Here is the full text and audio of Andrei Adam’s talk titled “3 Ways To Retain Your Gen Z Employee” at TEDxMcGill conference.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrei Adam – Co-President, JED Consulting
Move over, Millennials. There’s a new generation in first place. Now, I’m not talking about who’s most likely to visit Chipotle or be on Instagram, though I’m sure this generation wins at that too.
No, I’m talking about the generation least likely to spend time with one employer before leaving their jobs: Generation Z. Defined as those born between 1997 and 2012, Gen Z began entering the workforce in 2019. Within the next decade, they’ll represent almost a third of all employees in North America. And as it stands right now, they won’t be sticking around with any one employer for too long.
Whereas the average tenure of a baby boomer was over eight years, that of a Gen Z employee is just two. That’s a third lower than even Millennials, who are known as the job hopping generation. This high turnover poses challenges for business. While hiring young talent has always been expensive, in an extremely tight labor market and in a country with low population growth rates, the cost of losing your top young talent is even higher. It doesn’t need to be this way, though.
Studies show that under the right conditions, a majority of Gen Z employees would be willing to work at any one company for five years or longer. It’s not that Gen Z can’t be retained. It’s that employment experiences are falling short of what Gen Z needs to want to stick around.
So what do those right conditions look like? As someone who co-manages Canada’s largest Gen Z, an undergraduate consulting firm, this is a question my team and I have asked thousands of university students and recent graduates across the country over the past year to figure out the answer to.
A lot of what we heard probably wouldn’t surprise you. Organizations that pay their employees well, treat them fairly, and make them feel like they’re making a difference retain Gen Z talent just as well as they retain workers of past generations.
In our conversations, though, there were certain themes that appeared time and time again that were more exclusive to the Gen Z cohort. Three themes, to be exact.
Today, I want to share with you what those three themes are based on our research, along with strategies they can be implemented so that eventually people like me are excited to work at companies like yours. The first theme is flexibility. Organizations that give their young employees the freedom to work in whatever way they work best are most likely to retain their Gen Z talent.
While the pandemic took away something from each of us, it also exposed us to a new way of work people hadn’t thought of before. With their digital savviness, adaptability, and still in their formative years, Gen Z leveraged this to discover in what ways they work best.
While to some that meant that figuring out that the traditional way of work is what’s best for them, almost every Gen Z says they developed new habits during the pandemic that enable higher productivity or better work-life balance. Going forward, Gen Z says they want to retain as many of these new healthy habits they developed, and the organizations that let them do so will win them over.
In practice, this flexibility can take more than one form. The most obvious is giving flexibility to young employees over where they work, whether in the office, at home, or anywhere else in the world. In fact, we find that 90% of Gen Z employees expect their employer to give them the option to work hybrid, and if forced to work in any one way, whether fully in person or fully online, a majority say that’s reason enough to consider quitting or reject an offer from that company in the first place.
But flexibility goes beyond where people work. It’s also when they begin their work day. We find that 9 in 10 young employees would prefer to have a window of time they can begin work in the morning, and 45% say they would be willing to work longer hours if that meant being able to choose their start time.
Personally, during the pandemic, I discovered that I work at my best when my work day starts past 9. It’s not that I can’t wake up for an 8.30 a.m. meeting, it’s just that I’m a lot more tired, sluggish, and unhappy if I do. As such, I’d be more than willing to work 30, 40, even 60 minutes longer some day if I can get my morning sleep. That’s just something I value.
The last form of flexibility I’ll mention is giving employees more control over when they don’t work by providing the option and creating a culture where shorter, more frequent periods of time off can be taken. Sleep in mornings, early evening log-offs, and mental health breaks throughout the day were something that Gen Z got accustomed to during the pandemic and can continue to be powerful tools to re-energize, boost productivity, and lower burnout going forward.
In fact, we find that being encouraged to take these shorter periods of time off is equally preferred, if not more preferred, to a four-day work week. The flexibility and control it provides over people’s daily schedules is just that valuable.
Regardless of how it’s done, though, organizations that trust their young employees to choose how they work at their best and cede some control over where, when, and when they don’t work see not only a jump in Gen Z employee retention, but worker happiness and health too.
But flexibility in itself isn’t enough. Organizations need to pay attention to their office too. And that brings us to the second theme. Probably the biggest irony of Gen Z that we found is that while a majority would only work for companies that give them the option to work hybrid, almost every Gen Z employee says they’d be willing to work in person four or five days a week.
In fact, most young people say they recognize the value the office provides in developing work relationships and an office culture, both of which are important to Gen Z talent retention.
Why is it then that so many young people are asking and choosing to work remotely?
Sure, part of the reason is that remote work has advantages, but it’s mainly that the office as it is today isn’t that appealing. And that makes many young people want to work remotely.
Rather than taking the option of working remotely away, or worse yet, giving up completely on bringing people together, organizations that focus on improving the value of the office and the in-person experience make young people more willing to come in person and see a huge jump in employee retention.
It just makes sense. If you want people to pick an option, make that option better. Fortunately, creating an office that people are excited to come into doesn’t require installing bowling alleys or game rooms. No. There’s just one simple change that can increase the number of young people willing to come in person four or five days a week from 35% to 70%: offering free food.
I know it might sound silly, but stick with me. Going through the hassle of planning your meals, buying groceries, packing a lunch, bring it to the office, only to run the risk that you brought too much food or too little is a headache. The alternative, buying your lunch is expensive and isn’t always an option. In either case, the time, the money, or the hassle spent figuring out how to feed yourself in the office, something that isn’t as big of a challenge as home, deters people from coming into the first place.
With food offered, this calculus is changed. And young people say they’re the first who are willing to change their behavior and commute to the office if coming in meant being able to save some time and money on food.
We find that the benefits of food increase with the more that’s offered. Sure, coffee is a start, but some organizations have begun filling their fridges with juice, their pantry with snacks, catering lunch, bringing in food trucks to the office, or even offering young employees Uber Eats gift cards if they come to the office and stick around until a certain time.
I know some of you may be rolling your eyes when thinking of catering to Gen Z employees in this way, but if $20 spent on food can double the number of young people willing to come in person and increase the length of time they’re willing to stay, that might be a worthwhile investment.
Of course, making an office people love and are excited to come into doesn’t just require food. Another way is to give young employees their own dedicated space. To many young people, one of the worst feelings is coming into the office and seeing someone in your spot, forcing you to sit away from your work friends. It’s no wonder then that 9 in 10 Gen Z employees say they would rather have assigned seating, usually beside other interns or recent graduates, rather than an unassigned seating model.
A last way to create an office people love coming into that I’ll mention is to have in-person social events. Gen Z says the office is social. Almost everyone would be willing to come in on days there was a team bonding event at work. I mean, who wouldn’t want to have a chance to shoot their co-worker at laser tag or grab a drink with your boss?
Most excitingly, the benefits of in-person bonding last well after the day they’re held, as the number of young employees coming into the office stays elevated as they look to further the relationships they formed.
Regardless of how it’s done though, organizations that focus on improving the value of the office and giving people a reason to come in, not only see a huge jump in employee retention, but in the number of people willingly coming to the office.
But loving how you work and where you work isn’t enough. It’s just two pieces of the puzzle. The third and final theme to Gen Z employee retention is to show them a way to grow within the company they’re at. That brings us to our third theme.
To many university students and recent graduates, a job isn’t something anymore that’s meant to provide security for life. Having grown up in a world where everything feels like it’s at their fingertips, Gen Z sees a job as a stepping stone to the next opportunity or a means to achieving their greater ambitions.
Whether it be to manage a large team, earn a certain amount of money, or make a bigger difference on the societal issues that matter to them, Gen Z say they’re willing to part ways with an employer if it means getting where they want to go quicker. If organizations want to retain their top young talent, they need to convince them that staying is the best way to grow towards and achieve their ambitions.
Leaders that recognize this and seek to understand the ambitions of their young employees, create a tailored plan to achieve them, and update that plan over time are the ones young people say they want to work for. Some organizations have gone as far as hiring professional development leaders and pairing Gen Z employees with them to personalize their trainings, connections, and projects.
Fortunately, most organizations don’t need to go that far, and there’s some simple yet cost effective tools that most organizations can use to make young employees feel like they’re on the right track. The first is a mentorship program that’s both vertical and lateral, pairing young employees with someone more senior in the firm and someone in their role who has been around for longer.
This dual mentor-buddy system enables young people to have a development-first relationship with their mentor, while that buddy acts as the first friend, helping with firm integration and fielding questions less appropriate to ask a mentor.
Another way is to communicate promotion criteria clearly. When Gen Z feels uninformed about either the promotion criteria used to decide on who gets promoted, or rough timelines when they can expect to move up within the firm, they begin to seek growth externally.
Informed employees are more likely to stick around. The highest impact way, though, that organizations can make young people feel like they’re on the right track is to show them that the work they do at your organization matters. Step back once in a while to show them the bigger picture of how their work fits together towards a bigger vision or goal. Give them time to work on passion projects that are of interest to them and of value to the firm. Or go out in the community every once in a while and do some good together as a team.
Regardless of how it’s done, though, organizations that show their young employees that sticking around is the best way to grow and achieve their ambitions are the ones Gen Z say they want to work for. So there you have it.
The three themes to employee retention: Focusing in on the office, flexibility, and growth. While I may have talked about a range of different strategies to do so, they all seek to answer the three big questions any manager or leader of Gen Z employees should ask themselves if they want to retain their top young talent.
If there’s anything you remember from my talk today, let it be these three questions that leaders should ask themselves. The first, how can I provide my young employees with the flexibility they need to work at their best?
The second, how can I create an office and an in-person experience that young employees are excited to take part in?
And the third, how can I provide my young employees the tools they need to achieve their ambitions?
While each group of young people may answer these questions differently, it’s on leaders to figure out the answers that work best for their organization.
Of course, I recognize that at times in the past, or maybe even during this speech, retaining Gen Z has felt too demanding. But I’m here to tell you it’s possible. At the end of the day, it’s the organizations that talk to, listen, and seek to respond to their young employees best that will win the battle for talent retention and remain relevant over the next decade.
In the process, we might not just increase Gen Z talent retention, but actually create an office people are excited to come into, habits that are healthy for employees, and organizations that people like me truly love working for. And I think that’s something worth fighting for.
