Gen Y Employees: Gain Loyalty Through Talent Development

Talent is the most important resource your organization has or seeks; the single most important factor in your business’s success. And you might not know this, but there’s a talent war on. Everyone is looking for talent, and as talent wars continue, someone will try to headhunt your top talent. You need to not only cultivate talent, you need to do it in a way that encourages loyalty.

Talent is the most important resource your organization has or seeks; the single most important factor in your business’s success. And you might not know this, but there’s a talent war on. Everyone is looking for talent, and as talent wars continue, someone will try to headhunt your top talent. You need to not only cultivate talent, you need to do it in a way that encourages loyalty.

Well, great because talented Millennials (those young employees who are about to make up a majority of your workforce) are known for their loyalty. Yeah right.

However, the outlook for you isn’t so bleak.

Millennials want to develop their talents. The most talented from the Gen Y employee pool are probably coming to you with little or no relevant work experience. They know they need career development to succeed in the job they want; they are looking for new skills and better experience.

Meanwhile, businesses benefit from hiring talent and potential over specific experience because that means they can develop employees into exactly what their organization needs to succeed. If you work with Millennials to develop their talents, not only is it a win for you, but engaging them and showing genuine interest in their career development is going to help you create the loyalty you’ll need to keep them.

GET TO KNOW YOUR TALENT

Getting to know your talent is all about getting to know your employees. Millennial hires often come with myriad of talents and experiences that may or may not have anything to do with what they were hired for or even what’s on their résumés.

Find out what else they can do: where they’ve volunteered and excelled outside of their current job description. Get to know what they like to do in their spare time–hobbies and activities they enjoy outside of work. Building on existing talents will show you care about what your employees can offer and help you build a talent development plan that fits their strengths and interests.

It’s not up to you alone to come up with a plan. Ask your employees what they want in the future; what their professional goals are. They will tell you. Understanding what they want and actively helping them work toward it will gain you trust and loyalty.

WORK WITH WHAT YOU KNOW

Once you know what your employees are looking for and understand how their goals fit in with the organization’s goals, it’s time to create a talent development plan that will help your people and your business succeed.

Be strategic about assignments

Determine what should be assigned to each employee based on which skills they hope to develop and the needs of your business. Team up your Millennial employees with more experienced personnel. Your projects will benefit from the variety of input and your employees will learn from each other.

Expose your employees to cross-functional work

Strategically expose your Millennial employees to different people and aspects of the business where you think their talents would be of use.

Listen to your employees

Check in with your employees regularly to see how they are doing and what their challenges are. Answer their questions or find ways for them to get answers to their questions first-hand. As they get more involved with your organization, their goals may shift. Make sure you know about that shift and discuss how to change their path before they get frustrated and decide to leave.

Take an active interest in your employees to help them develop in ways they want and that will improve your business. Make an investment in the people who are investing time and energy into your organization, and you’ll not only have more engaged, happier employees, but you’ll be going a long way to develop loyalty with them. You’ll not only develop talent for your organization now, you’ll strengthen future leaders because your talent development plan works hand in hand with your succession plan.