While it’s often foolhardy to put labels on entire groups of people, I think it’s safe to place a few on Millennials. They're confident. They prize individuality. They're tolerant and progressive. They value self-expression and openness. Millennials don’t just embrace change, they want to be part of making it happen.

Over the last ten years, I’ve hired and worked alongside dozens of Millennials. In the media, they’re often disparaged as entitled and lazy, but virtually every experience I’ve had working with them has been exhilarating. They’re some of the brightest, most ambitious, creative and energetic people I know.

While I used to treat each one as they came, now that I work in the world of talent acquisition for Alexander Mann Solutions, I’ve stepped back a bit and thought more about how organizations can effectively attract and retain this demographic du jour.

Here are a few of my observations:

• Opportunity trumps compensation: One of the most common traits of this generation is its short attention span. Whether this is caused by the proliferation of media and other distractions—as well as the devices to consume them—I don’t know, nor do I care. But it's having profound implications for the workplace. If Millennials feel like they’re being held back or they don’t see real opportunities for growth on the horizon, they’ll move on. A 2011 PricewaterhouseCoopers study found that 44% of millennials said they joined an employer because they were motivated by salary, but 52% said that growth opportunities were more important to them. This is a positive for employers, because it fosters a culture of innovation and  continuous improvement, and it provides employees with a steady flow of challenges that keep them engaged.  

• They have to buy into your brand: Most Millennials are still idealists (and let’s hope that never changes). They want to work for companies they believe in and that reflect their own values. But if you’re not developing iWatches or electric cars, don’t despair. Companies in relatively staid industries--—including insurance firms like USAA and Aflac— are among the100 Best Workplaces for Millennials. Deloitte’s fourth annual Millennial Survey revealed that 60% of Millennials said a “sense of purpose,” was part of the reason they accepted a job at their current employers. Yes, that purpose might be developing cool products, but it could also mean a corporate ethos that encourages things like sustainability, creativity, trustworthiness, and a commitment to community. Authenticity is key, but if this sense of purpose is real, Millennials won’t just be great employees—they’ll be enthusiastic brand ambassadors.

• Your leadership culture must be aligned. It’s a cliché, but true: people generally leave bosses, not companies. If you want to retain Millennials, you need your leaders—their leaders—to support the strategy. Today’s young workers are much keener than previous generations to take on challenges that give them a seat at the big table earlier in their careers. They want to be trusted and respected. And that means they work best under managers who have vision, who think big-picture, and inspire their employees to challenge conventions alongside them, not as subordinates.

• Make the world their oyster. Internal mobility can go a long way to attracting and retaining today’s young professionals. If you build a work culture that enables employees to rotate between assignments more easily, you can give Millennials the kind of flexibility and variety they crave.

• … Literally. More than any other generation, Millennials see international assignments as essential to their professional growth. The PwC survey cited earlier also found that 71% of them expect to do an overseas assignment during their career. Companies can facilitate this wanderlust with an open, transparent approach to filling international openings. Communicating this opportunity as part of an employer brand can go a long way to attracting and retaining young professionals.

• Real-time feedback. There’s been a lot of talk in recent months about the death of the annual performance review. Professional services firms like Accenture and Deloitte made headlines when they announced that they would introduce more fluid, ongoing appraisal schemes. But it’s actually not a new phenomenon. Adobe killed annual reviews altogether in 2012 when it noticed a rush of employees leaving right after their yearly performance conversations. In my view, this is a healthy evolution for all workers, but especially Millennials, who see annual reviews—even semi-annual reviews—as too infrequent. They want constant feedback. They want to be rewarded for taking smart risks, and they want ongoing mentorship.

• Embrace digital. If your website delivers an awful user experience, or your social media presence looks like an afterthought, you’ll have a hard time convincing Millennials that you’re the kind of progressive company they want to work for. In 2013, University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and th... that 64% of Millennials will ask a company about its Facebook policy during a job interview—and 24% said it would be a factor in their decision whether or not to take a job.

To borrow a phrase which I suspect certifies me as an old fogy (and if it doesn’t, my use of ‘old fogy’ should do the trick), my overarching piece of advice is this: keep it real. Pool tables and massages are nice perks for any company to offer, but if your corporate culture and day-to-day work environment fail to meet the expectations of younger workers, they’ll soon abandon ship.  Your strategy must be authentic, and it must be supported and implemented up, down, and across your entire organization. Because Millennials see through facades quicker than most.