As a manager of sales, or any other department in your organization, you want to keep your best
employees on the job. On Friday, I highlighted research from Gallup about the need to use employee strengths to improve engagement and loyalty. Additional Gallup research shows that younger team members, millennials, are particularly likely to change jobs these days. Here’s how you can stop that from happening to you.

Many millennials experienced a rough start to their professional careers. Those who came of age during the Great Recession were unable to find work, or the jobs they did find barely paid a living wage. With the economy once again in growth mode, millennials are finding themselves in demand. These team members now make up 38% of the workforce. Gallup research indicates only 3 in 10 millennials feel engaged at work, and that’s a troubling sign.

Analysts point to managers as part of the problem on the employee engagement front. Older employees have been in the workforce for a while. They’ve maybe also been in their current position for a while. As a result, these employees understand what is expected of them on a daily and weekly basis. Many millennials aren’t in their comfort zone on the job. If they’ve just started their professional careers, they don’t have an innate feeling for how office life works. This sense of unease can be even worse if employees are remote workers.

The best way to address this issue, according to Gallup, is to provide plenty of specific feedback. Every employee, not just millennials, needs to understand the scope of her position. She needs to know what she's responsible for and how to get the job done – whether it’s writing a white paper or making ten prospecting calls. As her manager, it’s your job to explain these tasks. You also need to follow up on a regular basis with your employee to uncover any problems she's having and help her succeed.

Managers who take the time to consciously and positively interact with their team members experience reduced absenteeism, and 21% of these organizations have higher profitability than those with managers who don’t make this effort. When’s the last time you touched base with your younger team members?