Don’t Create Time Clock Punchers. Turn Them Into Fans.

Build employee fandom with Millennial employees by creating positive experiences in the workplace consisting of engagement and learning opportunities and feedback. This can lead to better job satisfaction and retention of Millennials.

Did you know that the Super Bowl is more than just a one-day event? I didn’t until my town hosted this year’s event. It’s a two-week long event with parties, concerts, and gifting lounges for celebrities.  For the regular Joes and Jodies, there’s the Super Bowl Experience.

The Super Bowl Experience has been called the “Disneyland of football” and it’s an interactive and historic display of all things pro-football. (Fun fact, it was started right here in Minneapolis in 1992.) You can check out Hall of Fame artifacts, match your skills against the greats, and snap a selfie with the Lombardi trophy. According to some of the event planners, the mission of the Super Bowl event is that whether you are a fan of football or not when you enter, you will be when you leave. I love that mission and I think organizations can learn something from it.

Just like the Super Bowl is more than just a one-day event, Millennials are looking for more than just a place to work. They’re looking to have an experience. How is your organization creating one for them? Do they have opportunities to get hands-on understanding of why their work matters? Are they given opportunities to try something new that might expand their skill set? You don’t need a fancy gifting lounge, but are you paying attention to what might make your employees feel important and appreciated? As the author of a Forbes article wrote, “…But I don’t wake up at 6:00 a.m. every day to play foosball in the break room.” And as the trend towards using contract and freelance workers grows, also consider ways to engage them with your organization and with your traditional, full-time employees.

Organizations need to take a page from the Super Bowl Experience playbook and become more than just a place to put in your eight hours of work. In doing so they will discover that they have more than just employees, they have fans. Fans are invested. They have ownership in their organization and are more likely to stay engaged. Just take a look at Green Bay Packer fans who shovel the stadium for free. That’s investment.