1.Career Opportunities
Every millennial I have talked to
about their job or work cited career
moves and opportunities as a key fac-
tor in choosing a place to work. They
want to move up the ladder quickly
or at least perceive they are moving
up. Start by creating title and job role
promotions. For example: Student
Optician, Licensed Optician, Senior
Optician and Managing Optician.
You can also develop new roles like
optician/social media manager so the
employee feels they have taken on a
new position.
2. Growth and Learning
Although this seems to hold true for
most generations, offering ongoing
training, learning and skill growth
is not only important to millennials,
they thrive when learning something
new. They are the most educated
eneration and have been taught to
receive a lot of information in a short
period of time, so they are looking for
more of it. Hold in-office training either
by the manager and staff or bring in
expertise from your industry sales
reps. Take employees to conferences
and events that allow them to choose
the training most suited to their
growth goals.
3. Compensation
Yes…here it is - close to the top of the
list of what is important to motivating
a millennial employee. Millennials
are savvy, and they know how to find
information such as “average” salary
ranges for their job description. They
are passive job seekers keeping an eye
out for what might be a better oppor-
tunity. How do you stay a step ahead
and hold onto your best employees?
Pay them a little better than industry
average, be a passive Internet guru
yourself and stay on top of the wages
and compensation in your industry
and city. Also consider a different raise
structure than just an annual raise.
Millennials need gratification more
often than once a year, so change it up
and offer quarterly raises or incentives
so they feel they are earning more
during the year.
4. Flexibility
It is difficult for the small to medium-
sized eye care business to offer flexible
hours, but flexibility is high on the list
of what attracts millennials to job of-
fers. Try to think out of the box on how
you can offer flexibility to your em-
ployees that does not affect the day-
to-day operations. Some ideas could
be personal days instead of sick days
for employees to use during the year
or working from home one day a month
on a task you assign so you know ex-
actly what you are getting while they
are away from the office. Flexibility
could also mean shorter lunch breaks,
so they can leave earlier or coming in
later to miss the rush hour traffic, but
working later in the day.
5. Challenged
Most employees want to feel challenged
and encouraged during their careers,
but none as much as the millennial
generation. They grew up with tech-
nology, so utilize their skill set and
find out what excites them. Then find
ways to incorporate that into
their roles and responsibilities. Offer
your mentorship to support and grow
them into employees you can delegate
and hand over work to while you con-
centrate on other parts of the busi-
ness. Millennials love to “own” roles
and tasks, so once you do let them go
and don’t micromanage them.
6. Involvement
When I ask Millennials what they really
want in a job, they tell me impact.
They want to feel they are impacting
in some way whether they are impact-
ing the company or the customer and
that impact must align with their values
and beliefs. They also want to feel
they are involved in the company and
that includes the decisions, the direc-
tion and the culture. Give them the
chance to feel involved and you will
give them a reason to stay.
Last note: Millennials may be the easi-
est generation to manage as they are
so forthcoming with what’s important
to them. They won’t have loyalty to old
ways of running a business or hierar-
chies of the past, but they will be loyal
to a company that gives them the
opportunity to be more than just
an employee.
Trudi Charest is the co-Founder of
Marketing4ECPs, a full service digital
agency dedicated to the eye care industry.
Trudi can be reached at
www.marketing4ecps.com or
[email protected].
* Stats Canada, The Canadian
Population Report
EYE FOCUS | February Digital 2019 23