Millennials are Leaving & Here's Why

Amberly Dressler
by Amberly Dressler 18 Feb, 2016
Millennials are Leaving & Here's Why

Employee turnover is costly for enterprises; in fact, some studies predict that every time a business replaces a salaried employee, it costs 6 to 9 months' salary on average.

With this in mind, it should be good news that a new study by Bolste, a business operating system provider, indicates only 1 in 9 American professionals plan to change jobs in 2016. The bad news? Of the working Americans who report that they will definitely change jobs this year, half (50 percent) of them are millennials (born from 1980-1993). The latter finding indicates employers are doing little to retain team members who make up the largest generation in the U.S. workforce. What do millennials want?

It's really not that crazy. For starters, they want work-life balance citing that it's become increasingly more difficult to balance home and career. There may be some truth to this, however, in that this generation has the most dual full-time working spouses than any before it.

While millennials want work flexibility (like the ability to telecommute on a fixed schedule as well as when needed), they also still want to be on track for a promotion. One in six working millennials "suffered a negative consequence as a result of having a flexible work schedule," which is higher than other generations. For some ideas about how to retain this "generation go," check out this infographic from Ernst & Young (click to zoom).

While all these "wants" may be overhwhelming for employers with vary traditional business models, a study from IBM shows that working millennials simply want to make a positive impact on their organization; they want a boss who is ethical and fair (rating this over wanting a boss who recognizes their accomplishments); and they want to work collaboratively and creatively. The main reason they are leaving though? IBM states employees across generations share the same reasons for leaving a job: they want more money and they want a more creative workplace. For additional insights, check out the infographic below (click to zoom):

Amberly Dressler
Amberly Dressler
Head of analyst relations, public relations, customer advocacy (People Heroes), customer community, content marketing (full funnel/lifecycle), content operations and optimization, reputation management and social media. Leads a team of nine superstars to exceed our goals multi-fold.