Millennials Today Are Looking For Experiences At Jobs: Experts Discuss At BW Event

This interesting session at the HR & Education BW Envision Summit held at Goa, got some exclusive insights to deal with millennials at workplace.

In a session chaired by Taniya Tikoo, Assistant Editor, BW People, in conversation with top HR heads ; Lokesh Sikka, CHRO, VP HR & Admin, Onida; Apurv Choubey, Group CHRO , Eduspark; Sanjeev Jain, Director, Enabling World; Rajat Bhatia, VP & Head - Ops & Enabler, Fareportal, and Prabhanjan Kumar Prasoon, Head- Talent Acquisition (IT & Enablement), Sopra Steria.

Taniya began the session asking, “What is the difficult part for attracting and retaining millennials?”

Sikka taking the lead replied, “Well, it depends from organisation to organisations, for some attracting millennials, as for some it is easy but retailing is difficult, although Onida has been quite successful in retaining them”

Choubey, “ Millenials today need a prolific career, value for brands and money, but that is not on the top of their minds, but experiences is what they want, So organisations need to take care of their needs to retain them.”

Prasoon, “Who are Millennials they are people born after 1980, who are tech savvy and well defined, a generation that knows what they want. They have 3 things in the mind, firstly the purpose in an organisation, second is development in terms of profile, third is money. If you can give them all three as an employer, it’s easy to retain them”

Bhatia added, “Today 442 million people in India come in the Millennial age bracket.

They are very aware, so they gather information about the company, they want immediate feedback and look for instant gratification, today the tools, individuals and mind-sets all are different.”

Adding his viewpoint Jain said, “Generations Z of those born after 1996 and millennials born after what will help an organisation to attract is to create an employee value, they need their freedom, and for them delivery is very important, they want to take responsibility early on.So it’s important that they are giving challenges to handle, to build their interest in what they do, give them work satisfaction, and of-course good money so that they can be retained.”

So where do you see the change in culture?

“We need to touch them personally through our employee engagement initiatives, so as to encourage them,” Said Sikka.

Prasoon added to highlight on the behavioural aspects said, “Millennials want a secure career and have the so much passion, and they have ideas and want to work on real time projects.”

“We must do direct interactions with them about what are we, why are we and how can they contribute to the company and its vision. Like IMB used social analytic tools to understand what the employees want, they want to be heard” added Bhatia.

Jain talking about the need to create retainer ship said, “Organisations need to create a meaningful work space for them. In my organisation we have reward programs,that are unique and timely.”

Would you as leaders give freedom for lateral shift in organisations?

Choubey “Yes, why not, Cross functional shift is a very important aspect today for both organisations and employees.”

Adding his point Jain said “Organisations have different style to do it. Like we used to assign the mentor to show them a way that you can take within the organisation.”

Bhatia added“Today’s millennials want to work as per their convenience and time in the work areas that interest them, that’s the only way to retain them and to grow them.”

Sikka said, “We have started PWA program i.e Pamper, Watch and Action, so we have been retaining the employees successfully.”

It’s important to groom, coach and mentor the Millennials that will help them to remove any confusions further building their confidence in the organisation and can help retaining them.