LiquidAgents Healthcare: 'Millennials Award' winner for suppliers

The workplace is experienced differently at different stages of life. For many young people, those in their 20s and early 30s, it's not just where they spend part of their day until they can go home to family or meet friends. Many are single—and co-workers can sometimes be that family. The workplace often supplies their social and support network.

Senior leaders at nurse staffing firm LiquidAgents Healthcare don't just allow that kind of work-family atmosphere, they encourage it, from arranging post-work happy hours to outings such as baseball games and bowling tournaments, and the occasional beer cart Friday. Those types of simple social opportunities can make the difference between being a fulfilling place where young people want to do good work and places that end up being just a rung on a ladder.

The Plano, Texas-based firm is the winner of the inaugural Millennials Award for suppliers, which recognizes employers with significant numbers of millennials on staff who are highly engaged in the company. LiquidAgents is No. 22 on this year's ranking of the Best Places to Work in Healthcare for 2016.

“A lot of people hang out together after work, and it helps us to build and maintain relationships,” said Mallory Hatten, the company's marketing manager who is a millennial herself. The after-work time together fosters a sense of teamwork that motivates employees to do well, she said.

Believing in the team isn't the only thing that motivates young people. And the opportunity for career advancement and making more money is something else LiquidAgents can tout. The company offers employees the chance to make hundreds of dollars a month in commissions and incentives, and they can take on new roles and responsibilities as they learn on the job. That means even the youngest, less-tenured workers have paths to advancement.

“They really do have control over how quickly they move up the ladder,” Hatten said.