Manufacturing & Supply Chain

EngageSmith, the millennial specialist, has announced the launch of the Millennial Friendly Index that will certify how millennial friendly employers are. Designed with input from both millennials and industry, the Index is a software tool that enables organisations to increase millennial engagement and reduce attrition.

The Index rates organisations’ millennial friendliness across a range of criteria that have been identified by industry experts and millennials. The results will enable individual companies to understand what is required to engage with and motivate millennials. Organisations that pass the exacting test will achieve millennial friendly certification. The benefits of the Millennial Friendly Index include employer branding, improving millennial employee retention and increasing engagement and performance.

EngageSmith invested €250,000 initially researching, developing and testing the software behind the Millennial Friendly Index. The funding for this came from the recent €400,000 private equity investment in the company.

The Millennial Friendly Index will be announced on an annual basis with the inaugural Index released this September. The Index will rate the top millennial friendly companies in Ireland across all industries.

Lisa Smith, founder of EngageSmith, said: “Following constant queries by millennials and Gen Zs on what companies are the best to work for, I recognised that there is a gap in the market for a tool to bridge the gap between industry and millennials.

“The millennial generation are quick to voice negative opinions on social media, for example, if they’ve had a bad experience with a company, this inevitably is posted online, damaging the brand of the company. As 79% of Irish millennials use online job sites and 65% use social media to find jobs, potential employees are often dissuaded from applying for companies with poor online employer reputations.

We believe that our Millennial Friendly Index will be the go-to tool for millennials and to plan their careers by selecting companies that understand their needs. Our Index also gives companies the levers needed to help improve their online rating, making them more attractive to the top talent.

“As the economy is reaching full employment, the talent pool available to companies is shrinking. If companies want to reduce high attrition rates and associated costs of hiring and training new employees, then it’s important that they get the millennial friendly certification as soon as possible.”

“We’re on a strong growth path and the Millennial Friendly Index will enable us to achieve our expansion goals in Ireland and overseas. We will launch the Index in the US and UK early next year and look to be make it available globally in the next two years.”

EngageSmith works with large Irish-based indigenous and multinational companies, helping them companies to increase their retention of millennials and grow productivity.