The face of the workforce has changed, with millennials and the generation Z occupying a major chunk! These are the ‘modern’ employees, and their needs have changed.

The Game Changers Have Arrived!

The millennial workforce is no longer content with sleeping pods and customized menus alone. They are on the lookout for specific opportunities that add actual value to their professional trajectory and individual personality.

High achievers obviously can demand a whole lot more but suffice to say that aside from the plain-vanilla perks and benefits package, the modern workforce looks for a perfectly aligned wish-list.

Talent Development – The Catchword To Live By!

If there are limited opportunities to grow, work is monotonous, business goals and expectations are unclear and the challenges are few and far in between, you’ve got yourself the perfect recipe for a disgruntled workforce.

But then, you already knew that!

In what is becoming the latest catchword, an almost systemic course of action for new-age employers now is ‘Talent Development’ – and here’s what you can do to imbue it at your workplace!

Here’s How You Can Meet The Modern Employee’s Talent Development Needs!

Here’s what employers can do to ensure that the modern employees get what they are looking for!

1. Empower employees to work with complete abandon

It’s an open secret that most high achieving employees would much rather prefer to manage their professional assignments in the way they see best.

Another fact that’s well- documented is that we humans as a populace, find chasing (and achieving) set goals as a tangible form of success. And that’s no different at the workplace.

So when you positively implement these two key parts- independence and tangible goal achievements – you’re in effect, creating a fertile scenario for talented employees to do what they do best and with as few constricting statutes as can cause unwanted boomerang situations.

The freedom to change gears or maintain cruise control at will allow for high achievers to control, leverage and drive professional assignments in their unique, independent way.

Quite an effective talent development technique, the employer not only bestows complete sovereignty to the employee but also makes him/her experience leadership and accountability first-hand.

Initiate employee empowerment processes by introducing training programmes that allow for employees to reach out to resource banks and knowledge pools of their choice with work schedules that are accommodating and flexible.

2. Organise highly-specific leadership plans with the two P’s in mind

The human psyche is fickle by nature and when you apply this truth to the millennial employee, this holds true now, more than ever. Gen Z professionals are always time-bound, in that they realise their 60-seconds-to-fame is one that doesn’t come with a second chance. It’s either now or never.

And make no mistake, loyalties of a Gen Z professional can shift fast and pledging allegiance to another can (and does) happen in the blink of an eye!

Counter this by organising personal, highly-specific, individual plans.

These should be ones that ensure experiential skills development, an opportunity to learn, unlearn and relearn existing skill-sets and assure them also of a rewarding growth path that is in tune with their prospective professional/ personal aspirations.

3. Up-skill with new learning programmes

In order to create meaningful effects of new HR initiatives; neo employers typically place learning experiences that enable meaningful up-skilling as the first level strategy.

Learning experiences aka learning programmes comprise of Talent Development programmes that further and fortify an employee’s existing skill-set.

Talent Development learning programmes include acquiring of new skills, upgrading to advanced technologies on an on-demand basis aside from engaging line-ups of innovative leadership workshops that add qualitative value to an employee’s repertoire.

4. Foster positive mentorship interactions

That said about learning experiences, ‘positive mentorship’ forms a key, strategic link when it comes to nurturing talent.

Positive mentorship quite simply implies a role model who actively participates in the fostering of a millennial employees talent. It can be in the form of co-worker engagement programmes or knowledge transfer one-on-ones with an external role model.

Aside from the obvious benefit of knowledge exchange, a healthy mentor-mentee relationship will lead the way for enhanced HR strategies.

Timing Is Everything!

As an employer or an HR executive, it’s understandable that you want to retain top talent and roll out the red carpet from time to time. However, if you’ve not been keeping your ears to the ground, it’s possible that you’ve already lost out on a good number of crème-de-la-crème talent because, well, you didn’t time your strategies right.

Go ahead, bring out the blueprints and work out a stratagem that’s most apt for your company culture or your product/service and ensure to keep your eyes open, adapt to innovation and make flexibility your constant companion, for the millennial workforce, the Gen Z game changers you were looking for, they have arrived!