Millennials Just Want To Have Fun

,

Time flies when you are having fun, right? But how many times have you stared at the clock waiting for a work day to end? Chances are, unless you work for an exceptionally innovative company, most people wouldn’t describe their workplaces as “fun”.

However, many millennials crave a fun ad innovative work environment. The main reason millennials switch companies is boredom, and an exciting work environment is likely to help retain employees. Studies show, when employees feel they are enjoying themselves, they become more creative, and more efficient. Companies like Facebook and Google have embraced the ‘fun’ work environment, and are shining examples of success.

At launchbox, we strive to create a fun work environment that keeps our team upbeat and innovative. Members of the team should be excited to come into work, not dreading it, and a fun work environment is conducive to that.

Check out the Forbes article regarding why a ‘fun’ work environment is so important for the incoming workforce.

Secrets Behind Retaining Millennials

, ,

“I’m not going to hire millennials because they are just going to leave in a few years anyway, so what is the point.” If we had a dollar for everytime we heard that we would be retired on a tropical island by now. On the surface, this statement raises a valid point: why hire people that will just leave? Those darn millennials are just so indecisive!

At launchbox, we find quite a few faults with this statement.

The first is that we, as a society, are getting to a point where we are no longer going to have the option to bypass hiring millennials. According to CICSO’s Millennial Research, “75,000,000 millennials are joining or looking to join the work force” and “by 2025 about 75% of the workforce will be millennials”. What are you going to do, scour the 25% of non-millennial workforce until you find a 50 year old willing to accept a starting salary? Good luck with that. Plus millennials think differently, are innovative, and create real diversity in the workplace. How about that for changing results against your competitors?

The second flaw with the reasoning is that millennials wouldn’t leave companies so frequently if these companies would learn to attract and retain millennials. Companies can’t expect to treat millennials the same way they treated incoming employees 30 years ago and achieve the same result. In fear of sounding too obvious, the generations are vastly different!

Millennials grew up in the digital age, and they don’t know any differently than to use the technology they grew up with. Information is at their fingertips, and everything is immediate. They would rather work harder than longer, which frankly makes a lot of sense to me. If I could complete a project in 4 hours with the same level of quality as a co-worker who took 8 hours but wasn’t as efficient, why wouldn’t you.

Millennials work differently, and have different expectations from a workplace. If you and your company met more of those expectations, maybe millennials wouldn’t ‘jump around’ as often.

Is it your duty to meet the needs of your employees? You ultimately get to choose.  Zappos and Google chose, and who wants to work there: most everybody. You may ask, why? Because they just get it.

As always, we’d love to know what you think.

 

Labor Day: The New (labor) Rules for Millennials

, ,

With the memories of Labor Day still on our minds while at work today, its important to keep in mind why we celebrate the holiday. Not only do we appreciate all the work we do everyday, but we are given the opportunity to appreciate all the hard work others do that makes the world go round.

This insightful blog takes an interesting spin on Millennials and hard work.

The author’s perspective is right in line with lunchbox’s views of millennials. The article touches on research about millennials and their ability to innovate the workplace. It also lists some interesting advice to millennials that is new and refreshing.

Check out the article and let us know what you think!