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A surprising study from IBM sheds some light on the truth: Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers all share very similar opinions of the workplace.

Here are some of the most unexpected commonalities (and differences) driving today’s employees:

Less Loyalty

66 percent of the Millennials expect to change jobs in the next five years, and given the choice this year, one in four would quit their current job to join a new organization, according to Deloitte.

Now that Millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. workforce, this is especially alarming. Imagine 40 percent of your employees packing up and leaving tomorrow. Would your business survive?

This isn’t only a Millennial problem, either. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an overall average employee tenure of 4.2 years. The Millennial average is roughly 3 years. Boomers have an average tenure of 10 years, but a majority of your Boomer employees are looking toward retirement within the next 5 years.

The Gen X average tenure is 6.5 years, yet IBM’s study revealed that nearly half of them (47 percent) would leave their current job for another offering more money and a more innovative environment.

The bottom line? If you don’t improve engagement and retention in your organization, you can expect most of your employees—regardless of generation—to leave within the next 5 years.

More Flexibility

75 percent of Millennials would like to start to, or more frequently, work from home or other locations where they feel more productive, says Deloitte. Their study also revealed that besides salary, “good work-life balance” and “flexibility” (remote working and flexible hours) were two of the top three values for Millennials when evaluating job opportunities.

Surprisingly, these two factors are even more important to Gen X, according to IBM. “[Millennials] place less emphasis on a collaborative work environment, the freedom to innovate, and the flexibility to manage their work-life balance than Gen X employees, but the differences are small. By and large, all three generations prize the same qualities.”

The gig economy threw a wrench in the traditional 9 to 5 office job. In fact, 20 to 30 percent of the working-age population now engage in some form of independent work. But, 30% of them do so out of necessity, rather than preference.

Employers who offer more flexibility are going to have a significant advantage as Baby Boomers retire. Flexible work arrangements will help your employees work where and how they want, which helps increase both productivity and retention.

Development Opportunities

Of the Millennials likely to leave their organization in the next two years, Deloitte reports that 71 percent are unhappy with how their leadership skills are being developed.

Another survey by PwC reinforces the importance of professional development opportunities for Millennials. 52 percent of respondents said the opportunity for career progression makes an organization an attractive employer, even more so than competitive wages and other financial incentives.

With some estimates suggesting that 1,000 Boomers retire from the workforce every day, your organization is likely facing a significant gap in leadership ability. And while most reports cite Millennials as tomorrow’s leaders, Gen X is likely to move into those leadership roles sooner.

It’s critical for your organization to invest in developing and mentoring both Gen X and Millennial talent today in order to address the leadership pipeline challenges of tomorrow.

A Lack of Clarity

One of the more startling results of IBM’s generational survey was that over half of employees don’t fully understand their organization’s business strategy, what they’re supposed to do, or what their customers want. While 60 percent of Gen X seem to have a grasp on these concepts, most of their colleagues are in the dark.

When asked what leadership traits they value most, all three generations chose “transparent and readily shares information” and “clearly defines goals and expectations” as two of the most important. Yet, half of these respondents said their leaders don’t clearly communicate their strategic vision or what they expect from employees.

Increasingly, employees of all generations want a sense of ownership and purpose in their work. They want to feel like they are part of something greater than themselves.

Without clarity and alignment around the organization’s strategy, what’s expected of them, and how their work feeds the greater good, your employees are likely to feel undervalued and will ultimately disengage from their work.

Employees’ Values Have Changed

For many organizations, employee retention is a ticking time bomb and the 5-year countdown has already started. Now is the time to reexamine your leadership development programs, flexible work arrangements, and begin to align your team around your strategic vision.

It’s not simply a Millennial problem. Today, Boomers, Millennials, and Gen X all share similar opinions about their work, and many are planning to leave your organization in the next 5 years. It’s up to you as a leader to begin to bridge the gap in engagement and retention if your organization intends to stay competitive and relevant in the years to come.

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Along with this influx of young managers comes a shift in the role of manager itself. Managers are no longer only focused on making sure work gets done, but also on how and why it gets done. They are expected to be detail-oriented and strategic, to build culture and ensure productivity. And their position is also pivotal for employee engagement: A recent Gallup poll found that managers accounted for 70% of variance in employee engagement.

The good news? This new generation appears up for the challenge. But companies must also find ways to develop and retain these new managers. Recent data released in the 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey points to evidence that companies will have to make significant changes in how they develop this generation to meet the challenges that managers will face in the future.

Millennials are a dynamic generation. They are less likely than their predecessors to remain in one organization for a long period of time. They are looking for more flexible work hours, and look for organizations whose culture reflects caring towards both employees and the world around them. They aren’t afraid to leave a job if they feel their skills are not utilized or their principles are not matched.

Preventing this exodus of potential leaders has become a business-critical challenge for organizations. According to the Deloitte survey, of the Millennials likely to leave their organizations in the next two years, 71 percent are unhappy with how their leadership skills are being developed.

Getting talent development right will be crucial both for retaining this generation of managers and flipping the switch on engagement for the rest of your workforce. Here are the major shifts that need to take place:

1) Deliberately devote more time to developing leadership skills.

Deloitte found that the most loyal Millennials experience high levels of support and/or training for pursuing and managing leadership roles. Take a look at the volume of opportunities available for young managers to develop their leadership skills. Are there programs in place? Are young managers encouraged to pursue these opportunities? Is there explicit encouragement to experiment with new skills once they return from these programs?  Setting aside the time and resources for leadership development shows a commitment to young managers and is likely to get commitment in return.

2) Leadership development programs should reflect the preferences of the generation: more collaborative, team-based, and decentralized.

The Millennial preference for creative, inclusive cultures over authoritarian ones extend from their work days to professional development opportunities themselves. Some development programs rely on the knowledge of a leadership “guru” speaking at the front of the room and passing on knowledge to a captive audience. This generation’s preferences, however, suggest that a program can be designed where participants experience more collaborative problem-solving and autonomy to decide how and what they need to learn.  Even those programs that don’t portend to be spouting knowledge from one single person into the awaiting minds of managers may need to shift in the direction of more flexible and collaborative.

3) Weave mentorship into the fabric of your culture and your development programs.

An oldie but a goodie, mentorship still makes a difference. Not only will Millennial managers need mentorship to learn the skills and political know-how that long years of tenure used to ensure, but they’ll also be more likely to stay with the organization. According to Deloitte, respondents who planned to stay with their companies for more than five years were twice as likely to have a mentor. Programs and cultures that make mentorship a deliberate and important component have a better chance of retaining this new generation of managers.

4) Social impact activities can become team building opportunities and arenas to practice leadership skills.

Why not combine the Millennial desire to join businesses that understand their impact with their need to develop skills that will help them as leaders? Embed a volunteer experience or an activity that gives back to the community in some way into your company’s strategy to develop young leaders. Not only will you show a commitment to your community (something that this generation looks for), but you will also provide a concrete learning experience for participants to look back on as leaders.

5) Develop skills for dialogue to enable Millennial managers to enact the work culture they seek.

In terms of employee engagement, good communication from managers is essential.   Leaders in talent development are already honing in on communication skills as one of the most important development opportunities for managers of the future. The role of translator and psychologist that middle managers often need to play are well served by a capacity for communicating well with employees. Skills for dialogue – active listening, powerful questioning, and personal engagement – can be developed via collaborative learning experiences and encouraged around the workplace. If dialogue becomes the norm, Millennial managers will start to build the culture they seek and contribute to their organizations in a very meaningful way.

Millennial managers are poised to fill the leadership gap left in the wake of waves of baby boomer retirements, and the impending challenge is to both retain and develop these fresh leaders. Organizations will need to make adjustments for this generation or risk losing talent that no longer accepts the principle of long-held tenure or hierarchical advancement. As this generation ages, we may see just how different leadership looks. For now, it’s crucial to provide the right opportunities and climate for that new style to grow.

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At the epicenter of the war for talent resides the tech industry, where many talented engineers and other highly-skilled workers have no problem jumping to another employer for a minor bump in pay or benefits. The result? Companies are forever trying to outshine each other with baubles, beer kegs and nap pods to try to entice this demographic to join them.

What this approach fails to do is inspire loyalty. Despite all the money that these companies pour into perks, at the end of the day, it’s just job hopping.

A Better Way to Retain Talent

What if, rather than doing everything possible to keep people no matter what, you took an alternative approach? That’s exactly what Rami Essaid, co-founder and CEO of Distil Networks, has done.

“It’s almost a fool’s errand to try to hold onto people,” Essaid suggests. “Why work to retain people when the only solution becomes offering more outrageous benefits? It’s an unsustainable cycle where people end up leaving anyway. Why not rethink the way work is designed where we acknowledge people are going to move around over the course of their careers?”

And Essaid has some first-hand experience with this phenomenon. His Silicon Valley-based cybersecurity firm helps customers identify and block malicious website traffic while letting legitimate users do what they need to do. Distil is able to find the “bots” that attack websites and police them before they can do damage to your brand.

The success of the company over the last five years has resulted in the rapid expansion of his team, now 150 strong. Here are some of Rami’s secrets to success:

Be intentional about the culture you are creating from the start. Rami started Distil Networks with a small group of longtime friends and many of their initial hires included additional friends from their social circles. “This had the potential to create a dynamic of ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ based on whether or not you were a personal friend or not, so we made a very intentional choice that we were going to build a company where everyone was treated with a kinship and in a transparent and honest way,” Essaid explained.

The founders of Distil took care to create a fundamental way of working together that was deeply rooted in the values that they shared as a result of this friendship. And by extending those values out to the team as they grew, they were able to keep the same feeling and way of operating over the years.

Really commit to providing developmental opportunities. “We are constantly investing in our employees.” Essaid described how Distil Networks takes great care in providing robust and comprehensive development to its employees. Be it executive coaching support, job rotations to different functional areas, or training and development, this approach aligns with Essaid’s belief that the company can play a role in helping people achieve their own personal definition of success.

Helping people to grow professionally and personally plays a significant role in ensuring that Distil is the right place for them at that time in their journey. And, if it turns out that a great opportunity presents itself outside of Distil, trying to hold people back is not in anyone’s best interest.

Structure career progression to include lateral mobility. Organizations that only afford career progression through promotion to levels of management dramatically limits opportunities. By finding ways to move people across the organization, Distil Networks has found another way to help provide people with the maximum opportunity for development.

Help people spread their wings and prosper, even if that means leaving your company. This is based on a few of the fundamental beliefs and assumptions that the leaders at Distil Networks hold to be true about the world of business. If people leave to pursue opportunities that present massive growth and development potential, keeping them would only hinder them. By letting them go forth and prosper, the company helps them succeed while also ensuring that the remaining workforce is in their place of most potential, doing their best work. If this is the case, Distil will become a much more attractive place to work—for the right people at the right time.

Essaid believes that helping people figure out their path and providing plenty of opportunities to achieve their vision of success is a much more productive, positive and effective cycle than trying to keep people who are not in their “zone” employed for as long as possible until they wind up leaving anyway.

Distil’s method doesn’t come without its challenges. Essaid is the first to admit that it can sometimes be difficult to get people to really think about, or articulate, where they want to go in life and in their careers. But this is not unique to Distil by any stretch.

It is incumbent upon leaders to both develop their own coaching skills and understand and acknowledge that some employees may have given little to no critical thought to their more long-term career goals. In these situations, engaging in frequent developmental coaching discussions can help guide employees in their progress so that they can be more intentional about setting and achieving their goals.

You can’t keep everyone around forever. As Richard Bach famously said, “If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they’re yours; if they don’t they never were.” It seems counterintuitive to give your employees every opportunity to leave. But by helping your team stay engaged in their role, aligned in their personal and professional goals, and allowing them to leave if it isn’t a good fit, you’ll ensure that those who choose to stay will be committed to doing their best work for you, for a long time to come.

 This article originally appeared on Forbes.

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Stories like this used to be more common in the workplace. It was commonplace to get a job on the ground floor of a company, expecting that they will take care of you and your professional career while you grow with them. You were expected to work your way up the ladder to a middle management position, then the corner office; all the while building your pension so you can finally escape the cubicle on your 65^th birthday.

Times Are Changing

Millennials (or Generation Y) are made up of people born between 1977-1995. They’re currently in their 20’s and 30’s, and even though there are plenty of stats and studies around this generation, the corporate world has been slow to adapt.

While most Baby Boomers have traditionally valued job security and benefits from their employers, Millennials are focused on employability. Employees that value longevity are slowly being replaced by a younger generation of workers who are constantly aware of how their current jobs can be leveraged within their career overall.

Millennial and older generations alike are both focused on a career, but the younger generation is always looking outward. They often consider their current job as one step on a bigger career path. It’s a stark contrast from the way older generations have tied their career advancement to a desk within the walls of their current employer.

This distinction is paramount for companies to consider when hiring and retaining people in today’s work environment. It means that organizations have to adapt to a new way of managing their people; adjusting their incentives, benefits, and culture to better match the emerging workforce.

Employee Engagement For The New Generation

The way your employees view their company values, leadership, and their own part within the organization is changing rapidly. In 10 years, Millennials will likely make up 75% of the workforce. Gen Y will begin to take higher-level positions as they advance their professional careers, bringing a host of new challenges for companies to adapt to.

There’s no doubt that today’s business landscape is changing rapidly. Now is the time for organizations to consider changing their culture to support their younger team members, or risk losing them to the more forward-thinking competition.

With that in mind, below are 3 key considerations for building a company culture that engages and supports the millennial generation:

1. Embrace Social Responsibility

According to a 2012 report by Net Impact, 72% of university students surveyed said they valued a job that makes a social impact over wealth, prestige and having children. This is in stark contrast to 53% of today’s workers, illustrating a growing focus on values over compensation.

Younger generations aren’t the only ones focused on social impact, though. According to Net Impact, “the majority of all generations agree that they have a personal responsibility to make things better for society, rather than leaving it to others.”

While Gen X and Boomers tend to separate their career from their civic contributions by volunteering and contributing outside of work, Millennials want these values integrated into the work they do every day. The majority wants to know that their employer’s corporate responsibility behavior reflects their own.

Organizations looking to retain employees should consider the impact they make outside of their office walls, and how they can engage their team members to contribute.

2. Engage employees in your company story.

Transparency has become a buzzword in the way organizations do business today. But, for companies like Buffer that take it seriously, building a culture of transparency is more than a buzzword. It’s about trust, and teamwork.

The idea of hiding behind the boardroom walls to make top-down leadership decisions is becoming more unpopular as employee engagement becomes a priority.

This yearning for more transparency in the workplace may be a result of their lack of personal privacy outside of work. Millennials are continuously hooked into a world of transparent communication online, following real-time news, trends, and status updates from their peers. It signifies a level of trust for them that isn’t shared by generations of the past.

Millennial employees want to stay informed of the direction of the company. They want to feel valued by the company and empowered to help drive the organization’s strategic goals.

Engaging them in your company story helps infuse a sense of purpose and value in your team members. Whether it’s an overall culture of transparency or something else altogether, sharing your story with them allows them to embody that culture in the work they do every day.

3. Support their professional growth.

Multiple studies have suggested that Millennials are only planning to stay in their current role for an average of 3 years. Even today’s more senior employees have changed jobs an average of 11 times over the course of their professional lives according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The fact is, you can no longer expect your best employees to stay with you forever, and it’s up to you to decide how mutually beneficial you want to make the time you have with them.

Investing in your team through professional growth opportunities is an investment in your business. It helps them grow their portfolio of skills and accreditations that they will apply to their role within your company.

And, they may even stick around longer than you thought. While there are many factors that contribute to employee retention, a lack of advancement opportunities is a big reason why employees decide to leave.

Give them opportunities for professional development, both internally and externally, and your employees will ultimately stay more engaged in their current role.

Looking Toward The Future

As your company’s senior executives begin to retire out of the workforce, and a surge of younger generations begin to take their place, organizations must begin to make employee engagement a priority.

The emerging workforce is entrepreneurial, cause-oriented, and more digitally connected than ever before. All of these studies and stats should tell you one thing: Your employees are now thinking far beyond their cubicle.

It’s clear that we are at a pivotal time in the way work gets done. As a leader, you can fight against it, or you can begin to make the necessary changes to your company culture to help your best employees stay active and engaged in a meaningful way.

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1. Your organization’s culture will impact what kind of talent you attract.

Policies for employees are a critical part of your organizational culture, or “the way we do things around here.” For example, guidelines like a minimum vacation allowance rather than a maximum limit, the frequency and energy at organizational happy hours, and the expectations around working hours might attract younger employees. Conversely, policies such as paternity leave, stock options, retirement contributions and a set 9-5 schedule will likely attract an older demographic.

2. This culture you created and the talent you attracted will also impact how you onboard them. If the culture values innovation, trial and error and is moving quickly, and then the onboarding process might involve some shadowing of a colleague, personalized coaching and meeting with some more tenured colleagues for learning about a deeper sense of organizational mission, history, and values. However, if the culture values structure, hierarchical process, consistency and might be in a less of a hurry, a more formal, standardized onboarding process could be necessary to make sure that the new employee will be perform consistently and with clear expectations.

It’s crucial to remember that no culture is necessarily “better” or “worse” nor is there a “better” or “worse” approach to talent management or training. What is critical, however, is to ensure that your organizational culture and onboarding is intentionally designed in such a way to attract and train the talent you need to be successful as an organization. This alignment between culture and talent and training is one often overlooked piece of the puzzle in achieving your organization’s mission and well worth a close look.

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