3 Reasons Why Millennials Might Leave Your Office For Contract Work

Part-time work and temporary contracts come with a negative connotation. The ideal for the prior generations was a full-time, salaried position with a pension. Not only is that becoming less and less of an option, but millennials often enjoy the flexibility and freedom that come with temporary assignments and part-time work. Here are three reasons your employees might be tempted to leave for contract work and how you can keep them:

1. Flexible scheduling and telecommuting.

Online gigs offer workers almost complete control over their schedules. While some service industry roles like answering the phones or being a virtual assistant have scheduled shifts, many jobs don’t. Even the strictly scheduled positions give workers the option to work from home. 

If your office has an inflexible nine-to-five schedule or a policy against telecommuting, employees will leave to have more control over their day. Start rolling out more flexible hours and some work-from-home options.

2. Experimenting with different roles and skills.

62% of contract workers are under 45 years old. While not every contract worker chose contracting work out of choice, many of those who did are using the opportunity to try out different job roles and learn new skills. Traditional employment positions often focus on the same routine for months or years at a time, and that doesn’t give new workers the opportunity to experiment.

Make internal transfers easier in your company and give employees control over projects rather than an isolated set of tasks.

3. Experience requirements that trap employees in entry-level positions.

The running joke for millennials is that entry-level positions require three years of experience. But if you make the number of years a hard-lined requirement in your hiring system, even for internal hires, then you’re going to miss out on employees who want to learn quickly and specialize. They’ll leave for the gig economy, which works off qualifications, proven work, and a portfolio. 

While an experience requirement can help you filter out external applicants if you receive too many resumes, be prepared to bend the rules if you find an otherwise good fit already in your office. Go to Tangram to read more about employee engagement trends.