Failure to Launch: Generational Shifts and Engaging Young Professionals
For employees just entering the workforce, COVID-19 accelerated a few key trends. Where Millennial and Gen Z employees were already leading the transition to adopting collaborative tech and asking for flexible or hybrid work schedules, these trends – almost overnight – became the norm rather than the exception, including everyone from senior executives to the brand new hire. The rapid-onset of this shift meant that many organizations spent much of the past year just trying to keep up with new norms, without giving due diligence to best practices around onboarding and engaging new employees.
Read 'Failure to Launch: The COVID Conundrum for Employers'
For young professionals, this state of affairs presented some friction. Even though today’s early-career employees are the generational vanguard of innovative remote work practices, many have been disadvantaged when it comes to transitioning to new roles – having to acclimate to their positions without the usual learning curve support on culture, norms, and the social dynamics of the organization.In many cases, this meant no casual introductions around the office. No water cooler chat. No impromptu lunch invitations. These things have meaning for any new hire, but their absence can especially cause an early-career hire to struggle. It sets a poor precedent for engagement with their team and organization – and there’s a risk that talented young professionals might be quicker to seek opportunities elsewhere if they are dissatisfied with the culture at their organization.We’ve heard from newly-hired young professionals that they miss the feedback and mentorship opportunities that they would otherwise be getting in-person, organically. Some mention feeling more like a burden than an asset. One local young professional shared thoughts on a recent internship experience, saying that “I wish my employer would have been more creative with ways to get the interns engaged with each other outside of work hours. Since the internship was virtual, we were robbed of happy hours after work or get-togethers on the weekends.”Happy hour get-togethers might sound like a minor perk, but it is precisely this informal, unstructured time with coworkers where valuable connections are made. Especially for someone at the start of building their career, these connections provide encouragement and guidance on professional norms, and they allow peer mentoring to flourish.How can you do a better job onboarding and retaining young professionals during these ongoing work environment shifts? It’s easier than you may think… you just have to go the extra mile.
Prioritize person-to-person connection
Younger employees deeply desire authentic connection, both for their personal fulfillment and the fulfillment of their future goals. With that in mind, remember that efficient communication is not always effective communication, especially when getting to know someone. Go the extra mile to check in via text, issue invitations for happy hours, and provide affirming recognitions to your new and early-career hires – whether that’s a “great job!” text, a staff meeting shout-out, a mention in the newsletter, or a tag on LinkedIn.
Create intern- or young professional-specific programming
Make sure these team members have the opportunity to connect with each other, not just their direct supervisors or team members. Cohort-building opportunities show awareness that you are thinking of their career and future opportunities – it’s hard to build a strong network when you are working in a remote silo. Young professionals are at the start of their journeys, and they appreciate having support in getting off to a strong start.
Prioritize two-way feedback
Whatever amount of feedback you’re providing, it likely isn’t enough in a virtual environment. Be deliberate in varying the type, frequency, and length of feedback so your new hire never feels like they are working in the dark. And ask for feedback from them regularly – surveys are a great tool for this.
Start a mentorship program
Using surveys, match interns or young professionals to more experienced team members for formal mentorship. This can be a rotating system, so they get to meet more people and learn about other roles.We’re also big proponents of the reverse mentorship – putting early-career employees in the mentor role with senior team members for specific skill transfer, or as an opportunity to build more inclusion and transparency throughout the org chart. Set an objective so everyone knows what they are pursuing, so that the switch in dynamics doesn’t become a barrier to communication.Success Labs’ President, Devin Lemoine, says that reverse mentorships provide opportunity for senior leadership to “get feedback from newer employees through open and genuine conversation, creating valuable space to learn how employees are affected by company practices and culture.”Even if your overall work culture is strong, and remote teams are communicating and producing, this disconnect with the young professional experience is doing your future leadership cohort a disservice. Our data on Gen Z – fresh-out-of-school hires – suggests that they are looking for stability, long-term careers, and the opportunity to make a difference. They are very open to flexible working arrangements, but want to know they are contributing in a real way to the company’s mission. You can help engage top emerging talent by being aware of these dynamics, and proactive in making the onboarding experience great for them – even without the cubicle visits and printer chats that anchor in-office culture. Success Labs is a leadership development and management consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to grow leaders, build teams and drive results through great people strategy. Contact us to get proactive about expanding your company’s potential, and stay up-to-date with our latest news and leadership development updates here.