How ServiceNow Helps You Engage Millennials In The Workplace

Millennials, also known as Gen Y’ers, are loosely defined as people born between 1982 and 2004. They are now the largest contributors in the American workforce; causing the workplace to change and be disrupted in unprecedented ways. These changes are coming rapidly, and a Gallup study in February 2017 pointed out 3 key truisms:

1. Organizations must reconsider how they manage workforce
2. Employees are pushing companies to break down structures
3. Organizations are not giving employees a reason to stay.

Very true indeed.

The way to address this is to find ways to improve employee engagement and satisfaction for Millennials. More than any other generation, they are more apt to change jobs quickly in search of the “perfect” work environment.

This is a problem that has emerged as a leading conversation in most Talent Management circles. So, what helps Millennials feel engaged? And how can ServiceNow HR help with that?

Millennials love flexibility

Millennials are a tech savvy generation, with the ability to work anywhere, anytime. In 2012, The Griffith Insurance Education Foundation published an extensive study on Millennials. The study showed that Millennials value flexibility over a higher salary, are extremely comfortable with the use of technology and are more likely to stay engaged if provided the ability to multitask and leverage multiple devices simultaneously.

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Self-service portals on ServiceNow is a great example of how engagement can be improved for Millennials in the workforce. The “Consumerized HR” approach is particularly favorable for this generation. ServiceNow makes it easy to quickly access relevant information, submit and track service requests, receive guidance on the actions they need to take or chat with HR for real time responses. The self-service portal has a responsive design, which makes it easy to access from multiple devices – mobile phones, tablets, and PCs.

Millennials like to collaborate

According to Griffith’s “Report on Existing Millennial Research,” a whitepaper published in November 2011, Millennials like collaborative work environments. I think we can all easily observe this by taking a look around us in the workspace.

While collaborative work environments have been desired by other generations as well, Millennials are driving change because they don’t mind switching jobs until they find it. This makes it a very important factor.

ServiceNow provides social collaboration with Connect. It empowers users to instantly communicate, share ideas, knowledge, and documents. Apart from the obvious productivity boost, it also plays into the Millennials’ preferred mode of communication, leading to a greater sense of engagement and belonging.

This applies not just to HR, but also facilities, IT, across teams and departments – and best of all, this can be done on a mobile device.

Connecting with the right people one-on-one or on group chats, working straight from activity streams, collaborating on visual task boards and other such features help with accelerating response and decision time frames. Using real time presence and @mentions appeal to the social networking sensibilities of the Millennial generation.

Millennials like frequent feedback and clear goals

According to Gallup’s 2017 State of the American Workplace report, annual performance reviews based on a manager’s assessment of skills measured with a standardized questionnaire does not resonate with Millennials.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, 41% of Millennials prefer to be rewarded or recognized for their work at least monthly, if not more frequently. A study by BambooHR backed that up when they found 75% of employees receiving at least monthly recognition (even if informal) are satisfied with their job.

Liz Greene of 15five states in her article, “Often touted as the “trophy generation”, this yearning for recognition doesn’t come from a desire to be drowned in accolades, it actually comes from an acute fear of failure. Gen Yers want to do their job, and they want to do it well. They don’t need a lavish song and dance about how great they are, a simple pat on the back and compliment is enough to assure them that they’re doing a good job, and encourage them to keep doing their best.”

INRY apps for ServiceNow integrate to form a single powerful platform for HR to interact with employees throughout the employee lifecycle. This includes ongoing performance management; clear goal setting; and the ability to periodically enter comments and data points regarding performance and feedback.

Rather than relying on annual cascading objectives and goal plans, INRY apps rely on speed, agility and constant learning – all valuable engagement tools for Millennials.

We at INRY don’t just preach, we practice. For example, we are finding great success with our internal performance management system. The unique quarterly rewards and incentive program consists of only two factors – Utilization and Stakeholder satisfaction. Both metrics are transparent to our team members.

Since we use ServiceNow for time tracking and project management as well, staff can look up their metrics at any given point of time. Quarterly assessments for stakeholder satisfaction makes sure there is a continuous feedback loop. Predictability of this process, transparency, and the fact that the workforce is “coached” rather than “managed” is driving high retention rates, despite the high-stress environment associated with Technology Consulting and Advisory Services. Being able to access all this information on their mobile devices while they’re traveling? Priceless.

To find out more, or to discuss how ServiceNow, INRY's HR apps can integrate to transform your approach to engaging Millennials, please contact us.

How ServiceNow Helps You Engage Millennials In The Workplace

Provide ServiceNow's modern, consumer-grade experiences that millennial and Gen-Z employees will love.

Millennials love flexibility

Millennials like to collaborate

Millennials like frequent feedback and clear goals