As personalities that are dominating the workforce, millennial generation training have rapidly become the driving force behind several organizations. The uniqueness of their perspectives and skillsets helps these tech-savvy individuals stand out in the market. However, managing and training this demographic can be pretty challenging for employers, especially if you are used to traditional methods alone.

In this detailed article, we’ll delve into three innovative ideas that you can utilize if you intend to train your millennial generation employees. Notwithstanding whether you are a human resources personnel or a manager, these tips will be handy to build more effective and stronger teams equipped to thrive in today’s workplace.

Incentive Learning Utilizing Gamification

Like the famous saying – “when you are in Rome, you act like the Romans,” to effectively train the millennial generation, you have to utilize an approach they can relate with. This young generation of employees grew up with games. In these games, they can see how far they’ve gone and how much reward they have accrued, which urges them to keep at the game. Therefore, integrating incentive learning with gamification while training your millennial employees will be quite helpful for you. This concept is simple – turn the training into a game that rewards your employees with badges, prizes, etc., based on the training level completed.

In its way, gamification turns daily real-life activities into tremendous challenges to motivate your millennial employees and increases the probability of course completion and effectiveness.

Mentorship And Coaching

millennial generation training

You must know that millennials take mentorship to heart. Their willingness to have more knowledge and learn a new skill, their high ambition, and crave for feedback contributes to their improving value on mentorship. The role of feedback in their training is to help them retry, rethink, or replay their approach.

Considering this, training content aimed at millennials in an organization should incorporate professional guidance and individual training sessions from supervisors or team leaders. They crave to form a network of trusted advisors to ease their journey on the career path they are treading.

It would be best if you developed a structured program that lets them express their minds, ask lingering questions, and discuss career options and uncertainties with their mentors.

Such programs will equip them with specific goals to aim at and fulfill their connection need. In addition, this process creates a more engaged and productive workforce, which is, overall, incredibly beneficial for the organization.

Microlearning

According to Microsoft’s survey, the average attention span of any human being is ten seconds. Millennials have a shorter attention span. Thus, piling and dumping loads of information on them is not helpful; it only causes cognitive/ information overload. Here is why in training millennials, microlearning should be your go-getter. It uses short bursts of content to train your young employees. It divides lengthy training content into micro-nuggets or several sub-topics. It regularly forwards the micro-nuggets to your millennial employees as microlearning feeds.

Some examples of microlearning materials are infographics, whiteboard animations, interactive videos, etc. This works for millennials because it takes only a short portion of the trainee’s time and doesn’t overwhelm them with bundles of information at once. This style of content delivery is epic, as it enables millennial trainees to absorb, retain and recall vital information without stress.

What Millennials Want In A Training Program

Millennials are the largest and most diverse generation in the workforce today. Their learning and development needs are unique, and training programs must be tailored to meet their specific requirements. Therefore, below are what Millennials want in a training program:

Personalization

One of the most significant factors Millennials want in a training program is personalization. They want training tailored to their individual needs, skills, and goals. One way to provide personalized training is to use technology that allows employees to create their learning path based on their strengths and weaknesses. This approach will enable employees to focus on areas where they need the most improvement.

Flexibility

Millennials value flexibility in the workplace, and this also applies to their training programs. They want training that is available on-demand, that can be accessed from anywhere, and doesn’t interfere with their work schedule. Training in different formats, such as e-learning or micro-learning, is also essential to meet their needs. This approach allows them to learn at their own pace, when and where it is most convenient.

Career Development

Young people value career development and growth opportunities. They want training programs that help them acquire new skills and knowledge that will help them advance in their careers. Providing training related to their job roles and career paths is critical to keeping Millennials engaged and motivated.

Social Learning

Young employees are known to be social learners who thrive in collaborative environments. They want training programs that encourage social learning, such as group projects, online forums, and peer-to-peer learning. By promoting social learning, Millennials can learn and engage with their peers and colleagues, build stronger relationships, and develop new skills.

Each generation of workers has its own characteristics. For those workers that fall in the millennial generation, the characteristic that seems to set them apart is that they live and work in a faster-paced world than the generations that came before them. This directly translates to how this generation needs to train, learn and develop as well.

3 Ideas On How to Train the Millennial Generation

Trainers have to be aware that millennials require a training environment that is as fast-paced as they are in order to retain their attention and teach them what they need to know.

Structured Activities

Employees of the millennial generation are also used to structure. Many of these employees attended pre-school before attending school. They engaged in structured activities during their pre-school and school years, so this is how they are used to learning.

Trainers and employers can take this into consideration when creating and implementing training programs for this generation. Providing a structured learning environment helps to foster learning for these individuals because it is how they are accustomed to learning new information and retaining the information they have learned.

Teams

Millennials also tend to be team-oriented and work better in teams than on an individual basis. Again, this applies to training techniques too. It is best to use activities that break those of the millennial generation into small groups. For example, you might have an informational session in the morning, but have breakout sessions in the afternoon, where groups of millennials can apply what they learned during the informational session.

Connect the Dots

Millennial minds tend to absorb information from the application. For them, learning is a three-step process. It starts with learning the information itself, such as in a general information session, as discussed above.

Second, they need to apply the information they have learned. Generally, application occurs in a team environment. Finally, millennials then need to have a discussion about what they learned and how the application of what they learned went. Trainers can ask the millennials questions to spur responses, analysis, and deductive reasoning. This ties together the learning activity with the objective.

Reward Them

Structured Activities

Many refer to the millennial generation as the trophy generation. It’s a competitive generation that strives to be the best so they can earn the trophy or the reward that comes along with excelling. Trainers can use this to their advantage during training and development sessions.

Setting up the training session as a competition between the teams can foster the learning of this generation. Use prizes or rewards of some sort to spur them along and engage them. The rewards do not have to be expensive or big to appeal to their competitive nature. Using a reward system can also be helpful when training individuals of different generations in the same session.

Millennials, also known as the Y Generation, are those employees born between 1980 and the early 2000s. Training these individual employees differs from training some of the generations that came before them. When you embrace these differences, you can create more effective training courses for the new generation of employees.

Final Thoughts

Training the millennial generation requires a shift in approach and a willingness to adapt to the unique characteristics of this demographic. By embracing technology, creating a supportive and collaborative environment, and providing opportunities for growth and development, organizations can not only attract and retain top millennial talent but also enhance their overall performance and productivity. Therefore, it’s time for managers to embrace the potential of the young generation and empower them to reach their full potential in the workplace. So, let’s start implementing these ideas and see the positive impact they can have on our organizations.

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