Now more than ever, it’s less about money and more about personal fulfillment and company culture. “64% of millennials said they would rather make $40,000 a year at a job they love. They would even leave a $100,000 a year job they find boring.”
Start with day one
“41% more first-year employees stay at companies with formal onboarding programs”
First impressions count. Arriving at your new desk with the computer set up, scheduled meetings with your new team and a planned introduction process helps integrate new employees from the start. Expectations are laid out and a good understanding of the culture.
Give a little flexibility and get a lot
It’s not just millennials that have the right to a healthy work-life balance, we all do. Flexi-time may feel like a big shift in thinking but you’ll be surprised by the results.
Trust in your employees and let them plan their work day around their schedule. Allowing them time to make that yoga class before work, pick up the kids or nip to the post office without the queue. Flexi-time gives people control of their lives whilst promoting greater productivity, commitment to your business, increase in morale and a lower turnover rate.
Keep the conversation going
“Millennials want feedback 50% more often than other employees.”
Yearly reviews aren’t enough for anyone and millennials know it – how are your employees going to know how to improve and develop, how are you going to know if they’re having a hard time and feeling exhausted without regular space to talk? Create a safe environment for your team to chat openly about what’s happening in their world. A place to breathe and reflect.
And when you know something’s up? Act on it. If they’re feeling low take them out of the office for a coffee, send them home with their laptop when they need it or even give them them a mental health day.
Do good and feel good
Make your staff feel valued and get the best out of them with incentives that you work towards as a team. You may not have a big Google budget, but whatever the size of your business, rewarding your employees is always going to be a good thing. And if it means contributing to a charity or supporting local businesses along the way, you can build meaningful relationships with your immediate tribe and extended tribe too.
How about… dog walking at your local animal rescue center, volunteering at the food bank over the Christmas period, cooking lesson with a local chef, Wednesday work quiz night, time out to grow veg at the local allotment or learn how to brew beer with a startup beer company.
Promote healthy lifestyle choices
Physical activity is associated with improved effective experience and enhanced cognitive processing. As little as 15 minutes can make a difference!
It may feel like you’re stepping over the invisible mark by taking an interest in your employees' lifestyle choices but when you learn how directly it links to productivity, stress levels and their ability to learn more quickly, it starts to look a lot more relevant.
“I’m too busy”, “I don’t have time” are probably the two most used reasons for skipping exercise. So, bring exercise into the heart of your business:
Start a sports team at work (like our Tribe Tornados netball team!) or build it into their weekly schedule with a team boot camp (we do ours on Fridays) or simply say it’s okay to take a longer lunch to exercise are all ways that you can encourage a more active lifestyle.
Taking time out to reflect on your company culture and employees' well being (no matter how good you think it is) is always going to be time well spent.
Remember to be authentic and keep coming back to what makes your business great. And if you’ve no idea where to start, then how about with an employee survey or focus group? Anonymous feedback can often be the most constructive!
As culture is so dynamic, it has to be something we’re constantly thinking about and working on. But maybe, one day in a remote digital future, we’ll figure out how to plug it in, charge it up and email it out to everyone at work – wouldn’t that be nice.
