Yardi client Avison Young recently released “Five generations: Is the need for new workplace structures myth or reality?” The white paper explores the perceived need to overhaul workplace layouts in order to accommodate multi-generational employees. Generations have replaced one another in the workplace since, well, the dawn of the workplace. Yet the introduction of Millennials has employers grasping for new ways to catch and keep the newcomers’ attention without isolating older employees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Millennials are the largest generation. Ever. There are currently 83.1 million young adults in the U.S. alone, representing more than one quarter of the nation’s population. The group is a dominate force to be reckoned with. Employers are still learning how to reckon. The first challenge: Millennials are hard to keep on board. The report suggest that Millennial attrition costs are nearly twice that of older workers, “For an organization of 1,000 employees, the additional cost of replacing Millennials could average as much as $300,000 annually.” Stereotypes would suggest that this is because Millennials lack loyalty. Any new carrot could whisk them away to another company. The report reveals the error of this assumption. Jennifer Deal, research scientist with the Center for Creative Leadership, discovered level within the company correlates to loyalty rather than age. The next assumption is that the workplace itself is wrong for Millennials, hence the tendency for employers to create “hip” spaces that should feel more welcoming to Millennials. Organizations are creating lines in the budget for arcades, cafes, sleeping pods, slides,—the list continues. This, too, is a potentially erroneous strategy. How does one measure the ROI of a hoverboard? “Our research shows that when you hold the stereotypes up to the light, they don’t cast much of a shadow,” explains Deal....

As Baby Boomers by the thousands prepare to retire, training their successors is taking on fresh urgency. Anecdotal evidence suggests that a growing number of people are making real estate management a career of choice rather than chance. Nevertheless, some experts contend that the profession must further step up both recruitment and mentoring. All too often, some leading executives contend, the industry is unwittingly discouraging its own talent pool by placing too much weight on experience. And while IREM, Building Owners and Managers Association International and other groups sponsor outreach programs and networking opportunities, Joe Greenblatt, IREM’s 2014 president and president of San Diego-based multi-family specialist Sunrise Management, finds that young people often feel frustrated about the lack of responsiveness from prospective employers—and that is a missed opportunity. Once they’ve been hired, managers of all ages say, employers would do well to cater to the very distinctive traits 20-something professionals tend to share. To begin with, Millennials prize mentoring. Communicating back and forth is a must, according to Dee Headley, an Indianapolis-based vice president for Cassidy Turley and chair of IREM’s advisory board on student and academic outreach. And the more specific the expectations, the better, notes Va’Shajn Parr, who joined La Jolla-based Capital Growth Properties Inc. as an assistant property manager last summer and works on two portfolios comprising 33 properties. Furthermore, feedback should be individually tailored, says Kacey Morris, director of property management for Prologis Inc. in metropolitan Atlanta. Another essential Millennial quality is zeal to take on challenges right out of the gate. After all, this energetic, hands-on generation wants to make important contributions, according to Kent Bell, a property manager for Washington Real Estate Investment Trust. Karen Whitt, COO of U.S. real estate management services for Colliers International, likes to...