Northwestern Mutual is embracing several aspects of the millennial culture and reaping the benefits, according officials with the life insurance company.

Brian Cox, managing director of Northwestern Mutual’s Wilmington office, says that in many ways, hires from the age cohort – defined generally as being between 20 and 30 – are ideal additions to the firm.

“We’ve faced some challenges in incorporating technology; they don’t have that. Technology is such a relevant piece of what they do, including helping their ability to network and get referred to others in the community,” he said. “I’m 38, and we have some financial representatives who are 60 or older. We don’t have a ton of training [in social media networking]. But the millennials have connections in the community through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.”

Cox said that millennials also have internalized financial lessons from the Great Recession.

“They saw what was happening to their parents, and so they want to have a plan, to be more conservative,” he said. “They are able to call on the 20- to 30-year-olds, who are willing to listen.”

And while some get upset about such phenomena as so-called helicopter parents of the generation, Northwestern Mutual has decided to enjoy the resulting breeze.

“You’d be amazed at the turnout of parents we get,” Cox said, describing the firm’s yearly events for employees. “Instead of fighting it, we decided to incorporate it into the way we do business at Northwestern Mutual. It’s a higher level of engagement: lots of support, mentoring and teaming. This [millennial] group: they like an environment of support as they are starting out.”

And, he added, a solid start pays dividends for the firm. New financial reps who get through the first five years at Northwestern Mutual often have a successful 40-year career there.
“Our retention rate after five years is 95 percent,” Cox said.

Northwestern Mutual attracts young people through its internship program, which is highly ranked by career-search company Vault. And a number of those interns are invited to return after graduation.

“We have a high conversion rate: 30 percent,” Cox said. “Since January of this year we’ve hired nine millennials as interns and six as full-time financial representatives.”