Summary: The workforce is now increasingly comprised of millennials. However, training them is proving a challenge for managers who are not from their generation. Feedback is key.

The one question a majority of participants ask in retail workshops is "How do I manage millennials". This is from people working in retail shops/hypermarket/showrooms. “They don’t listen, despite us reminding them a 100 times” is a common complaint.

My answer to them is -

Millennials are "instant gratitude humans".

I ask the question, how many of you play Candy Crush or similar games  Almost 70% of them raise their hands. The psychology when they play these Games is "Instant result, instant appreciation, celebrations. Most importantly, those games are not complicated ".

Similarly, when you employ millennials, I would first request the management to train the supervisors & managers on handling millennials.   

Many of us must be older than forty.  In our early years, we must have seen the "Fortune Teller with Parrot" sitting at the road side of the corner and predicting people's fortune.  Every time the fortune teller calls the parrot to pick up the right card for the customer, the parrot patiently comes out of the cage and picks up every card. The parrot then looks at the fortune teller and if there is no signal, then it will drop on the other side and will pick up another, until the Parrot see the grain of rice in the hands of the fortune teller, it repeats.   Here the fortune teller will read the body language & all other signals from the customer and accordingly will stop the parrot by picking up the other card and handing over the grain of rice as an incentive.

Millennials, after completing after completing a task, look for instant feedback from supervisor/managers. If they get feedback like "Good, Go Ahead, Carry On, All the Best "  they will progress in a positive direction. If the supervisor / managers does not provide feedback, millennials complete the task, without worrying about success or failure.

So, the the main thing is to provide feedback.

We also advise our clients to connect with employees through mobile apps. This is a platform on which daily reports like target achievement, incentive earned, quiz result, wall of fame, product knowledge, process knowledge are integrated. This gives them the right push in the right direction to perform.

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