How HR Can Use Presentations To Connect With Millennials
As an HR professional, you probably already know that more than 1/3 of American workers are millennials, and this year they surpassed Generation X to become the largest share of the American workforce, according to new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
The impact millennials have on the workplace is increasing rapidly, and therefore HR professionals must now learn how to adapt to the needs and interests of millennial employees. HR professionals can no longer expect millennials to change their ways completely to fit within the existing structure of the company; the workplace needs to evolve to accommodate the working style of the millennial generation, which is slowly but surely taking over offices around the country.
Evolving the professional environment will take some time and considerable effort, however, changing the way the HR department communicates with millennials is one of the easiest and quickest ways companies can connect to millennial employees and job applicants.
You might think that communicating with millennials via presentations is a bad idea, however keep reading below to learn how you can use presentations to improve the connection millennial employees have with their jobs and workplace.
1. Be Tech Savvy
41% of millennials prefer to communicate electronically at work instead of face to face or even over the telephone, according to a study by PWC.
When you create presentation to educate or train your millennial staff, share your presentations via online methods instead of forcing millennials to sit through a presentation in a conference room. This will free up some time for you because you will no longer need to prepare for and conduct long training sessions in person, and millennials will appreciate your technology-based communication style.
You have many options for sharing your presentation online.
For example, you can post your presentations to SlideShare and share a link with millennials via email or even text message.
2. Be Flexible
In addition to SlideShare, you can also use web-based platforms such as Flowvella and Brainshark to share your presentation online, and also track progress as employees view the presentations.
When you share your presentation via a platform that tracks viewers progress, you can give employees the freedom to watch the presentation as their schedule allows, without relying completely on the honor system.
Letting employees view presentations anytime, from anywhere, has many benefits in the eyes of the millennial generation. For example, 45% of millennials value workplace flexibility over pay, according to Millennial Branding.
3. Be Empowering
In addition, when you post presentations online and track who views the presentations, when they view the presentations, and also how long they spend viewing the slides, you can make virtual job training available to anyone who wants to access training opportunities to improve their career.
This valuable resource will empower millennials to grow their own career at their own pace, making it less complicated to monitor career progression for all employees.
52% of millennials said career progression is their top priority when assessing job opportunities. When you use presentations to empower career growth, you likely improve employee retention as well as your ability to attract new millennial talent.
4. Be Social
Since presentations are a perfect fit for social media, you can use your presentations to be more active on social platforms, which will make it easier to recruit new millennial staff, as well as stay connected with your current millennial employees.
When you use a SlideShare hyperlink to post a presentation on Twitter or Pinterest, the entire presentation can be viewed without leaving the social platform.
In addition, when you use the “save as pictures” feature to save your PowerPoint presentations, you will have immediate access to all of your slides in the JPG format. You can use your JPG slides to create beautiful social media posts for Facebook, Instagram, or other social media options. For example, if you have a slide that features the company mission, use that slide to accompany a Facebook post about new job opportunities.
Be aware that not all millennials use social media the same way, so tailor your social media posts to fit the type of millennials you need to reach. For example, Instagram has 76 percent more active female users than Twitter, according to Contently.
Conclusion
Millennials are taking over the business world, and it is time to learn how to communicate effectively with them. However, you don’t need to use emojis or cat videos to connect with your millennial employees. You can still harness traditional tools, such as PowerPoint presentations, to communicate with millennials if you slightly adjust how you utilize those forms of communicate.
Additional Resources:
How To Deliver A Presentation Millennials Will Love
How to Appeal to Millennials in Your Presentation
6 Millennial Retention Strategies to Adopt in 2015
