In many ways the future of work is now.  As mentioned below, millennials account for half of the American workforce, and by 2025, 75% of the global workforce.  In the constant battle to be the employer of choice, engagement is paramount.  Current surveys have millennial engagement at only 35%,  With that being said I thought this article from  Future Workforce on the HR Grapevine website was relevant to the cause and wanted to share it with you.  

Millennials – those born between 1981 and 1996 – are set to become the dominant part of the workforce this year, making up 50% of it.

As a result, there’s increased focus on this cohort of learners with people functions looking for ways to increase engagement and keep these workers happy and productive. Every month we ask our community what challenges they are facing, with the aim of creating content to help them take on and beat the firsts in their career.

These insights we collect – based on monthly viewing figures, questions asked by the community and surveys – will be relevant if you are working on multi-generational workforce strategy, and want specific info on this particular cohort.

Here are the top five must haves your professional development strategy needs when looking to improve engagement:

1) On-demand content: They need the solution at the point of pain.

This is the generation that has grown up with the introduction of the internet, the smartphone, on-demand Netflix-style streaming. They want the answer there and then, because it’s all they’ve ever really known. Why should learning be any different? They don’t want to wait for you to create training that’s delivered in a few weeks’ time.

2) The ability to engage with learning at work.

If they’ve just had an awkward conversation in the kitchen with Marc, or have to run a meeting that wasn’t in the diary, they’ll need to be able to dip into ‘in the moment learning’ to get that quick answer or confidence boost, not wait until they get home to search for the answer.

3) Learning content that’s authentic.

If they’re watching content that’s about a real life situation, it needs to be real; no fake green screens, no actor reading from a script. It needs to be localized and culturally relevant so they can see HOW they’d apply it to their lives.

4) Content on things they’re too scared to ask you for help with.

The most viewed video on Careercake last year was how to make a phone call in an open plan office. The second? How to give feedback to your boss. We are expected to know this stuff before we enter work, but who teaches it?

5) Tell them why they are taking part in the training/learning.

This is an area of your workforce that’s really interested in learning; they crave the ability to develop. But that said they’re interested in what the business stands for and what it is working towards so you need to show them how the learning you’ve asked them to take part in connects to the bigger picture.

There are of course many other must haves, such as blended learning and career paths, that they have shared with us but we wanted to give you the most asked for suggestions to show you to what detail you need to consider when engaging with these learners.

Jim Thomas is an Enterprise Account Executive for Kronos, the world-wide leader in HCM solutions.  Jim helps retail, hospitality and entertainment companies improve performance and communication at every level of their workforce with Kronos Task Management solutions resulting in a better customer experience.