Turn Your Best Millennial Employees into Leaders

It is clear that millennials want to make a difference. This generation is looking for more responsibility, to be heard and to work with senior leaders.

Organizations can ensure they hold on to top millennial talent by generating opportunities for impact and early exposure to leadership. There are various approaches to making sure this happens, and that the best employees from this generation are given the chance to pursue an accelerated career path.

One angle is top-down – educating senior leaders and line managers on the importance of engaging with early-career talent. This involves moving towards participative decision making, recognising employee achievements and giving these employees access to roles that will stretch their capabilities and allow them to develop on the job.

Another angle is that of shadowing and action learning. This will demonstrate to early career talent the complexities of senior roles and ensure that the level of experience needed to succeed in these positions is thoroughly understood.

Additionally, agile work structures that allow for distributed decision-making will also help this cause. Organizations may benefit from introducing agile, project-based working strategies that provide early opportunities for taking on responsibility and having an impact – both priorities for the millennial workforce.

Ines Wichert is an Occupational Psychologist and has been working in HR Consulting for over 15 years, advising global organizations on their talent issues. She is the author of Accelerated Leadership Development, debunking the myth that one size of leadership development fits all.