Motivating Young Employees

Today, there are many challenges facing businesses, both large and small. In my ten years of management, I've realized that attracting and retaining valuable employees is a major challenge most companies are just not sure how to deal with. A lot of companies offer incentive packages to motivate management employees; such as 401K, insurance, stock options, etc..., but the real problem lies in keeping the much younger, lower level employees you have.

The value of these young employees lies as much in the future as it does the present. Of course, motivating them to come into work and do a great job and focus on the same vision management has is very important. If you can keep these employees for a long period of time, though, it could reduce training costs and harvest a long-term loyal workforce that is looking out for the company as much as themselves.

The core ingredient to solving this problem lies in ways to motivate the employees, or rewards. Many employers believe that more money is what the average worker wants, which is too costly in today's economy. The reality is that many American workers want to know they are appreciated by the company, and my experience has taught me this is especially true with today's younger employees.

In researching this article, I rely heavily on my experiences in training and finding effective ways to motivate the younger generation of workers. I will discuss my hits, as well as my misses. I also had numerous talks with children and young adults ranging in ages from 16 - 25, to find out what they were looking for to motivate them at their jobs. Fellow career managers have also given me some ideas as to what they perceive as the 'proper' way to deal with the new, young workforce of today.

The most important thing to young adults starting out in the workplace is recognition. They do know the reality of what their salary will be and are happy to be making that much. When your employees accomplish something, they like to feel that they have achieved something. Your recognition is appreciation for that achievement and will motivate them to make you happy again.