5 Steps to Build Loyal Young Staff

If you’re struggling to retain young employees, loyalty may have less to do with the generation you’re hiring and more to do with the workplace they experience after they arrive.

Sitting in a forum full of employers

I was sitting in a forum with a room full of employers when one business owner spoke up.“Young people just aren’t loyal anymore.”He spoke about how difficult it had become to run a business. You spend weeks recruiting someone, invest time training them, support them through those first nervous months, and just as they start becoming productive, they’re gone.Looking around the room, it was obvious he wasn’t the only one feeling that way. Heads nodded in agreement. Someone else said staff used to stay for years, but now they’re always looking for the next opportunity.Before long, the conversation had settled on one conclusion.“Loyalty is dead.”I sat there listening, and while I completely understood their frustration, I couldn’t bring myself to agree with the conclusion.Losing staff is expensive, disruptive and exhausting. Every employer in that room had experienced it, and their frustration was genuine. But as I listened, I found myself asking a different question.Have young people really stopped being loyal, or have we misunderstood what loyalty actually is?I don’t think loyalty is something people arrive with on their first day of work. I think it develops over time through the experiences they have once they walk through your door.If you want to improve young employee retention, it’s worth looking beyond recruitment and asking what happens after somebody starts working for you.
Do they feel supported? Do they know what’s expected? Are they developing? Do they feel like part of the team? Can they see a future there?Young staff loyalty is usually built through a series of relatively ordinary experiences.Here are five places I’d start.

Step 1. Improve onboarding for young employees

The first few weeks matter.Young staff need to understand what’s expected, who they can go to for help and what good performance actually looks like. A rushed induction followed by “you’ll pick it up” can leave somebody feeling lost very quickly, particularly if this is one of their first experiences of full-time work.Good onboarding should gradually help someone become more confident and independent. Explain the role clearly, introduce them properly to the team and check in regularly while they’re finding their feet.The aim isn’t to hold their hand forever. It’s to give them enough structure early that they eventually need less support from you.

Step 2. Help young staff feel like they belong

People are more likely to stay somewhere they feel genuinely connected to.For young staff, belonging can come from incredibly simple things. Include them in conversations. Ask for their opinion. Introduce them to people. Take an interest in how they’re settling in. Make sure they’re not constantly standing on the outside watching everybody else.You don’t need to create some artificial workplace where everyone is expected to become best friends.You’re creating a workplace where people feel noticed, respected and part of something.Over time, that matters.

Step 3. Give young employees regular feedback

Young staff can’t improve if they’re constantly guessing how they’re going.Tell them what they’re doing well, but also be clear about where they need to improve. Useful feedback should help someone become more capable, rather than simply making them afraid of getting something wrong.This is particularly important for employees who are early in their careers. They may have very little previous workplace experience to compare themselves against.Regular feedback gives them a reference point.They begin to understand what good performance looks like, where they’re making progress and what they should work on next.That builds confidence.

Step 4. Create development opportunities for young staff

Loyalty becomes harder when somebody feels like they’re standing still.That doesn’t mean you need to offer a promotion every six months. Development can be much smaller than that.Let them learn a new task. Give them responsibility for something. Invite them onto a project. Help them develop a skill they’re interested in. Eventually, they might even begin supporting newer employees themselves.Ask:“What would you like to become better at over the next six months?”Their answer may tell you a lot about what will keep them engaged.When young staff can see that working for you is helping them become more capable, there’s a stronger reason to stay.

Step 5. Be the kind of manager people want to stay for

This might be the most important one.Your staff will remember how you responded when they made a mistake. They’ll remember whether you followed through on promises. They’ll remember whether they felt comfortable asking you for help and whether you noticed when they did something well.Be clear. Be consistent. Hold high expectations and give people the support they need to reach them.Young staff don’t need managers who make everything easy.They need managers who help them become capable.And as capability grows, something else can grow alongside it.Commitment.

Loyalty is built

I understand why employers become frustrated when young employees leave. When you’ve invested months training somebody and they resign just as they’re becoming valuable to the business, it can feel like all that effort has walked straight out the door.But simply deciding that young people aren’t loyal doesn’t give us anywhere useful to go.A much better question is:“Have we created a workplace worth being loyal to?”Because there are things managers can influence.You can improve onboarding. You can create stronger relationships. You can give better feedback. You can help people develop. You can build a team where somebody feels like they genuinely belong.And over time, the young employee who arrived nervous, inexperienced and needing considerable support can become one of the people you rely on most.That’s what makes developing young staff worthwhile.Loyal young staff aren’t simply found during recruitment. They’re built through good leadership, strong relationships and a workplace people genuinely want to stay in.

Struggling to keep young staff?

If young employees keep leaving, lacking confidence or needing constant support, the problem may be bigger than recruitment.Confidence in Mentoring helps organisations improve the way they onboard, supervise and develop young staff.