Ah, yes, the millennial generation. So many words have been said about this middling generation stuck between the traditions of boomers and Gen X, and the novel innovation of Gen Z and zoomers. And the discussion on millennials has been warranted because of one prevailing stereotype – that millennials are confusing because they’re hard to teach. 

However, for business owners and leaders like myself, you’ll find that few generations are as hardworking and efficient as the millennials. The talent, skills, and competitiveness are there at the same time. Therefore, harnessing that drive and motivation is on you, as a workplace leader. It’s your job to bring out the best out of them.

But what if the generation gap is too wide, and you simply don’t know how to maximise the strengths of the millennials? Let me share five strategies for training this generation in the workplace.

1) Gamify 

It’s no surprise that the generation that grew up with access to PC games and Playstations would also be the generation to set the trend of “gamifying” life. Gamifying, as the name implies, means treating life like a game by treating daily tasks like video game quests with their own rewards systems. 

If this sounds strange, it’s been proven to be effective, at least insofar as education. The International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education revealed that gamification increased students’ retention by over 12% and overall performance by over 7%. Logically, the same would follow when it comes to teaching millennial employees new skills.

For a simple gamification setup, perhaps you can try giving your employees points for every accomplished task that they can cash in for a reward at the end of a work season. You could also employ gamification by making sure the tasks you give have a clear scaling of difficulty, with your employees getting progressively more challenging tasks as they stay longer in the company.

2) Make Content Digestible

Millennials will be the first to admit that if there’s any stereotype about their generation that’s warranted, it’s that they have short attention spans. Research has shown that this is unequivocally the case. But before you get upset at millennials for this, you have to understand that they – just like you – are a product of the technology available to them.

In the case of millennials, this means that their exposure to instant gratification and multitasking systems makes them more prone to learning in short bursts.

While this might seem like a disadvantage, it also provides an opportunity in that the multitasking abilities of millennials also means they’re eager to try new things and learn as many skills as possible, which is an incredibly valuable commodity to any business. Plus, let’s be real, how much of that Powerpoint or that prepared meeting do you really need to go through, anyway? Maybe microlearning and digestible content can help you and your company get better at brevity and, by extension, close in faster with clients.

So how do you start making content more digestible? Try using simpler mediums like video instructions instead of text manuals. You could also try editing presentations to their most essential details, or microlearning skills and platforms to be a readily available resource for your team.

Whatever the method may be, millennials need content to be digestible. So, if you want to make the most out of their generation, you need to help them make the most out of the content you give them.

3) Have a Proper Mentorship Program

Millennials are all about connection. That’s just what happens when you’re raised in a commercial generation that cares so much about appearances, and when you become a young adult at the turn of social media. Millennials value proper connection and communication more than any generation that’s come before them. And that eagerness to connect and network is exactly why most millennials desire proper mentorship programs.

Through mentorship programs, millennials get to satisfy their desire for open communication and their need to know that people are looking out for them. While this might seem a bit self-centred on the onset, it’s a net positive thing, as it helps keep your workplace more engaged and communicative.

Which brings me to a similar point and that’s to…

4) Give Proper Feedback

Millennials absolutely love feedback. To the generations before them, this might feel synonymous to “spoon-feeding,” or refusing to let them learn from their own mistakes. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Millennials want to do things and apply themselves, and to them, demanding and receiving feedback is the way to do so. To them, it doesn’t make sense to make a mistake and not know where you went wrong. If they make a mistake, they’d rather just cut the passive-aggressive stuff, be told directly where they went wrong, and just never do it again. That’s a lot simpler and more effective in the long run than having to deal with deciphering completely new processes and workflows.

Of course, giving proper feedback doesn’t mean you have to give everything and end up doing your employees’ work, but all it means is making sure that they know where they can improve so that they can do just that.

5) Use New Technology

Often, older generations complain that millennials are on their phones way too often. But the fact of the matter is, phones and social networking aren’t just luxuries anymore. As we approach the year 2022, they’re basically necessities.

And if a company is refusing to lean into that by still clinging on to inefficient and outdated technologies and systems, they’re limiting their own potential. What companies need to do, instead, is to adopt these new technologies into their current work ecosystem. Try incorporating newer tech like digital workspaces and networking apps into the daily work routine so that your millennial trainees already have an idea of how to navigate and manoeuvre the workspace.

So instead of trying to demonise the current system, try thinking about how you can leverage it to your workplace’s advantage. After all, new technologies are there to make things easier and quicker, which is something anyone – millennial or not – can benefit from too.

To your success,

Mario

[Visit www.mariosingh.com now to enjoy a FREE e-book of my latest “37 Essential Principles for Massive Success” when you subscribe!]