身为老板，该如何留住千禧一代员工？

“透视领导力”是一个在线社区，商业界最有思想也最具影响力的大咖会在此及时回答有关职场和领导力的问题。今天的问题是，“如何提升职场‘千禧一代’员工的归属感？”回答者是图片内嵌广告技术供应商GumGum的总裁兼首席运营官菲尔·施拉德。

在GumGum公司，我们非常注意尊重不同年龄段的员工，也认识到与60、70后的“X世代”和二战后出生的婴儿潮一代相比，80、90后“千禧一代”成长的环境截然不同。

招募并留住千禧一代人才极具挑战性，要让青年人才真正有归属感，觉得受公司器重，我们做了诸多努力：

尊重员工个性

前辈管理者要认识到千禧一代都是社交媒体原住民，这意味着他们习惯公开分享观点和关注的事物，惯于发出自己的声音。

允许员工发声，首先要把他们看作独立的个体。虽然我和同事们工作的领域是计算机视觉的商业和市场应用，但公司也非常鼓励大家分享工作以外的个人经历和兴趣。每个月我都会在加州圣塔莫尼卡办公室分别与各个部门共进午餐，不仅可以借机了解每位员工，也能促进同事之间互相了解。

我们还鼓励员工与所有人分享生活中的重要经历。比如图像学团队负责人告诉大家他发了一张新的混音专辑。这时团队成员才发现，原来他不止是技术达人，还会玩音乐，立刻有了进一步沟通了解的机会。

统一办公场所

为了营造协作的氛围，我们要求全体员工都在办公室工作。通讯工具当然也有方便之处，公司不限定假期时长，碰到员工出于个人原因在家工作或者休假时，可以灵活处理。但每次看到不同年龄的员工在各种办公室隔间内交流，都会觉得给员工归属感的第一步就是提供实体工作场所，以及面对面接触的机会。

公司发展壮大之后，我们有了一间公共厨房，员工可以去找点零食或者吃顿午饭。增加偶然碰上的机会很重要，员工们可以随口闲谈，无意间增进协作。有了日常共处和闲杂交流的空间，有助于各部门和项目成员加强联系。

了解“有意思”的真正含义

很多公司精心组织增进员工关系的活动，比如团队建设活动或者悉心策划的聚会，实际上员工并不喜欢。领导们会说“活动会有很意思”，员工却觉得“根本没意思。”作为领导者，你应该问问员工觉得什么有意思，根据提议安排活动。

比如显然一些公司员工都很喜欢梦幻橄榄球，我们就可以在公司内部搞梦幻橄榄球联赛。我们也可以选一个日子，召集有兴趣的员工，不管是不是球迷都好，去运动主题的酒吧看橄榄球赛。共同爱好是共度时光，谈论工作以外话题的好机会。和按部就班计划好的公司团建活动不同，我们不会刻意筹划活动，而且我觉得，活动稍微随意点反而更有价值。同事们有时间和空间彼此了解，团队协作能力和凝聚力提升极为明显。

加强交流后，我们也从年轻员工身上学到了很多东西。如果他们没有归属感，这是不可能的。（财富中文网）

译者：夏林

The Leadership Insiders network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question, “How can you help millennials feel like they’re part of the company?” is written by Phil Schraeder, president and COO of GumGum.

At GumGum, we’re conscious of treating all generations with respect, while also recognizing that millennials grew up in a very different world than Gen Xers and boomers.

Recruiting and retaining millennials is a particular challenge, and it involves making them feel like they’re truly part of, and important to, your company. Here's how we strive to do exactly that:

Respect them as individuals

Older managers need to realize that millennials are social media natives, which means that they’re used to publicly sharing about what they think and care about. They’re used to having a voice.

Allowing employees to have a voice starts with embracing them as individuals. Even though my colleagues and I are working hard together on business and marketing applications of computer vision, we encourage everyone to share their personal stories and interests outside of the office. I schedule monthly team lunches with every single department in our Santa Monica office, which is a great way not only for me to get to know individuals in our company, but also for them to get to know each other better.

We also encourage team members to let everyone know about great stuff that's going on in their personal lives. For instance, the leader of our image science team told us when he released a new mixtape. When his teammates could see him as not just a tech guy, but a musician too, it created an instant point of connection.

Work in the office

In order to foster a collaborative culture, we ask that all of our employees work in the office. Telecommuting has its fans, and we’re flexible when employees must work from home to deal with a personal situation or take time off with their unlimited vacation days. But when we see employees of all ages socializing in our various breakout spaces, it’s clear that helping them feel like they belong starts with giving them opportunities to all be in the same physical location and have face-to-face contact.

As our company has grown, having a kitchen where people can bump into each other and grab a snack or lunch has been especially valuable for fostering serendipitous conversations and collaborations. Daily presence and informal hangout spaces help weave our company together across departments and projects every day.

Understand what ‘fun’ really means

A lot of companies have elaborate "bonding" sessions, such as retreats and other carefully planned get-togethers, that employees actually dread. Management says, "This is going to be fun!" yet employees are thinking, "This is the opposite of fun." Instead, you should listen to what your employees think is fun, and mold your activities in accordance.

For example, when it became obvious that a bunch of people here are really into fantasy football, we started up fantasy leagues across the company. We also picked a day to go to a sports bar and watched a football game—fans and non-fans alike. Tapping into shared passions is a good excuse to spend time together and talk about things other than work. Unlike a company retreat with an hour-by-hour agenda, we didn’t structure the event in any way—and I think that lack of structure made it all the more valuable. Giving coworkers the time and space to get to know one another has done wonders for team collaboration and cohesion.

Ultimately, I think we’ve learned a lot from our youngest employees. We wouldn’t be able to do so, though, if they didn’t feel like a part of our team.