Recruitment and employee retention has changed dramatically in recent years. Gary Notley explains how organisations can meet the needs of Millennial and Gen Z professionals
Gauging what younger professionals really want and aligning the needs of Gen Z and Millennial candidates to the strategic and operational needs of your organisation can be challenging, but there is also great opportunity.
Skills and labour shortages will be among the top challenges facing business leaders in the 12 months ahead, according to the 2022 CEO Priorities Survey, and we are still hearing about the ‘Great Resignation’, the term coined by US academic Anthony Klotz in May 2021.
Although challenging, however, the recruitment outlook for employers also holds opportunity, and a chance to turn the ‘Great Resignation’ into the ‘Great Reimagination’ by rethinking how we work and respond to the expectations of younger professionals, including:
- Gen Z: Those born in the late 1990s and early 2000s; and
- Millennials: Those reaching young adulthood in the early 21st century.
Deloitte’s recent Millennial and Gen Z report identified four key attributes younger professionals look for in an employer.
1. Work-life balance
Fifty percent of the millennials and 33 percent of the Gen Z candidates in the Deloitte report identified work-life balance as their main priority when considering an organisation’s offering. In fact, 25 percent of millennials left their organisations in 2022 because of burnout.
Here are practical steps organisations can take to create a positive work-life balance:
- Have a clear and transparent culture with policies in place to help employees to switch off outside work hours;
- Leaders also need to ‘walk the talk’ by role modelling what good work-life balance looks like, and openly advocate the importance of getting this balance right;
- Leadership must listen to their employees and understand their challenges and needs when it comes to work-life balance. This will help them to evaluate and redesign key processes in the organisation to help improve the employee experience;
- Analyse the frequency and nature of repetitive tasks and identify those that can be automated, consolidated or reduced in frequency.
2. Flexible working
The high demand for flexible working has been driven by several factors, including the rising cost of living.
With less than a quarter of those surveyed believing that the overall economic situation will improve over the next 12 months, this remains a concern for workers and organisations looking at people retention.
Most Gen Zs (75%) and Millennials (77%) said they prefer hybrid or fully remote work, but less than half currently have these options. Organisations can support employees here by:
- moving to hybrid working and introducing digital tools to ensure that employees have access to appropriate support structures;
- offering competitive benefits that can help alleviate the cost of living; and
- focusing on base pay increments as opposed to providing optional benefits to employees.
3. Mental health
Nearly half of Gen Z respondents say they feel stressed all or most of the time. While they acknowledge that their employers are now more focused on workplace wellbeing and mental health, many do not believe this has resulted in any meaningful change for employees. Organisations can help employees by:
- fostering a culture of openness to encouraging employees to share their concerns so they can be provided with the appropriate support;
- offering mental health assistance and wellbeing programmes and enabling transparent communication; and
- creating new work opportunities for existing workers, helping them to identify learning and development initiatives and supporting career progression.
4. Climate action
Over 90 percent of all Millennial and Gen Z respondents globally are now actively trying to curb climate change by making positive choices.
In the near term, they are focused on small, everyday actions, but longer term, they see themselves increasing their civic engagement and bringing sustainability into larger purchasing decisions.
Just 18 percent of Gen Zs and 16 percent of Millennials believe employers are meaningfully committed to the climate change cause. Gen Zs and Millennials in Ireland feel their organisations can do more, such as:
- banning single-use plastic products at work/office locations;
- committing to net-zero within the next decade;
- offering sustainability-orientated employee benefits; and
- renovating office locations to be greener.
Today’s upheaval is challenging, without a doubt, but there is also an opportunity for leaders to reimagine their workforce, what the workplace means, and how work can be done. With the right approach, this could bring positive change that delivers long term value.
Gary Notley is Director for Human Capital Consulting at Deloitte Ireland