How to Make Your Company More Attractive to Millennials

Today, millennials make up the largest share of the U.S. workforce. Their influence in the workplace is indisputable, and their unique and innovative perspectives often make them critical to a company's success.

But many employers find the generation perplexing: one consultant even said "communicating with millennials can be like learning a new language." Another challenge for employers concerned about high employee turnover is that millennials do not expect to stay put in their jobs for more than two years.

Here are three things employers can do to increase their chances of attracting and retaining millennial employees:

1. Millennials generally value mentoring opportunities, the people they work with and creativity more than they do a salary.

They need to find value in the work and clearly understand your company's purpose (and how they contribute to that purpose) in order to be inspired. And they want to see that your business is putting people first — before the bottom line.

2. Highlight the quality of life in your town.

Millennials want to know about the cultural, artistic, sporting and outdoor opportunities in your location. This is more than just highlighting the "work-life balance" within your organization – they want to know that outside of work there are activities and events to help themselves integrate into the community.

3. Give them lots of options when it comes to benefits.

Millennials tend to operate using the "on-demand" model: why buy an album when I only want one song? Why pay for cable when I only watch three channels?

They prefer their benefits options offered up the same way: a wide variety of options they can pick and choose form. This makes voluntary benefits like legal insurance, financial counseling/tuition assistance programs and identity theft coverage even more important.