Understanding Millennials' Workplace Preferences : A Study on Choosing and Becoming Loyal Towards an Employer

Abstract: Employees choosing their employer rather than the employer choosing their employees have resulted in an increased interest of understanding what is requested among today's workforce. The growing generation of the labour market, Millennials, have been shown to create difficulties for organisations, in form of an increased turnover rate among them. In order to decrease the turnover rate, the purpose of this thesis is to provide a better understanding of Millennials’ preferences when choosing a company, and factors that would make them loyal. Previous theory state important factors that are affecting Millennials, but these are studies conducted in countries such as Canada, the USA, and India. Therefore, this thesis focuses on Millennials in Sweden. To gain a deeper understanding of Millennials’ preferences, semi-structured interviews, with non-standardised questions were held. To analyse the empirical data a thematic method was used. This made it easier to compare the data with previous literature. Findings suggest that relations with colleagues and managers are an important factor that affects both the choice of employer and the loyalty towards them. Moreover, psychological work environment, values, progress, and salary were mentioned as essential factors. Depending on the research question, the outcome differed.