Jonathan Lohman, insurance and benefits producer and marketing specialist for Lohman Cos. Insurance, Real Estate and Benefits
Years at company: 10
College: Illinois State University, Katie School of Insurance '07

Read Jonathan's previous nGI Q&A

How can employers retain young talent?
Retention is based on who you choose. Be selective and choose someone you know will fit in to the office atmosphere. Don’t hire someone who does hard selling and expect them to fit in with your soft sell sales force. They will disturb your atmosphere by making 150 phone calls a day while your current sales force makes 10 great phone calls a day and spends the rest of the day in the field. You need to make it fun, whether it's running small daily contests or promoting a life with the office outside of the office like going to a game or out for dinner just to get to know each other. Also, contrary to popular belief, today’s generation is very much in to giving back to the community and doing service work. Engage the office to do something and that will create unity. You need to be wary of what your competition is offering employees like yours. If you don’t, your employees will find out anyway. Good employees are hard to come by and if they offer something more competitive, be able to show why they should stay with you. The average young person is switching jobs up to nine times in their career in comparison with two times 25 years ago.