How Micro-Careers Can Drive Employee Retention

By Shawn Casemore

Arecent Gallup research poll found that Millennials (the predominant generation in today’s workforce) will have between 15-20 jobs during their career.

That’s double Gen X (the generation before the millennials) and almost triple that of baby boomers.

It also suggests that experiencing younger employees who “jobhop” is something we can’t avoid.

So, although attracting employees today can be a challenge, retaining them is an even more significant challenge. If we can’t figure out how to keep them, we’ll be in recruitment mode (and struggling with employee shortages) for years to come.

Think of it like filling a leaky bucket. Until we fix the holes, we’ll never be able to fill the bucket.

To retain the younger generation of employees require we consider the types of careers they seek and then do our best to design a work environment that satisfies these demands.

A CEO of a manufacturing company in Georgia, who I worked with a few years ago, was herself a millennial. One of the first changes she made in the company was to add levels within each role, creating micro-careers for her employees.

Levels included a change in title and advancement of pay. So, for accounts payable, there were four different levels an employee could advance through, all within three years.

Each level contained a slight wage increase and was achievable after completing a series of role objectives, not based on time within the role.

Job titles were designed to be appealing, so using “associate” rather than “production.”

She did away with titles (and positions) of supervisor or manager instead of having a flat organization built around teams, each of whom reported into a handful of executives.

Lastly, each level an employee progressed through also had a significant pay bump.

The results?

Over 95% of her office staff was under 30, and retention was well over 90%.

The CEO appealed to the three critical elements of building a culture that starts, stays, and contributes.

Clear Career Milestones: Gone are the days of placing an employee in a role and expecting they’ll be content for the next three to five years. It’s more likely you’ll keep them engaged for 12 months until they decide they’d like to advance.

Involvement in Multiple Projects: Today’s younger employees are prone to be involved in various assignments, not left to work on the same tasks day in and day out. The more projects you can apply them to, the greater their interest. Moreover, involving them in multiple projects will also allow for a faster learning curve, a clear benefit to any employer.

Parallel Career Paths: If you want employees to stay, you’ll need to be prepared to move them around. The days of having an employee who only wants to work in finance, sales, operations, or customer service for their entire career are rare. Instead, be prepared to offer a wide variety of career paths and options to keep employees interested in the company and allow them to learn a broad range of skills.

Let’s be honest. If you are having a difficult time retaining young employees, you aren’t alone.

Fortunately, making small changes in how we design and support our employees’ careers can significantly impact retention.