Strategies for Incorporating Systems and Practices into Manufacturing Environments to Increase Employee Engagement and Reduce Turnover for Front-Line, Millennial Employees

Generation Y has a reputation of being lazy, entitled, and self-centered. Other generations struggle to find ways to relate and work with them. Companies are spending large sums of money to learn how to engage and lead with them. This study examined the factors that affect front-line millennial employee’s engagement and turnover in a manufacturing environment. It also identified systems and practices to engage and reduce turnover with millennial front-line employees in a manufacturing environment. From a study of 50 employees, leadership and purpose were among the highest scored factors that impacted engagement and turnover for the millennial generation. Additionally, communication, nonmonetary compensation, and job and work requirements scored the lowest. Recommendations were provided to increase these scores in efforts to improve employee engagement and reduce turnover