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Millennial Magnetism: 5 Ways To Attract Young Contact Center Workers

by Kyle Harding, Contact Center Solutions Group Co-Leader and Scott Redabaugh, JLL Business Consulting Group - January 2, 2017

Millennial Magnetism: 5 Ways to Attract Young Contact Center Workers
Where to find and how to attract the digital natives who can delight customers via text, social media, live chat—and phone, too.
 
By Kyle Harding, Contact Center solutions group co-leader and Scott Redabaugh, JLL Business Consulting Group
 
Today's mobile customers aren't inspired by yesteryear's phone scripts—and they avoid talking over the phone like the plague. Enter stage right: the digital native employee adept at engaging and delighting customers where they want to be engaged.
 
With the Internet of Things transforming modern sales, support and service strategies on a daily basis, many contact center leaders are working to up their game in monitoring and responding to social media. Already, roughly three quarters of 18-24 year-old customers contact customer support via smartphone, and close to half have used live chat to solve a problem.
 
Millennial contact center representatives, as 'digital natives,' know the language and culture of social channels better than any other generation. These social-savvy employees can play a key role in an organization’s efforts to deliver its customers convenient, stress-free interactions when and where the customer chooses to engage.
 
So, how can you attract more of these digitally-savvy Millennial workers to your team? Offer a workplace with choice and flexibility, for starters.
 
Five location and workplace wins for Millennial recruitment

Understanding what motivates Millennials in general, from where they choose to live to how they prefer to work, is essential to success. Following are five meaningful ways to discover actionable insights:

1. Dispel the myths you may have about Millennials. The notion that all Millennials 'live for today' is false. JLL research shows that rather than being short-sighted, Millennials thoughtfully plan their career paths. Another myth to upend is that they despise big corporations in favor of tech start-ups. The survey also found that more than half work for a national or multinational corporation, and 60 percent said they want to work for an industry leader.

2. Find out where—and how—they live. When it's time to consider move or grow operations, labor pool data and analytics help ensure real estate decisions fuel your recruitment goals. Location analysis technology and interactive screening tools provide important information on where Millennials enjoy living now, as well as where they may be headed next. From average household income and cost of living, to education levels and industry concentration, demographic data can help you zero in on the markets where you'll find success in appealing to a younger pool of talent. Go where your company’s employees can enjoy the work you offer—while also being able to afford a quality standard of living.

3. Champion wellness (and productivity) in workplace design. Having grown up on mobility, Millennials don't just appreciate flexible environments—they expect them. Being tethered to any one desk, or cord, will not inspire their best work. Offer a mix of work stations, as well as thoughtful relaxation and recreation areas to give employees a place to reset between high periods of call volume—whether that means a moment to lounge with others, or an adrenaline boost in the form of a brisk walk around an indoor path. This agile structure benefits all generations in the center, too, considering JLL workplace research shows that choice between spaces is linked to creating more engaging and productive work environments.

4. Provide clear pathways to success. Millennials want to understand their impact on customers and results, and to build on it through a well-defined career trajectory. Foster their desire to improve skills sets with training and advancement opportunities, coupled with strong feedback technology that delivers instant evaluation and, ideally, channels employees can use to respond back with their own suggestions for improvement. For Millennials, growing up on digital channels makes engagement with authority an expectation, not a perk.

5. Manage the corporate brand. Because there are often more positions than there are high-quality candidates to fill them, tech-savvy Millennials can be choosy when it comes to considering a contact center job. They're not just looking at pay as a differentiator—they're looking at the culture and reputation of the organization, too. For example, many appreciate Corporate Social Responsibility, and may use such programs as a factor in determining where they would be proud to work. Take control of your contact center's presence on platforms like Glassdoor, where candidates are essentially interviewing and assessing their potential employers. Using that and other social channels to your advantage can be a powerful tool in winning Millennial talent.

Our hyper-connected, mobile world demands new styles of communicating with customers. When Millennials feel empowered to contribute to that progress, they'll adopt your goals as their own. And that's a powerful benefit for the organization—and your customers—as a whole.
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