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Dan Fogarty, 29, left, and Teddy
Tehrani, 26, play soccer table at Kapost.
Photo: CHRIS SCHNEIDER FOR THE WALL
STREET JOURNAL
|
Many managers like to complain that
20-something workers won’t stay put in a job for long. But for employers, is
that a problem or an opportunity?
Millennials—those roughly 18-to-34
years old—make up the largest share of the U.S. workforce, about 34%,
outnumbering Generation Xers and baby boomers, who account for about 32% and
31%, respectively, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The rising number of young workers
has some companies worried about keeping them on board. Other businesses are
embracing flux in the talent market, and say they are focused on getting the
most from young hires while they have them.
Last year, the median job tenure for
workers aged 20 to 24 was shorter than 16 months. For those aged 25 to 34, it
was three years, according to the BLS, still far short of the 5.5-year median
tenure for all workers aged 25 and older.
After working as a front-end
engineer at Facebook Inc. in Menlo Park, Calif., for a little over a year,
Colby Rabideau left the social-media company last year to be closer to his
girlfriend and family in Boston. The 24-year-old said he never intended to stay
on the West Coast permanently. Mr. Rabideau now is a software engineer at
Hubspot Inc., where
he plans to spend “at least a couple more years.” But, he said, he doesn’t
expect to stay “at a company for 30 years.” He added that he might start his
own business down the road.
“There is a very pronounced level of unease”
about young workers and their loyalty to employers, said Caroline Ghosn,
founder and chief executive of Levo League, an online career-development
network geared to young women.
The 28-year-old Ms. Ghosn has
advised those firms to strengthen networking opportunities for junior
employees, such as by hosting mentorship “mixers” to allow relationships to
develop between senior and junior colleagues. She said a lack of close ties at
work, via networks or a social group, frequently causes young people to leave.
Companies like IBM Corp., Coca Cola
Co. and Visa
Inc. have
recently relaxed office dress codes and convened councils of millennial
employees to weigh in on everything from marketing campaigns to workplace
policies. Auditing firm Ernst & Young Global Ltd. and Dutch health-care and
consumer-products company Philips NV have
begun programs designed to send employees overseas for stints of a few months,
giving them global exposure and developing leadership skills.
Online deals site RetailMeNot Inc. said it
is inviting junior employees to take part in hiring decisions. “Millennials are
only interested in staying here if we’re attracting other ‘A’ players,” said
Annette Alexander, RetailMeNot’s vice president of human resources. To make
young workers feel heard, executives must “involve them in key hiring decisions
for the company,” she said.
Some managers think companies should
stop trying so hard. They cite “The Alliance,” a book co-written by LinkedIn Corp.
co-founder Reid Hoffman that proposes a different model for the
employer-employee relationship—one based on mutual expectations and the
possibility of the employee leaving.
At LinkedIn, managers often segment
an employee’s career into “tours of duty” that last a couple of years. The
employee and manager agree on specific goals to be met during that period. At
the end of a given tour, both parties understand that the employee might leave.
“By talking openly about the fact
that an employee might leave, you actually increase the likelihood” that he or
she will stay on, said Ben Casnocha, a co-author of the book and Mr. Hoffman’s
former chief of staff. Employers should make clear that “if it makes more sense
for you to leave [than stay], that’s OK,” he added.
Toby Murdock, CEO of Kapost, a
Boulder, Colo. marketing-software firm, said he has adopted that mind-set. “It
is a very fluid marketplace for young people,” said Mr. Murdock, 41. “Let’s be
honest about that instead of trying to deny it.”
He wants young workers to consider
his company a career accelerator, rather than a parking lot. That attitude has
given Kapost a reputation as a career launchpad, Mr. Murdock said, and helps
the company attract a stream of ambitious young candidates.
Investor-research firm Cognolink
also touts its ability to boost young people’s careers. “My goal is to train
them so well that people are going to come and want to head-hunt them away,”
said Bryan Lewis, chief operating officer of the 285-person firm, which has
offices in London, New York, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Mumbai. “I expect that,
and it makes me proud,” he said. If an employee hesitates to pursue an
attractive opportunity elsewhere, “I’ll fire them so that they have to go take
it,” Mr. Lewis said.
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| Kapost’s CEO Toby Murdock, left, and executive Christine Viera with Bean the dog during a lunch break. Photo: CHRIS SCHNEIDER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL |
