What Millennials want most out of their jobs

There are about 75 million Millennials today, people born between 1980 and 1995. Many of them are starting to enter the workforce today. With that, landscape contractors need to consider ways to attract and employ Millennials.

Marty Grunder of Grunder Landscaping presented on this topic during LANDSCAPES 2017 as a result of hiring and labor concerns from contractors. Instead of presenting on this topic alone, Grunder had his partner Vince Torchia, a Millennial, tell the story of what Millennials are looking for most when they enter the workforce.

According to Torchia, Millennials are generally most concerned with knowing whether they will make an impact in their jobs so they need to be told how their role fits in with the big picture of the company. He added that employers need to consider three things with hiring and retaining millennial employees: providing performance feedback; views on money; and how technology drives them.

Providing feedback: According to Torchia, millennial workers love feedback – they want it early, often and to the point. While older generations might think that “no news is good news,” Torchia said Millennials are alarmed when there’s no news. “It’s like if you don’t get a text back from someone, you assume, ‘What am I doing wrong?’ So, performance reviews need to happen more than once a year,” he said. He added that him and Grunder meet once a week to do a performance review as a way to learn whether he’s meeting goals he set for himself as well as ways to improve.

Views on money: Torchia said money isn’t everything to Millennials – in general they value responsibility and connection more. “You don’t have to spend a ton of money on a Millennial as long as they see a future with your company,” he said. “When you hire younger people, it’s usually not about the money. Give them meaningful work and they’ll be happy.” He added that workers from this generation are more concerned with knowing whether their work matters, so he said to show them how their work impacts the company at large.

How technology drives them: Millennials were born in an age of technology, and with that, they may request to use different technologies on the job. Torchia said employers should consider and investigate a millennial’s requests to use different technologies and have a conversation with them about it. “However, if a Millennial comes in and demands an iPad, you probably don’t want them to work for you,” he said.