Millennials Team Management Made Easy: 5 Personalized Training Strategies To Follow

Millennials Team Management Made Easy: 5 Personalized Training Strategies To Follow
GaudiLab/Shutterstock.com
Summary: The millennial generation places high value on Learning and Development opportunities and considers professional development the most important element of company culture. However, developing learning content that is engaging for this generation is challenging, and L&D leaders must create a strategy to address the need to align learning solutions with the modern workplace.

Personalized Learning Strategies For Managing Your Millennial Employees Effectively

Are you ready to explore what personalized training can do for your millennial workforce? There is a major shift in the working world, which is currently impacting the effectiveness of today's employee management strategies. 76 million baby boomers are rapidly retiring, and millennials are now the largest generation in the modern workforce [1]. Millennials have several unique qualities that make the way they work different than the previous generations.

Personalized Learning Experiences: Gearing Up For The Millennial Workforce
Discover new approaches to better engage employees and prepare for the future of work.

The disconnect between current management practices and millennial preferences has increased turnover. It has also lowered employee engagement across many industries. In fact, a recent study by Gallup found that only 26% of millennial employees are engaged at work.

If you are like the many businesses that are searching for ways to improve team management, boost engagement, and increase employee retention, personalized Learning and Development might be the strategy you are looking for.

Personalized Training Opportunities For The Millennial Generation

The millennial generation places high value on Learning and Development opportunities. However, developing learning content that is engaging for this generation as well as older generations can be challenging.

Personalized learning strategies help L&D professionals create learning content that engages today's increasingly diverse audiences. There are 5 personalized learning strategies you can use to increase engagement, boost productivity, and improve employee job satisfaction.

Incorporate Social Learning And Teamwork Into Personalized Training

Millennials are a social generation. Keeping them engaged starts with integrating collaborative project-based learning. This gives these employees an opportunity to work with their team members and build constructive working relationships while improving their skills.

Each team-building activity can be tailored to meet the needs of the employees in specific departments or roles. Keeping the learning content relevant will increase engagement. Growing up with access to all the information the internet has to offer, millennials tend to only be interested in content that has proven relevance.

In addition to teamwork, millennial employees also benefit greatly from mentorship or training buddies. This is especially useful when it comes to new employee onboarding. Millennials grew up receiving a lot of feedback and encouragement. Having them work with an individual who can answer all their questions and provide feedback in the beginning of their journey will help them feel comfortable and confident.

Provide A Variety Of Training Options And A Library Of Content

This generation values both career growth and the ability to make choices. They also want training that suits their personal learning style, interests, and skill level. This can be done by providing a library of content they can access at any time from any device.

The content should also be available in different formats as well. For example, some materials may come in the form of a short video or tutorial while other content may come in PDF form or a short simulation.

Providing multiple training sessions in the form of instructor-led or virtual instructor-led formats can also be helpful. This strategy lets employees personalize their own learning paths and sign up for courses with their peers, which can build up excitement.

Utilize Technology To Increase Engagement

People are often more comfortable using tools they are familiar with in order to learn, and millennials use technology like smartphones to look up information all the time. Nearly 75% of employees between the ages of 18-34 said they are motivated by video meetings and team messaging [2]. This is something to consider when you are creating learning content for a millennial audience.

Utilizing video-based learning content, using gamification, and creating content that is mobile-responsive are all useful content delivery methods that can help you engage this tech-savvy audience.

Present Training In Familiar Formats

Embracing technology is the first step you can take toward creating personalized training for millennials. However, if you want to optimize the effectiveness of your training content, consider researching the tools and formats that your employees are most comfortable with. You might be surprised to find that preferences vary in different departments or roles.

Providing a wide range of content in different formats is always a good way to go, but some further research using tools like learning analytics can help you take things a step further by identifying trends regarding the most popular learning content.

This will help you maximize the effectiveness of your training content and library.

Provide Regular Check-Ins And Feedback

Regular check-ins and constructive feedback are important for all employees, but for the millennial generation they are essential for engagement. According to the Ivy Business Journal, millennials want more feedback than any of the generations before them. More specifically, they want detailed feedback on their progress on a consistent basis.

The internet, social media, and other applications millennials are accustomed to all provide quick responses and instant feedback, which has increased their expectations. Millennials tend to translate a lack of feedback as a lack of interest or as a sign that they are not performing well. This can lead to higher turnover and low levels of engagement.

The need for large amounts of feedback is one of the challenges organizations face when they are managing millennials. Personalized training that focuses on individual learning experiences is a great way companies can help this generation get the feedback they need without overwhelming their supervisors.

eLearning and online simulations can quickly walk employees through workplace scenarios and let them practice life-like situations in a risk-free environment. These programs can provide unbiased feedback almost instantly, helping employees improve their skills quickly. Personalized eLearning programs can even make suggestions as to which courses learners may want to take next.

Conclusion

As millennials take over the workforce and baby boomers continue to retire, many organizations are noticing lower levels of employee engagement and a spike in employee turnover. This shift has also created a skills gap.

Personalized training and development programs can help organizations overcome the challenges of training, engaging and managing their millennial employees. To learn more about personalized learning strategies and millennial engagement, check out the eBook Personalized Learning Experiences: Gearing Up For The Millennial Workforce.

References:

[1] 7 Strategies for Training Millennials

[2] Motivated and checked out? The paradoxical state of the American workforce.