Giving Thoughts

A Call to Companies to Give Millennials What They Want

By Alice Korngold, Co-Editor, Giving Thoughts, and author, A Better World, Inc.: How Companies Profit by Solving Global Problems…Where Governments Cannot

Millennial turnover costs the U.S. economy $30.5 billion annually, according to a recent report from Gallup. The research also found: “Only 29 percent of millennials are… emotionally and behaviorally connected to their job and company.” Furthermore, Deloitte reports that two out of three millennials expect to leave their current jobs by 2020, feeling little loyalty to their employers. Both Deloitte and Gallup studied the reasons for such widespread dissatisfaction among millennials in the workplace. Their answers: the failure of employers to meet the interests of millennials to learn and grow, develop as leaders, feel useful, and have a sense of control.

I believe there is a solution to millennial dissatisfaction. Businesses that encourage and support their employees to serve on the board of a nonprofit that is the perfect match for them, while also providing training and coaching for successful board service, will meet the desires of many millennials described by Deloitte and Gallup. This premise is based on my experience of having trained and placed several hundred business executives and professionals on nonprofit boards—global, national, and regional—and having coached many of them as they ascended to board leadership positions.

There are a many benefits of nonprofit board service to the individual, the company, and the community.

Employees who serve on boards:

• Learn, grow, develop as leaders, and feel useful. They have a responsibility to work with peers to envision an organization’s greater potential, create a sustainable revenue model, and maximize the nonprofit’s resources, in order to achieve the mission.
• Gain unique experience as part of a board that has ultimate accountability for an organization’s ethics and reputation.
• Engage with board members who have diverse backgrounds and perspectives to achieve a mission about which they are all passionate and committed.
• Learn about an issue that is important to the community, the world, and businesses, whether the mission is related to the environment, healthcare, education, economic development, housing, or jobs.
• Develop relationships with people from a variety of sectors whose work and expertise can be relevant and valuable.
• Gain the sense of control they seek through the process of choosing a board that is a good fit and engaging productively.

Companies that help their employees to find and serve successfully on boards:

• Develop leaders through board experience. Experiential learning, especially when it is accompanied by training and coaching, is more effective than classroom study.
• Provide opportunities for employees to engage with people in the community from various backgrounds and sectors whose relationships are important to the company.
• Gain knowledge of matters that affect the business—through employee engagement on boards—ranging from education and job training, to climate and ecosystems loss, to healthcare and housing.
• Steward the company’s philanthropy by directing contributions to organizations on whose boards their employees serve, leveraging volunteerism with dollars.
• Enhance the company’s reputation for productive engagement in addressing vital issues.

Communities whose companies support nonprofit board service:

• Achieve innovative solutions to social, economic, and environmental challenges.
• Realize business-nonprofit partnerships, often involving government as well.

“It’s not just my job. It’s my life.”

For millennials, says Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO, Gallup, “a job is no longer just a job—it’s their life as well.” Clifton adds that his firm recommends that companies find a way to address millennials’ interests, especially in order to keep the best people. They want to develop their strengths, they want coaches, they want purpose and development. Engaging millennials in effective nonprofit board service is a solution that is good for business and good for the world.

About the author:

Alice Korngold is co-editor of Giving Thoughts and the author of A Better World, Inc.: How Companies Profit by Solving Global Problems…Where Governments Cannot (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and Leveraging Good Will: Strengthening Nonprofits by Engaging Businesses (Jossey Bass, A Wiley Imprint, 2005). For over 20 years, she has been training and placing business executives on NGO/nonprofit boards and consulting to corporations, foundations, and NGOs/nonprofits on board governance, CSR, and sustainability.