In August, a Swiss town experienced "chocolate snow" with a malfunctioning ventilation system at the local chocolate factory. Having chocolate falling from the skies could lure some potential employees into a community. However, you may want to consider some more practical options to engage your Gen Z employees (those born 1996-2015).
Yesterday, we discussed Gen Zers as business customers . Today , we discuss how to engage Gen Zers for recruitment and employee retention.
Already a force to be reckoned with, they currently account for 68MM US adults. By 2025, these young people will represent one in five workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Here's how to engage Gen Z employees:
- Offer learning opportunities. Digital-native GenZers do not care about free sodas, game tables, and similar types of perks; they want education opportunities that can advance their career. So, consider how to train and educate these employees, including online videos or other digital platforms. Mentoring through video-conferencing platforms can engage younger users. Similarly, self-development and immersive training offer industry-specific guidance, alongside more general career advice.
- Allow them to help develop digital. Online banking has become the norm and mobile banking is rapidly growing, creating new opportunities. CFIs can leverage the fact that GenZers not only understand, but are fully inculcated in these platforms. Many GenZ workers want to participate in real-time development wherever they can. Further, 77% of GenZers are willing to be technology mentors to colleagues, according to a Dell Technologies survey. Give GenZers the chance to do what they do best -- digital application, implementation, and training.
- Offer upward mobility for high-fliers. Unlike their predecessors, many (if not most) GenZers not only seek financial stability, but also expect faster upward mobility in their careers if they put the effort in. (Case in point: 76% of Gen Z graduates expect to be promoted within a year of their first job, while only 40% of millennials expect the same timeline.) If there are professionals rising to the challenge, CFIs will benefit from the results of providing them with a development path.
- Appeal to their sense of control and stability. Roughly two-thirds of Gen Zers said that they value knowing what is going on around them and being in control, according to a McKinsey report. With this in mind, provide information regularly and give them clear directions and goals to help them feel in control. Further, they generally value saving money and keeping a stable job over trying to find a potential unicorn. Showing this at an early age, 42% of Gen Zers from 17-23Ys have already found full- or part-time employment.
Gen Z is becoming a force to be reckoned with, as both business customers and employees. We hope our two articles on this generation help you to gain and retain them as valuable customers and employees.
