The Secret to Hiring and Retaining Millennials | Pt 2

When it comes to millennials we need to adapt our corporate company culture by integrating emotional intelligence to ensure we retain millennial employees.

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In part one of this two-part blog series on The Secret to Hiring and Retaining Millennials, I explained how important it is for us to understand millennials, their impact on the workforce and how they operate as employees. In part two, I will address how company culture needs to adapt and integrate emotional intelligence if they want to successfully employ millennials moving forward.

Company Culture + Millennials

As mentioned in part one, when I was doing research on the topic of millennials, I had the pleasure of working with Lukas Pesa, a researcher of generational differences and trends in the workforce. We connected to collaborate and develop three podcasts on millennials and discuss how millennials are as employees and how company culture plays a major role in retaining them.

Lukas Pesa explains,

“I believe emphasis should be placed on building company culture in the coming years because over the next decade, the millennial generation will not only be the most represented generation in the workforce – but will be the generation that is forced to lead the workforce. The desire of millennials to work for companies with great cultures, means the companies that will be the most successful will be the ones that begin to groom their millennial employees to be leaders right now by engaging them in meaningful work in a good corporate culture to make sure they’re ready when it comes time for them to lead.”

What is the secret to good company culture?

The secret is to embrace emotional intelligence from the top down. Designing company culture with Emotional Intelligence in mind enhances the workplace on many levels and ultimately boosts millennial productivity. Organizations will be able attract and retain highly engaged millennial employees once emotional intelligence is practiced.

Interestingly an Ipsos 2012 study found that, even though 91% of supervisors agreed that emotional intelligence is important, 75% of the supervisors were not strong in any of the four areas of emotional intelligence; Self-awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Management.

Clearly we can’t just say we think emotional intelligence is important, we must walk the talk. Emotional Intelligence can be taught which is ideal for all employees (not just millennials). If you want to increase company culture it is essential you incorporate emotional intelligence into your corporate mandate and training.

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Millennial Podcasts with Lukas Pesa