Young employees looking for training, opportunities, meaningful work

If there’s a hackneyed perception about today’s job-seeking college grads, it’s that they want to work in converted, high-ceiling warehouses with energybar-stocked cabinets, creativity-inducing couches and an always bustling pingpong table.

Except that they don’t.

OK, maybe some job seekers crave the occasional complimentary KIND bar at work and a chance to put their summer camp paddle skills to work, but free snacks and cool settings aren’t quite the draw they once — if ever — were.

“Attracting and keeping employees has little to do with whether there is an open floor plan,” says Amy Radin, author of “The Change Maker’s Playbook: How to Seek, Seed and Scale Innovation In Any Company.” “It’s more about talent and culture. It’s about where resources are being invested. It’s about how fast things happen.”

Radin says companies have greater success retaining new employees when they’re made to feel like they’re part of both the company’s present and future. “Anyone who wants to work for a growth business should be asking about what the company is doing to stay on top of customer trends, attract diverse talent and keep pace with fast-changing technologies and competitive maps,” says Radin, who consults with senior corporate leaders on using innovative approaches to their business. “Prospective employees should look for indications of collaboration, experimentation and openness.”

Shopping around

Today’s new employees are looking for more than short-term benefits; they want to know “what’s this company going to do for me and my career path. Are they going to invest in me? Are they going to train me to do more than what they hired me to do? Are they going to give me the opportunity to do different things?

In other words, today’s younger workers want to know that the position they’re accepting will be setting them up for success in one year, five years, 10 years and beyond — regardless of whether it’s with that company or not.

Unlike members of previous generations, who faced a leaveand-never-return attitude from their employers, today’s workers often return to a company they’ve worked for in the past. Career experts agree that it’s not unusual for someone to leave a company, spend a few years sharpening their skills and making more money at a new place, and eventually finding their way back to their previous employer.

– Marco Buscaglia