• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI

2

Former top Russian official admits the country is over Putin and can 'imagine a future without him' — even elites bail as Kremlin seizes their assets 

3

Meet the 20-year-old CEO who launched a company in high school to solve Gen Z's entry-level job crisis

1

Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI

2

Former top Russian official admits the country is over Putin and can 'imagine a future without him' — even elites bail as Kremlin seizes their assets 

3

Meet the 20-year-old CEO who launched a company in high school to solve Gen Z's entry-level job crisis
CommentaryLeadership

Why Your Younger Employees Aren’t as Motivated as They Could Be

By
Natalie Wadsworth
Natalie Wadsworth
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Natalie Wadsworth
Natalie Wadsworth
Down Arrow Button Icon
January 27, 2017, 1:00 AM ET
Young man lying on glass table using laptop computer, side view
Photograph by Loungepark—Getty Images

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 Natalie Wadsworth, vice president of people at Sailthru.

Even the most seasoned professionals can struggle to find their footing in a new role. So perhaps it’s not surprising that millennials often find career transitions especially difficult. Employees who have had the time to identify their passion have the wind at their backs. They’re able to operate with a kind of confidence that younger staffers have yet to learn.

Luckily, there’s plenty you can do to help younger employees integrate more quickly into their teams. Importantly, none of them have to do with free candy or snacks (although we have those too). Instead, it’s about sharing information about the business, giving them real ownership of their work, and trusting them to make an impact. In short: treating them like adults.

Be radically transparent

I’m a big believer in giving employees the data that reflects a holistic picture of the business and its underlying mechanics. We go deep. We discuss margins, churn, cash management, sales pipeline, and conversion, for example. We have these conversations over and over again so people understand the meanings of different numbers and their context, and feel comfortable asking questions.

If you give people real information and data—and the freedom to think beyond their day-to-day function—they’re given the tools needed for greater empowerment and accountability. We’ve found that the byproducts of that empowerment are striking; we see greater employee participation and engagement, and begin to identify emerging leaders within teams.

Help them see the impact of their work

We share so much data in part because we want employees to see how their own work contributes to our progress. That’s why we ask everyone to tie their own personal goals to the corporate goals in a meaningful way using the OKR (objectives and key results) framework.

OKRs help make employee impact to business goals tangible. As an example, say you’re a marketing coordinator who assists with a number of projects on a marketing team. With OKRs, all of your projects are mapped from an individual contribution or deliverable to a departmental goal in marketing, with that departmental goal mapping back to an overarching corporate goal. This cascading goals system also incorporates regular status check-ins and final result reporting. At the end of the OKR time period, every individual has a clear understanding of their broader business impact.

Move top performers across roles

We try to be open-minded about the roles our young employees take on. If a high-performing individual wants to try a different function, we try to make that happen. We just moved an implementation engineer into full-stack engineering, for instance. We’ve also had people who were in customer success transfer onto our product team; they ended up being solid fits.

 

Because of our size and where we are as a business, we can be opportunistic. Being flexible in this way has yielded a lot of positive business results and enabled us to retain some great talent.

Help employees develop their skills

While some skills can be easily picked up on the job, others are best learned in a more formal setting with peers and higher-level management. We have a leadership development program for new managers, but also have learning and development sessions in which any employee can enroll. Employees who want to learn more about, say, feedback, effective one-on-ones, influencing others, or conflict management can just sign up.

The employees get more out of these classes than just skills. They spend two days with their colleagues in a highly interactive setting. The exercises may require them to roleplay, call out things they’re not good at, or tell stories. That helps build trust and nurture relationships within the millennial community. And beyond that, it shows that experiences and challenges across all layers of an organization—from entry-level to C-suite—are more shared than you might think.

About the Author
By Natalie Wadsworth
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Commentary

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Commentary

liberman
Commentarystart-ups
We watched social media concentrate. The same thing is happening in AI, only at a deeper layer
By David Liberman and Daniil LibermanMay 16, 2026
18 hours ago
olivier
CommentaryAnthropic
I’ve been studying Big Tech for a long time. What just happened with Anthropic and the Pentagon terrifies me
By Olivier SylvainMay 16, 2026
19 hours ago
lawyer
CommentaryLaw
Would you hire the lawyer who just got sanctioned for using AI?
By Alexandra SmythMay 16, 2026
21 hours ago
greg
Personal FinanceAviation
Mamdani’s New York is coming to tax your private jet. Here’s how to prepare
By Greg RaiffMay 16, 2026
22 hours ago
chase
CommentaryCities
San Francisco has $2 trillion in AI wealth and can’t fix its own city. That’s every city’s problem
By Chase GarbarinoMay 15, 2026
2 days ago
lori
Commentarymental health
I run Valvoline Instant Oil Change and work with young people every day. They’re in crisis—and we all have to try to help
By Lori FleesMay 15, 2026
2 days ago

Most Popular

Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI
AI
Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI
By Jake AngeloMay 16, 2026
19 hours ago
Former top Russian official admits the country is over Putin and can 'imagine a future without him' — even elites bail as Kremlin seizes their assets 
Politics
Former top Russian official admits the country is over Putin and can 'imagine a future without him' — even elites bail as Kremlin seizes their assets 
By Jason MaMay 16, 2026
9 hours ago
Meet the 20-year-old CEO who launched a company in high school to solve Gen Z's entry-level job crisis
Future of Work
Meet the 20-year-old CEO who launched a company in high school to solve Gen Z's entry-level job crisis
By Jake AngeloMay 16, 2026
22 hours ago
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
Politics
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
By Jake AngeloMay 12, 2026
4 days ago
Despite having a $165 million net worth, Scarlett Johansson says work-life balance doesn’t exist—and the first step to success is admitting that
Success
Despite having a $165 million net worth, Scarlett Johansson says work-life balance doesn’t exist—and the first step to success is admitting that
By Preston ForeMay 13, 2026
4 days ago
‘You’re not a hero, you’re a liability’: Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary warns Gen Z founders to stop glorifying hustle culture
Future of Work
‘You’re not a hero, you’re a liability’: Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary warns Gen Z founders to stop glorifying hustle culture
By Jacqueline MunisMay 16, 2026
19 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.