Mentoring and retention of millennials in United Kingdom: experiences and perceptions

Retaining millennial employees is relevant today because they make up a higher percentage of workers. Albeit, studies show that millennials have high turnover intentions and mentoring was identified as a valuable tool to them because of its major career and psychosocial development function. Hence, this study examined the experiences and perceptions of 51 millennial mentees within the ages of 21 36, to identify mentoring elements that can enhance their retention. Data was gathered via a questionnaire survey and analysed using basic descriptive statistics. The results suggest that well designed mentoring schemes can support millennial employee retention. However, the mentors’ perception was excluded and the small sample size limits generalisation. Notwithstanding, the identified features informed the authors’ Millennial Mentoring Model (MMM) which proposes that a voluntary mentoring structure, mentee’s objectives, mentor’s attributes, mentoring-relational features and a structure for personal and career advancement in the organisation can strengthen millennial retention.