faster than ever! Some would say they’re impatient, some say it’s ambition.

Millennials don’t choose a job purely based on salary, instead they look at the company mission & values, the career advancement opportunities and whether it will afford them a decent work life balance.

“One of the trends with millennials is that they really value their work life balance. Everyone’s different and that’s what companies need to realise and try adapt to.” Orna Holland, Stripe.

4. Departure of millennials
Millennials don’t put as much emphasis on the importance of job security and loyalty as their predecessors. As a result they have no fear when it comes to leaving their job to gain new skills or experiences, like travelling for example. As a result companies are feeling the pain in the increase of employee churn.

“Retention is always going to be a challenge but at the same time you have to let people go when they want to go.” Fiona Keane, Airbnb

There is a changing attitude of employers and those who have transitioned from “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out” to an attitude of acceptance and respect.
Employers now recognise that employees are going to leave regardless, by parting on good terms they leave the door open for that employee to return at a later date, to refer friends for roles or even to become a client and generate business opportunities for the company.

The important element is having a strategy and a framework in place to turn churn into an opportunity, and not just view it as a threat.

About the author
Jayne is the CEO & Co-Founder of KonnectAgain a cloud-based solution that enables companies to forge strong relationships with their former employees. KonnectAgain builds communities for companies, enabling them to manage their alumni communications, networking, events, groups & job openings on one seamless easy-to-use platform.

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