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Millennials are the largest working population nowadays, snuggly sitting between Gen Z and Gen X. The great thing about them is that they want more comfort in their workplaces. The downside of this (mostly for the employers) is that they aren’t the most engaged generation. It’s quite easy for them to quit and look for something better.
Unless you train and engage them.
Being the first generation to fully embrace modern technology, their expectations of learning are quite specific, compared to Gen X’s old-school ways. So, is training millennials difficult?
Not if you know how to do it. Here, we offer a couple of explanations of how millennials learn and the 6 most useful approaches.
Who Are Millennials?
Millennials are the generation of people born between the years 1981 and 1996. In the US, they make up over 1/5th of the population at the moment. Around 44% of millennials (in the US) are freelancers or have participated in freelance work, which highlights their desire for freedom of choice.
They are extremely different from their Gen X parents due to the changes the world experienced at the end of the 20th century. They were there when computers became a part of daily life and when the Internet was born.
They have their own problems due to the fact that their parents are staying in the workforce longer and have left a mess of an economy for them to inherit. But now, millennials are in the stages of early and middle management. This means the rule change has begun.
With the help of the Internet, they have flattened the vertical hierarchy and democratized businesses. This has also increased competition, but the benefits and opportunities for learning and decision-making are worth it.
Millennials want to learn and grow constantly, enriching their expertise and life experiences. They also want to do it easily, without redundant actions that waste time.
Things to Consider When Teaching Millennials
We’ve already talked quite a bit about the generation itself. Now, let’s see what you should consider when managing millennials training:
- They love to try new tech. Millennials are much more likely to adopt new technology and learn it faster than older generations.
- They value the quality of knowledge rather than an empty degree.
- They don’t think education should only be in a classroom. Millennials are more fond of flexible hybrid learning.
- They love digitalization and value social media presence.
- Millennials are achievers. Setting goals and reaching them is a very bright characteristic of their generation.
6 Key Tips for Training Millennials
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So, how do millennials learn? They are pretty demanding and tech-savvy, but how to approach the learning process? Let us introduce the 6 best tips for training millennials.
#1: eLearning and Online Learning Activities
Online learning shouldn’t be an option. It should be a must. Millennials like it when all the info they need is available anywhere, anytime. They find it comfortable to learn by looking at their phones during a lunch break.
Give them such an option.
According to the LinkedIn 2020 Workplace Learning Report, 94% of employees state they would work for a company for a longer time if it provided training and development. Many businesses invest more in employee learning nowadays. For example, SE Ranking allocates funds to train their employees, paying for eLearning opportunities, event attendance, etc.
They not only help you summarize the material and remember it better but create a basis for you to receive a certificate which you can then add to your CV. It’s convenient, dynamic, and useful!
Another great tip is ensuring your material is presented in a responsive design. Millennials use their smartphones to socialize, communicate, and learn. Making the lessons mobile-compatible will ensure people can access them 24/7.
The eLearning approach provides the option to choose the time and place of study, as well as an opportunity to personalize the experience, which millennials value dearly.
#2: Microlearning, Bite-Sized Information
These people take in a lot of information every day through various channels. There’s usually not enough time to watch 3-hour lessons or read long lectures. Millennials tend to scan the text to get the most important info out of it.
Besides, these are people who strive to achieve a work-life balance. This doesn’t scream ‘large difficult paragraphs’.
So, the best you can do is compile concise, informative, and short lessons so they can watch or read them anytime without a cognitive overload. It’s much easier to perceive 50 bite-sized lessons than 10 large ones that can take half a day.
Remember, millenials are people who are used to short social media posts and lots of visual content. They look for easier and more flexible ways to learn.
Furthermore, we’ve established that millennials are goal-achievers. Short classes create small challenges and boost dopamine every time you finish one. With quizzes after every lesson, other interactive elements, and online access to your course, training millennials will become a breeze.
They will be engaged and show great results.
#3: Millennial Engagement
Engagement is the key. Allow your employees to engage with each other and the teachers during their training. Encourage discussion of the material and collaboration for tests, projects, special assignments, etc.
Millennials value communication, so creating a discussion board, chat room, and open learning classes will only benefit your program.
The brilliance of this approach in modern times is that you can do it all online. It’s easier for many millennials to socialize on the Net, as it’s less awkward and allows for multitasking.
Another way to boost engagement is to give people a purpose. Millennials strive to achieve that golden work-life balance, so arguments like ‘we do it like this, so you should do it like this as well’ don’t really work.
Introduce the real reasons behind your practices, provide life hacks, and explain how they contribute to your company.
Also, create goals. Millennials are goal-oriented and will stay loyal to companies that offer them opportunities to set new goals in their careers and achieve them. It could be a personal career development program or a game within your online course that rewards the first person to pass it perfectly.
This will not only make millennial training more pleasant and effective but will also improve employee retention as well.
#4: Ability to Experiment and Change
Millennials have witnessed so many global changes which have made them adaptable. And they have also experienced the consequences of those changes while trying to build their lives in this often chaotic world.
To some degree, millenials are pretty conservative. But they are always open to new experiences and work models.
If you want to retain a millennial and earn their loyalty and trust, you need to provide them with a solid ground where it’s safe to experiment. Here’s what we mean:
- Use problem sets:
Create problem sets and provide employees with checklists for solving them. Then, let them practice, and don’t limit their creativity. Experiments will not only make the education process more interesting but help with team-building and create an overall trusting atmosphere. Maybe you’ll even find alternative ways to solve problems using the ideas of the students. - Be specific:
Make sure your training isn’t vague. Give clear assignments, show what their successful completion looks like, and keep people on task. eLearning is an exceptionally good model for this. - Build trust:
Remember what we said about arguments like ‘just because’ not working when you’re training millennials. Build an atmosphere of reliability, empathy, and trust to make people feel comfortable bringing new ideas to the table, experimenting, and changing approaches.
#5: Feedback
Two-way feedback is an advantage. Gathering messages from your employees will help you correct the training programs. People will feel heard and understood, which will make you a more attractive employer and help you improve productivity.
Giving feedback will help your millennial students to create perfect approaches for any problem. We’re not talking about the ‘Good job!’ kind of feedback. Make it constructive. Give people advice, guide them, and criticize them empathetically yet constructively.
Your employees will feel that there’s a group of coaches supporting their growth, which is very important.
#6: Mentoring
This brings us to the importance of mentoring. The quality of managers is very important for millennials. When they feel they have a mentor, they feel safer and become more loyal to the company. Besides, it shows that the business is interested in investing in new talent by guiding it from the very beginning.
Introduce mentorships when training millennials. It’s important for them to have a group of mentors that help them in every sphere of their lives, and their careers aren’t an exception.
This model will help you provide consistent and continuous learning, which is a major employee retention factor.
Summary
Training millennials becomes very easy once you know how they learn and what their expectations are. They are mobile people who want balance in their lives. Sometimes balance is difficult for them to achieve since information is constantly pouring out of every device they have.
Make the material as accessible as possible. Create an online course and make it responsive so that people can access it from different devices. Ensure the information is concise and useful. Create an interactive interface where students can take quizzes after a block of lessons, work with infographics, enjoy video material, etc.
Encourage feedback and give millennials the ability to experiment and fail. And keep them engaged by inspiring them to discover and creating challenges they should overcome.
With these tips, managing millennials’ training won’t be difficult. They will show great results, stay engaged, and won’t lose interest in their jobs after half a year of working there, becoming loyal employees for years to come.
Nikola
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