Training Millennial Series Part Four: Social Behaviors

Part 4 of our series revolves around the social behaviors of millennials. Millennials are constantly connected with others, whether that be via social media, through email, sharing best practices at work, and meeting up with friends during their downtime. This group knows what’s going on with others, and wants others to know what’s going on with them. They cherish their communities, and thrive in an environment where they can collaborate.

Read about millennials’ social behaviors below, and how you can create connected environments within your workplace.

The line between their personal and professional lives are blurred.

70% of millennials don’t mind that their professional and social lives are combined. For them, it’s not awkward to “friend” your boss and co-workers on your favorite social site. As a matter of fact, they actually appreciate the visibility to their colleagues’ lives outside of work. Engaging with co-workers on a social platform allows millennials to deepen their connections on a personal level, and in turn, helps build great teamwork.

On average, millennials share 6 pieces of content on social media and 5 on email each day.

For many millennials, they don’t feel like they have accomplished something until they have told everyone and their mother about it. If they see a funny .gif that they think will make someone smile, they don’t waste any time sharing it on their Facebook wall. If they see a DIY craft on Pinterest that they know their mom will love, you better believe they are e-mailing it. In the corporate world, it’s important for us to focus on encouraging that type of behavior in the workplace. If you create a new how-to video for a program, or publish a thought leadership article, make sure you inform your millennial audience how they can share it with their network.

Millennials crave communities. 

Millennials like to engage with people who they can relate to – whether that be a similar hobby they have in common, something they want to learn about, or a similar situation they are going through. As employers, we need to foster that type of community feel within our workplace. If you have employees that like to run, try organizing a company 5K. If you have avid readers in your group, consider implementing a book club. Forming communities related to job function is another great opportunity to connect with other employees. Programs like Yammer, Trello and SharePoint are great tools to encourage a collaborative work environment for your employees. Chat functions, tagging, and easy sharing are all integrated into these programs, streamlining project management and approval process.

Our final part of the Training Millennial blog series will be coming later this week. Stay tuned to continue learning about what drives this age group’s behavior, and how your company can use this to your advantage when designing your training programs. Have questions about anything you read today? Reach out to us to learn more!

Source: L&D Meets OMG: Learning & Development for Millennials eBook