Nowadays, there are more millennials entering the workforce than any other age group. And most companies are searching for insight on how to better attract them, train them on the job.
The millennial generation was born between the early 1980s and early 2000s, according to Neil Howe and William Strauss, authors of Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069.
Millennials have grown up in a society that is much different than any group before them. They have different characteristics than any generation before them. Well-scheduled, multitasking, flexible and diverse are the most noticeable qualities they hold. As a result, corporate trainings need to enhance techniques that will grab their attention, boost their motivation, and inspire them to be engaged learners.
Here are 6 recommendations to make your training work for millennials:
1. Feed them persistent feedback
Thanks to internet era, they are constantly exposed to other people’s thoughts, ideas, and comments. As a result, they expect feedback- especially in the workplace. Therefore, every organization should agree upon a reviewing and consulting process which will also benefit millennials in their strategic planning and thinking skills, time management or responsibility awareness.
2. Place them a game
While people learn, they are continuously challenged. When it comes to millennials, however, they demand more than that. Mutual interactions, endless perspectives, obstacles are what they are looking for while entering any training programs. Make sure your training team design a relevant but challenging course enough to keep them engaging and enjoying the information flows.
3. Give them bite-sized lessons
Millennials don’t usually have long attention spans. As a result, to sit around in long training sessions can be counterproductive. This can be solved by creating shorter learning modules, even if you create more of them. Short lessons will help millennials retain information better, because it helps them focus on one topic at a time, rather than huge general contents.
4. Give them real challenge
Millennials seek out adventure. They want to solve problems. They need to be challenged. If training programs offer them real-world challenges during on the job training, such as obstacles they must overcome, they’ll engage more powerfully with the lessons.
5. Give them group collaboration
Classified as highly collaborative and ambitious individuals who thrive online social environments, they perform well when it comes to teamwork, problem solving or social mutual connections. This makes them ideal candidates for collaborative training strategies such as discussion boards. By adding collaborative components into your learning materials, you will allow millennials to practice and enhance more effectively their targeted skills.
6. Give them motivation to learn
Millennials learn better when they are given a reason to learn. If they have a valid motive and know that it ties into a real-world purpose or goal, they will become more willing learners. This primarily comes from the fact that they are doers- they want to apply all of the information they have learned and put every skill to use. While lessons and ideas have their place, to be truly inspired millennials need to see how every piece of information translates into practice.
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Understand millennials play an important role in the workforce and training them into the corporate routines could be a challenge, we at CTS aspire to assist organizations to design and deliver these courses as effective as possible. Check out our in-house courses for more details here.