By Dr. Pari Namazie and Dr. Finn Majlergaard

25 April 2022

“What makes you attractive enough to the next generation of employees?”

This was the central question around our recent Think Tank business webinar, in collaboration with Gugin, that revealed more about the new and disruptive generations soon to be our key employee base.

One of the consequences of the pandemic has been the recent Great Resignation wave and the subsequent talent crisis. Organisations now need to change their culture and processes to retain Millennials and attract Gen Z as the ongoing quitting spree of young talent signals dissatisfaction and a lack of met needs by employers.

On a quest to learn what organisations need to rethink to get the upper-hand on the employee market, we gathered our key learnings from the webinar with a circle of business leaders for you.

Key Needs and Expectations of Millennials and Gen Z

While Millennials (1980 to 1994) are already expected to comprise up to 75% of the workforce by 2025 (Purdue University), Gen Z (1995 onwards) are just now beginning to transition from school and university environments to the job market. 

Deemed the “purpose generations”, both are highly driven by the goal of leaving an impact or working for organisations that want to contribute positively in the world — 39% of Millennials and up to 60% of Gen Z (Glassdoor). As such, Gen Z plays the leading role in purpose-driven workplaces. A large study by the Lovell Corporation of more than 2000 Gen Z respondents found that this particular generation prioritises purpose and meaning over work itself (Huffpost). 

When it comes to motivation, Millennials have little to no patience for stagnation, especially in their careers, while Gen Z like to partake in various roles within an organisation in order to flex their on-demand learning muscle. 

These two generations are also the most mobile participants in the workforce. They tend to be more technologically savvy and are thus in a better position to take advantage of remote work opportunities, which they actively seek and expect. This is also directly linked to their focus on work-life balance. 

On top of this, these generations are the most ethnically and racially diverse so far. This is especially true in ageing Europe, where a large portion of the workforce are young immigrant talent. What is more, specifically Gen Z views on gender and identity are unprecedented and untraditional: they refuse to turn ethnicity and race into checkboxes on a survey form, for instance.

The future is a purpose-driven, tech-savvy and completely unorthodox new workforce that demands inclusivity and flexibility — the next question is, how can your organisation re-model its culture and activities to fit the workforce reconfiguration? What environment can you create to ensure the needs of the new generation are met?

7 Best Practices to Attract and Retain the New Generation

Below are some key takeaways from our discussions and research with leaders:

1. Focus on being a purpose-driven organisation with meaningful work. Dig deeper into the values your organisation stands for and the way it emits them through all work-related activities. Remember, the new generation demands you to stand for something worthwhile and cultivate a meaningful work environment. Start discovering, clarifying, and aligning your purpose — one that is worth committing to.
2. Implement Diversity & Inclusion (D&I). Inclusion is one of the core values the new generation expects you to defend. Ethnical, age, racial, religious diversity and that in identity and sexuality are needed to be taken seriously, but not as just words or in the form of tokenism. We have noticed that real D&I steps are critical factors Gen Z considers when deciding whether or not to join your organisation.
3. Offer Flexible Work Environment (FWE) option for your employees. FWEs are the top priority for Gen Z (62%) and Millennials (60%), compared with 47% of baby boomers (CBNC, 2021). Powered by the COVID19 crisis that resulted in over-night online work forms, the new generation seeks to establish online and hybrid work as a future work norm. Some companies report the challenge of coming back to the office. Ask yourself and your employees, “What is the right balance between working from home and working from the office?”, “How much presence is truly needed for each role?”. Trust plays a key role here as well.
4. Make wellbeing a priority and part of your talent strategy. Above all, the young generation wants an employer who cares about their wellbeing. This includes physical and mental health, but also social and financial wellbeing as identified by Gallup.
   What systems have you put in place to support wellbeing in your organisation? This could include offering counselling access, training managers in mental health awareness, sessions on mindfulness and dealing with mental health issues to help break the stigma. But it also means to reevaluate the core of your work to avoid toxic elements from the start. Is workload distributed evenly? Are your employees clear about their roles and deliverables? Do you have a healthy corporate culture?
5. Employ new talent platforms and contracts. Seek for an adequate mix of full-time jobs, managed services, freelancers, gig workers, and crowds for your organisation. Latticed career paths and multiple work formats are becoming essential. The new generation is no longer interested in the traditional hierarchical career progression in an organisation.
6. Personalise job roles and tasks to employee skills and strengths. Don’t match a job with talent. Match the talent with a job. Research shows that many jobs feel stressful, meaningless, and unlikable. What keeps young talent engaged, however, is taking advantage of their unique skills and passions, and redesigning work around them. Rethink how you hire, retain and develop talent. As they seek to develop a variety of different skills and competencies, you may want to invest in developing employee profiles, establishing internal apprenticeship programmes, job crafting and setting up internal marketplaces to match projects with needed skill sets
7. Utilise technology in all necessary processes. The need for digital transformation and tech savvy organisations is at its highest so far, parallel to technological advancements this generation grew up with. FWE and avoiding the struggle of mundane tasks are now crucial needs. What tasks can be automated in your workplace? What communication channels and platforms can you use to better the overall business processes and activities? Educate the workforce and make them digitally savvy.
   

   Examples How Companies Are Attracting the New Generation

   Some examples of companies that are already taking steps to welcome the new organisation are:

   • Tesla and SpaceX are companies that embody the desired workplace of a new generation. Some of the examples of how Musk innovates the purpose-driven organisational culture by aiming to create an increase in STEM jobs, setting up apprenticeship pipelines, the Performance Acceleration programme that urges young talent to always try something new, and investing in sustainability.
   • Lunchclub is another great and perhaps a more radical example. As a tech startup that chose to keep their workforce remote, they completely ditched the office and instead invested in employee bonding trips. 
   • Similarly, Salesforce set out to build a 75-acre wellness retreat for its employees, with the Wall Street Journal deeming it the “tech company’s new corporate-culture epicentre”.   
   • EUNEPA also sets out to create an effective multi-generational work environment. We employ based on the potential of young talent by not developing job descriptions, but rather seeking out talent that would fit our team, and then creating a collection of tasks directly relevant to the skills and interests of the talent. Learning at EUNEPA is also constant, with all three generations — from Gen X to Millennials and Gen Z — working in harmony to mentor and develop competencies of our youngest members, while simultaneously giving space to learnings from the new generation. 

    

   There is no telling of how long the change process will take, and it is highly dependent on your business model, company’s capacity, current culture, values, and many other aspects. However, it rings true that you should start yesterday. Millennials already comprise a large number of the workforce, while Gen Z are in their internship, entry-level, and some even in management positions. Take a look at the six trends to becoming a purpose-led organisation that can attract and retain the new generation. 

   How ready is your organisation for the new generation and what are the steps you can take today to start the change?

Dr. Pari Namazie

Pari is the Managing Partner of EUNEPA. She is a global executive coach, consultant and facilitator with over 25 years of experience. She works as a trusted advisor to leaders, teams and organisations in the fields of leadership, team development, strategy and organisational improvement. Read more

Dr. Finn Majlergaard

Finn founded Gugin in 2001 and specialises in helping companies worldwide develop winning corporate cultures through consulting, leadership training and continued research. He is also a professor, executive Educator, author, award-winning keynote speaker and entrepreneur. Read more