Introduction

A study from Gallup showed that 6 out of 10 millennials are open to new job opportunities, this generation is known for their highly ambitious character and in its continuous quests for professional growth opportunities, fast tracking career growth, and desire for a high salary.

If organisation do not provide such opportunity, they tend to instinctively job hop without much thought. Further findings found both generation Z and Y of employees has the lowest loyalty towards the organisation.

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Why should organisation be concerned?

Organisational Point of View

• Voluntary attrition rate has been steadily increasing with each year, and last recorded 14.3% in 2020 and appears to be higher than the average global rate.
• As a result these generation are only willing to stay in an organization for a maximum of 2 years or less before moving towards a different company.
  

Human Resource Point Of View

Let’s look through the perspective from the recruitment side. This brings many complications as turnover can be unexpected.

• HR will require finding proper candidates which isn’t just time consuming but also the incur cost such as advertising cost, recruiter’s salary, travel expenses and 3rd party recruiter fees.
• Another research showed that employee turnover cost 20%- 500% of those leaving employee’s annual salary and decreases workplace morale as most task will create more strain on existing employee creating an increasing ripple effect on turnover.
• A Study conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management showed that the average cost RM 18,220.81 and an average of 28 days finding suitable candidate.

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How to improve the retention strategy for the Gen Z and Y?

For the best retention and attraction factor, tactics to be taken include career development, communication, and workplace culture. Here are seven strategies to ensure maximum retention.

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1. Remote Working

“ People today value workplace flexibility and remote work because it allows them to focus their energies on work and life as opposed to commuting ”

The rigid working hours of 9 to 5 is coming to an end, as long as work is done within the given timeline, these generation of employee want to have the flexibility to choose when, where and how to do their work.

Flexible working hours is a good option for employee to and have attribute towards creating proper work-life balance and generally improve their quality at work.

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2. Peer coaching

“ Coaching is unlocking a person potential to maximize their growth”

When manager guidance is provided, conversation started can lead towards basic ideas which can be further refined and improves the employee ability to think and execute task independently.

Also, it creates a feeling of working towards a goal as a team, and having a companion training program makes it an attractive selling point towards job seekers.

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3. Teamwork & Collaboration

“If everyone is moving forward together then success take care of itself”

Teamwork, ensure that everyone does it work collectively to meet your objective as a teams rather a single individual struggling to meet it targets. Providing assistance is provided if there is uncertainty is inbound, and team leader should never neglect .

Managers should conduct a weekly 1 hour 1 to 1 session and bring solution to the table when speaking on issue and challenges relating to the work. This will empower them to meet objectives rapidly and producing quality results.

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4. Offer Employee Benefits

“ If you don`t create a great, rewarding place for people to work, they won`t do great work”

Many organisation are now taking the proactive approach in centering the lives by providing basic health insurance. Employee benefits can come in various shapes, such as health care coverage, gym membership or allowance towards healthcare support.

Data from Randstad stated that 72% of Malaysian workers rank attractive salary and benefits as most important EVP which improves retention. However, HR that self-manage their healthcare benefits could see a potential of 32 hours/month on administrative work.

To simplify the healthcare management consider using platform such as HealthMetrics to automate and streamline the administrative task and plan ahead for better engagement.

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5. Development & Growth

“ Each job requires a conscious choice of career path, and a different plan of development “

Providing the path of career advancement is proven to reduce job hopping, as most employees know that bouncing between companies is too risky and lower their knowledge within a certain as they too are searching to job security in growth.

A recent survey concludes that 84% prefer meaningful work at a company they believe in, which provide the means to build their career reputation and financial security.

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6. Strong work culture

“How management chooses to treat its people impact everything for better or for worse”

As information are widely available and accessible at any given time, these generation employee will conduct research on the company.

Therefore, it is always important to portray a positive working culture and serve as an indicator to attract skilled workers.  

A positive workplace culture improves teamwork, raises the morale, increases productivity and efficiency, and enhances retention of the workforce.

7. Job rotation

“ Great Things Never Came From Comfort Zones “

As both generation employee take passionate in their work and are continuously pushing the boundaries, continuous repetitive task will bring down the motivation to innovate.

Therefore, consider  providing opportunity to rotate task through several jobs during their first few years with a company. As it helps provide the chance to identify what they like most and the path they want to pursue.

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Conclusion

The closing thoughts for retaining both generations is to ensure that you have clear communication and career development as both generations seek leadership and guidance throughout their employment path.

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