Jan 28
The Feedback Secret for Motivating Millennials
Last time, I talked about Roger and one of his secrets for retaining his retail employees by teaching them about the business. Another suggestion he made during our conversation was to provide each one of them with specific feedback on how they are contributing to the store.
“Why does Millennial feedback have to be so specific?” I asked.
“There are a couple of reasons,” Roger replied. “First, these kids’ minds are going a hundred miles an hour — you know, texting, iPods, maybe school work, all the distractions in the environment. If I walk up to someone and simply say ‘Good job,’ they’re probably going to smile, but think, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ because they’re wondering, ‘Good job for what?’ It’s going to go in one ear and out the other. A second reason is that I’ve got them doing a lot of different things. I want to let them know that they’re making specific contributions.”
“For example?” I asked.
“Well, last week I taught Maria how to merchandise the counter around the register. We spent about 1o minutes discussing what needed to be included and why it’s important to merchandise that area. After all, any store sells a lot of impulse items while people are paying for other stuff. She came up with a design and then put it all up without my help. When she asked me to review it, I made a few minor positioning changes, but overall she did a good job and I told her so.”
“What exactly did you say?” I asked.
“I told her that I was impressed with the way she designed the display and proud that she took the concept and ran with it. That shows some nice self-initiative.”
“How did she respond?” I asked.
“That’s the funny thing,” he said. “She’s gotten very protective of the display. She’s straightening it out all the time and slapping the hands of other employees who fool around with it. Everybody knows that that’s Maria’s display so keep your hands off. It’s just another example of how we can motivate and retain Generation Y and manage the creativity they all have inside.”