Latest Trends in Talent Management Strategies to Attract and Retain Millennials and Baby Boomers

Many organizations today face several challenges in recruiting, retaining and developing employees.  Most large organizations are addressing these challenges to help them stay competitive in the global economy.

HR Departments must reevaluate their current role and assess how to support their business partners during rapid change to become more talent focused.

Business technology and transformation is happening faster than ever before.  Skill set requirements are changing dramatically.  Organizations need to be first to market with talent strategies that attract and retain talent who have the right skill sets, inspiration and perspiration, values, and competencies to drive business goals.  Having the right talent in place is critical to the organization’s future success.

What are some of the latest trends in Talent Management?

1. Build your employer brand to attract and retain talent.
2. Live your value proposition and hold others accountable.
3. Use social media to attract and retain talent.
4. Capture data analytics to project future talent needs through workforce analysis.
5. Implement Leadership Development Strategy into the culture.
6. Keep employee technology skills current.
7. Create job enrichment and a clearly defined career paths to attract millennials.
8. Monitor risk of departure of high potentials and baby boomers
9. As baby boomers get closer to retirement, help them to stay productive.

Organizations are in a heated battle to attract key talent.

Here are some tips for recruiting and retaining employees:

1. Offer an internship program.  Work with college recruiters to identify top students in their field and interview them for the position.  Give them the same experience as a new hire – orientation, onboarding, mentoring, meaningful work, compensation, training, exposure to the C-suite.
2. Support local universities to build your brand and attract future candidates.
3. Partner with professors to give them insights into your business culture and requirements.
4. Work with local business development to seek incentives to attract and retain employees.  If the geography and industry are seen as undesirable, they will lose out on hiring high potentials.
5. Analyze your current hiring process and create an efficient hiring process.  If your hiring process is too slow, unresponsive, and doesn’t interact with candidates, you will lose them.
6. If your corporate culture and leadership brand demonstrate poor behavior, your reputation will impact your ability to recruit top talent and retain high performers.
7. Most employees leave a job to join another company because they have a strong reputation as a good employer, offer better incentives and challenging work

Here are some tips to keep Millennials engaged:

1. Millennials are likely to change jobs frequently, expect to advance rapidly, and to have job flexibility and work-life balance.  Many organizations are making changes to their Talent Management System to appeal to Millennials.a.    Internship programs
   b.    Workplace policies
   c.     Interviewing and hiring
   d.    Social responsibility practices
   e.    Performance review processes
   f.      Compensation and Incentives
   g.    Internally promotion and career ladders
2. Millennials need training in soft skills and corporate experience, many organizations are implementing innovative strategies to support millennial skill development – through training programs such as Influencing skills, critical thinking, communication, work ethic, professionalism.
3. At its Fort Myers, Florida location, Gartner offers a youthful campus vibe atmosphere that appeals to millennials.  They offer mentoring, training, collaboration, “no limits” career opportunities to demonstrate their investment in people.  By promoting a culture of transparent internal promotion opportunities and career paths, employees recognize how to advance their career goals.
4. Offering a mentoring program for new hires, high potentials, teams, and leaders helps employees learn the corporate culture, builds relationships and gives them exposure to critical business practices and leadership skills.  Mentoring programs also strengthens employee engagement.
5. Creating a culture of collaboration by creating a culture that is warm, inviting, inclusive, upbeat, and fun helps employees to feel more relaxed and happier.  A collaborative culture that is based on openness and transparency that builds loyalty, trust and commitment.  Also, involving employees in sharing their ideas and feedback, and feeling comfortable talking to senior leaders and asking for help are strong engagement factors.

In the next five years, the number of baby boomers retiring could be catastrophic!  It’s expected that over 50% will retire.

Here are some thoughts for preparing for the massive Baby Boomer Retirement!

1. 1. Organizations are preparing for the transfer of knowledge from Baby Boomers to the younger generation by creating information exchanges, hosting networking events, creating mentorship programs, conducting leadership development programs and apprenticeship programs.
   2. Baby Boomers are recognized for their contributions and knowledge, expertise and work ethic critical to business success, however, managing to keep up with millennials’ technical expertise, social media skills, and resistance to change, can become a derailer, and may prevent younger talent from advancing in the organization structure.
   3. By revising Human Resource Processes, organizations are transitioning baby boomers by making accommodations to keep them employed with job flexibility – by transitioning to part-time, revising retirement benefits, transitioning to education and technical training, support staff roles, helping with community engagement and social responsibility, becoming a company or industry advocate, coach, subject matter expert, and/or consultant.

While it’s clear that many organizations are facing Talent Management challenges to maintain the competitive advantage, Human Resource Department must take the leadership role to guide senior leaders to address the issues and identify sustainable solutions.  If your organization needs to address the “War On Talent Issue,” gaining a certification in Talent Management will provides you with the tools, guidelines and resources needed to develop a customized Talent Management Solution for your organization. Our team of talented Talent Management Faculty will provide you with the latest Talent Management Strategies to help you guide your organization.  Please contact us for more information.

Resources:  “Talent Sustainability Report, The CHRO View from the Front Lines of the War on Talent”, April 24, 2015, www.hrpolicyfoundation.org

“Gartner Eyes 900 Hires by ’19”, Casey Logan, June 19, 2016,News-Press.com

Author:  Nancy L. Zentis, Ph.D.  CEO of Institute of Organization Development, offering online OD Certification Programs in OD, Talent Management, Leadership Development, and Executive Coaching.