Top Benefit To Attract And Retain Millennial Workers

Before you make any decisions ask yourself three questions

 

When it comes to deciding what things within your organization are worth changing for millennials, it’s likely going to come down to a few factors: balancing your business goals with affordability and the wants and needs of millennials. By no means are we suggesting you should adjust your entire company culture for millennials, but understanding the unique situation millennials find themselves in, can help you make more informed decisions about what kind of benefits you can potentially offer that would be unique to your organization.

Working Millennials Have This One Thing In Common

If you were to ask your millennial employees the one thing that they all have in common, they would probably say student loan debt. The cost of college in 2018 has almost tripled what it used to be, which means most of the degree-holding millennials in your organization have paid a higher price to earn a degree than most people did thirty years ago.
 
To put things in perspective, we look to PayScale’s latest College ROI Report where we evaluated the costs for 1,461 higher education institutions and the earnings of their graduates. We found that 39 percent of schools reported that the average student has a student loan of over $30,000. Additionally, six percent of the schools report that the average student has over $40,000 in debt. Some schools even report student loans with over $50,000 in debt. When we account for student loan repayment at around three hundred and fifty dollars per month, millennial workers can expect to see their earnings garnished by ten percent up to twelve years after graduating college. Student loan debt, and repaying student loan debt are the main reasons millennials have trouble purchasing a home and even saving for retirement.

Employees Need More Than Traditional Benefits

So knowing what we know about the burden young workers are carrying when it comes to student loan debt, you might be wondering how this relates to the bottom line of your organization. A recent study from Fractl helps tie everything together. In the study, Fractlshowed 2,000 U.S. workers a list of 17 different employee benefits and asked them to rank how heavily they would weigh the options when deciding between a high-paying job and a lower-paying job with more perks. The results showed that just under half of the respondents report that student loan assistance could nudge them toward a lower-paying job.
 

 

Consider Adding Student Loan Repayment Assistance to Your Benefits

With only 4 percent of organizations currently providing student loan repayment benefits, adding this benefit can provide your organization with a unique way to recruit young workers. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to student loan assistance, but it essentially involves the organization contributing a specified dollar amount per month or per year toward paying off employee student loan debt. Companies like Aetna, Chegg, Starbucks and more have already implemented a student loan repayment program in their organizations. However, before you make any decisions on adding a student loan repayment program to your benefits roster, you should ask yourself these three questions
 

 
Knowing how to answer these questions and strategically thinking through a student loan repayment program that fits your organization is key to ensuring that it will be a success and bring value to your organization and your pay brand.