There are more than 75 million millennials of working age in America—they’ve overtaken the baby boomers as the country’s largest living generation. And 60 percent of millennials say they’re looking for new employment opportunities.
But what do all these young employees want in a new employer? And how can executives get millennial employees to stay with their companies?
Well, according to Fortune a culture of trust is more important than open plan offices and free beer on tap.
The magazine partnered with workplace culture firm Great Place to Work on a list of the 100 Best Workplaces for Millennials. The report, released today, found that millennials who said they had a great place to work were 20 times more likely to stay with the company than peers who didn’t have that experience. And young employees who found “special meaning” in their work were six times more likely to stay at their workplace.
“You might find some initial benefits to ditching your dress code and throwing out cubicles,” Chinwe Onyeagoro, president of Great Place to Work, said in the report. “But superficial changes like these won’t improve retention among millennials unless they’re accompanied by managers making authentic connections with employees, linking their work and contributions to a broader purpose, providing access to a diverse array of learning and development opportunities and demonstrating fairness in promotion and advancement decisions.”
According to the report, America’s best workplace for millennials is Ultimate Software, an information technology company based in Weston, Florida. The firm has over 3,000 employees, one-third of whom are below the age of 34—and 98 percent of employees feel positively about their workplace.
One of Ultimate Software’s benefits, according to the survey, is that it flies every new employee to Florida for a two-day orientation that includes a meeting with the CEO. The company also utilizes a custom social network that shares company news and lets employees form groups based around common interests. And every employee gets shares of stock when they join.
Don’t fret if you’re not in Florida, however—there are 99 other companies on the list with millennial bona fides. Notable corporations include:
- Quicken Loans (number three on the lists, with a 67 percent millennial workforce), which has invested over one billion dollars in the Detroit community near its headquarters. It also offers flexible options for millennial parents—employees can work from home, come in late, leave early and take days off as needed. Capital One (number 29) utilizes a similar policy.
- Salesforce (number four, 46 percent millennials), which offers benefits like weekday afternoon happy hours and allows employees to bring pets to work.
- GoFundMe (number 43, 79 percent millennials) which gives employees an extra three days off every year to do community service, including volunteering at food banks and soup kitchens and teaching programming to children in the inner city.
- Adobe (number 63, 33 percent millennials) which offers employees six months of parental leave.
You can view the full list here.
