Last week I began a three part series on how employee demographics should play a role in developing an employee incentive program that will appeal to, and more importantly, motivate a diverse workforce. I wanted to focus this week on how to make employee incentives appeal to two groups of workers in particular-Millennial and Generation X employees.
Millennial employees were born between 1980 and 1994 and at this stage in life, are beginning their careers. As employees, Millennials have presented their own ideas of what is considered a desirable work situation and organizations are finding out that today’s graduates are telling employers that they want to be recognized and rewarded. A Capital One survey, as cited in a World at Work article, found that comprehensive benefits packages, salary and consistent recognition are the top three on recent graduates’ employment wish lists.
Members of Generation X, on the other hand, have already begun to establish their careers and in many cases, their own families. Karen Beaman authored an informative article on workforce demographics and offered her own strategies for working with this generation of employees. She advises that Generation X employees are very likely to value flexible work schedules, comprehensive health and welfare benefits and appreciate working in teams within their organizations to take on major projects and issues.
Both Millennials and Generation X employees desire consistent feedback and recognition for a job well done. In addition, younger employees tend to have a natural knack for technology and spend more time using computers per day than any other previous generation.
Motivating the members of these two generations, as many of my clients have found, takes more than just starting an employee of the month recognition program. In order to capture employees’ attention and maximize their potential productivity, I recommend to clients that their staff award program take place on an ongoing basis, introduce multiple relevant and attainable goals over time, provide access to the program via the internet, allow for peer to peer recognition and incorporate themes of flexibility and choice.
Online incentive programs provide an exciting solution for companies with a younger crowd of employees and allow administrators to set goals and reward/recognize employees over time. As organizational objectives change, new goals of the employee award program should be introduced. Millennial and Generation X employees are often awarded by my clients for reaching goals related to each person’s job in the company and also award employees who: reach milestone anniversaries; are nominated by peers for outstanding effort; participate in wellness and health events or make the workplace a safer place to be. By incorporating relevant and attainable goals, younger employees are more likely to participate as the link between their effort and the award earned becomes clear and worthwhile.
Accessibility is a huge factor into how much interest can be generated for an incentive program over time. Millennial and Generation X employees are quite comfortable with technology and appreciate being able to access an incentive program website whether or not they are at work. Also, these employees appreciate being kept up-to-date on changes made to their accounts. When points are awarded, new goals are introduced, or an award catalog is updated, these changes should be communicated to employees who opt-in to receive updates via email or text message.
Peer to Peer recognition is an increasing request of my clients as many organizations are finding that younger workers’ group working skills and morale can be vastly improved when they are allowed to nominate peers and are nominated by peers. Peer to peer recognition is also an important tool for companies looking for a way to increase positive interaction and the number of trusting relationships between members of different generations in a workplace. I highly recommend to new clients that they offer employees of any demographic the opportunity to submit peer feedback as the impact of the incentive program can be profoundly different.
Any award program that is designed to meet the needs of both Millennial and Generation X employees should always allow for flexibility and choice. Online incentive programs lend themselves well to this application and can truly help to motivate young employees to reach organizational goals over time. By allowing participants to opt-in for email updates and incorporating peer to peer recognition into an online incentive program, you are really helping to tailor the program to this younger audience and increasing the return on investment that the program will provide in the long run.
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