Unlocking 5 "Must Haves" in order to Motivate and Retain Gen Z and Millennials (Episode 138)

Ever wondered why that bright-eyed, tech-savvy new hire just up and left for seemingly no reason? What if we told you that understanding, recruiting, and motivating GenZ and Millennials could be the game-changer in reducing the staggering costs of turnover? Join us in a dynamic conversation with Dr. Jason Wiggins, as we uncover the 'Shared Fire Five Ways' to engage these generations proficient in the digital world. We'll delve into the importance of clear, honest communication and how these direct interactions can play a vital role in boosting employee retention.

But we don't stop there! As we switch gears into the next segment, we pick Dr. Wiggins' brain on how to level-up the compensation and work environment for the GenZ and Millennials. Are you ready to transform your workspace into a hub of creativity and engagement that these younger generations will love? Prepare to take notes as we navigate the intricate dynamics of balancing digitization, flexible work arrangements and work-life balance. From fostering a culture that encourages engagement activities to promoting a healthy work-life balance, this episode is a must-listen for anyone navigating the evolving workforce landscape.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Hello friends, welcome to the GenZ and Millennial Expert podcast. My name is Dr Jason Wiggins and we have a great and exciting podcast lined up for today. Today, the main focus is the Shared Fire Five Ways to recruiting and motivating GenZ and Millennials in the workforce. There are five ways, and all of these five ways need to be met. And they need to be met because if you don't meet all five, then you're going to lose the interest of the potential and current employee that you have when you don't meet these.

Speaker 1: 1:01

What I want to make sure I instill initially is the importance that we understand that the workforce is made up of. Today, as we know, genz is the newest workforce that has come into the market, but besides them we have Millennials as the largest current workforce. Individuals what I mean by that is 80 million within the United States make up the Millennial workforce. Mostly, 76% make up the GenX and 70% of the current workforce. 70 million percent of the current workforce make up the baby boomers and, of course, the baby boomers workforce is decreasing while the GenZ workforce is increasing. Here's a key point I want to make sure that I note here.

Speaker 1: 2:13

The cost of turnover can be upwards of a minimum of 30% of an individual salary, up to 250% recruiting cost of a salary. Therefore, if somebody makes $100,000. The recruitment cost to retain that individual or will lose that individual would be $30,000. Now, if that was 250%, it could cost you upwards of $250,000 to replace an individual. What does that mean? You're replacing the knowledge. You're having to replace all of the abilities maybe they were key figures within the organization and you're losing all of that knowledge, plus to recruit, the cost, plus to recruiters and all of these individuals that make up part of that recruitment cost. But you're losing culture, you're losing certain aspects of that. And then 73% of managers are concerned about losing Gen Z and Millennial employees. Think about that. That is a main concern for leaders within our organizations and Gen Z and Millennial desire new jobs roughly every 12, 24 months and 91% of the same individuals will work less with an organization less than three years will work for an organization less than three years.

Speaker 1: 4:02

So that's why today we're going to talk about the five sure ways of being able to recruit, maintain and motivate Gen Z and Millennial within the workforce, and we're going to go one by one. And the first one is talk till you drop. The second one is digitize. The third one is let them work how they work. The fourth is employee engagement and work satisfaction and, last but not least, let the creativity lie. These five, these five ways, will help businesses, will help Gen Z and Millenials understand how they want to work in the workforce, what their values are.

Speaker 1: 5:09

So, as we talk about it, communication, talk till you drop. What does that exactly mean? Well, the one concern for Gen Z and Millenials is the lack of communication by the organization. They've seen or experienced or heard of organizations with baby boomers losing their jobs after being with companies for 25, 30 years and then just losing their jobs. So they saw that these organizations were not loyal to them. And same thing with Generation X. Generation X experienced firsthand what happened with their parents. They saw that the loyalty was rushed to the side and so they started being the first of the job hoppers. And that was the reason why Millenials, and now Gen Z, are also notating those same kind of scenarios and are following the footsteps of Generation X. So, as leaders, as HR, hiring professionals, communication is going to be a key.

Speaker 1: 6:37

Now, what kind of communication is it? Is it where we go? Well, we kind of fudge it a little bit, and you don't want to hurt their feelings. Well, that's where most of the individuals are wrong. Most individuals believe that millennials or Gen Z want to hear a watered-down version of the message, but that's not the case. The reality is in. The studies have shown that Gen Z and millennials want a direct message. They want to have a direct message firsthand. They want to experience the message and understand that. They have that loyalty and trust with the leader that is providing that message. Again, direct and honest feedback and understanding of the situation is what is desired by these individuals that are Gen Z and millennials. And so, when you're able to enhance the message, provide the feedback. Yes, constant feedback is something that is desired by both generations, because it's not only the what, and desire to understand what the company wants and what they expect from the employees of which are Gen Z and millennials.

Speaker 1: 8:20

They want to know how they can provide value to the organization, how they can be of help, how they can make sure that they are pushing the cause of the organization, having chances to be promoted, having the opportunities. And how does this occur? It occurs with communication. So number one is talk to you, drop. Let them know what they need to know with a direct message. The number two is digitizing. Digitizing means electronics, anything that can help advance the organization with whatever technology is available.

Speaker 1: 9:07

Gen Z and millennials are extremely savvy and they want to be able to utilize the most updates, updates, software programs to make their jobs easier, because they are experiencing technology on a daily basis. They want to use their computers, they want to use their Apple Watches, they want to use all of these different devices and software available so they can go ahead and make the job as easy as possible. Why? Because they're organized. They are an organized group that wants to experience the technology that will help them do their job better, help them be able to organize their daily lives with their work, and so digitizing is the number two. Let's think about this Going back to as early as Gen Z and Gen X and baby boomers.

Speaker 1: 10:16

They didn't have the ability to spend a lot of time utilizing computers. Gen X didn't start using computers probably until the early to mid 1980s, specifically with the first Apple computer that came out. There were some Commodores. There were some other computers that came out initially, but they were the first to experience that. But they were not tech savvy. But millennials and Gen Zs understand that in a company that believes in the value of technology, believes in the value of their employees, digitizing number two, number three, number three is a hot topic and still is today, even post COVID.

Speaker 1: 11:06

That is, the ways to work, how many different ways to work, the nine to five schedule, bankers' hours that's not what Gen Z and millennials want to hear. They want to understand how they can utilize their time in a way where they can get their work done, they can be efficient and, at the same time, have that work and life balance through hybrid and remote and hyperflex time work. That means, if you are an employer and you have the ability to organize your office space hybrid, remote and provide them the ability to work off hours, this is one way that will help retain and motivate the employees. And, as Gen Z and millennials, you're looking at this and this is great, because I can work my life around my work schedule, so I can work at night, I can work in the morning. The key thing is being able to get the amount of work done that is required by the organization.

Speaker 1: 12:30

But, with that said, you have to be able to understand the needs and desires as an employer, as an organization, as corporate America to ensure that there's tax time, remote, hybrid type of work, and we're not even talking about the benefits of vacation time and those things that are needed, or even voluntary time to pay them to volunteer. I know 30 years ago this seemed like a mute point, but now you have to think as an employer, as an organization. How can I minimize having 91% of the workforce of Gen Z and millennials quit prior to three years? Over three years would be considered a long time work environment and we have to do something as an organization. And Gen Z and millennials they desire to be able to work for an organization that values them. But to value them you have to show it as an organization, and that's finding hybrid and remote tax time opportunities.

Speaker 1: 13:46

Number four number four is employee engagement and work satisfaction, and you have to be able to inspire that internal motivation. So, number four employee engagement. Employee engagement is the ability to see and understand that the value that the employer is providing makes it a fun work environment where it shows that they care about the employees, millennials, gen Zs they want to know that an employer values the work that they do, values the input that they are working for, values the overall results. And how do they do this? By providing different activities of employee engagement. Voting engagement can be a plethora of ideas, a plethora of values. It can be huddles, it can be promicule Fridays. It can be anything that an organization is willing to do.

Speaker 1: 15:00

Go look at LinkedIn. Go look at organizations that value their employees. You will see all of these cool things that these employers are doing for their workforce and guarantee Gen Z millennials. They are on LinkedIn, they are all on social media sites and they are all looking for companies like yours that you need to see how you value your employees as they look at these jobs. That is why being able to maintain and motivate them is going to be crucial. They are looking at you. They are looking to see if you are leaders within the industry, if you are maximizing your employee engagement and you really do show that you care. Think of all of these social media sites or websites like Glassdoor, indeed. You can check out all of these different organizations and see how they are rated by their employees and if they are rated mediocre to low, that is going to resonate with the potential employees and even if they start working there and they start experiencing that same culture, they will likely leave, as the statistics show. Also, gen Z and millennials 60% of them are looking for other jobs while they are working after company. What does that tell you? What does that tell me? What does that tell corporate America? That states that there is something that is a mix that they are not happy with and it is more than likely one of these five scenarios that I am speaking of today.

Speaker 1: 17:06

We have talked about communication. We have talked about digitizing ways to work, employees engagement, inspiring that internal motivation. When you are talking about employee engagement, give them a reason to work. Number five let's do creativity. Five Let the creativity fly. Think about that. Think about what Google has done in the past and they still do is they provide one day a week where they let their employees work on whatever project that they would like to work on. They let them breathe their passion while they are at work.

Speaker 1: 17:52

Now, as organizations, we don't have to quite go that far, but we do need to show that creativity is allowed. We need to show that, just because the old work day was eight to five, nine to five, over 12 to 12 hours a day, whatever it may be, we have to understand as leaders, employees and corporate America that the hours that are worked need to be creative, need to have the ability to let them be creative within their ideas. Let them demonstrate what they know Maybe the idea is not perfect right now but provide the water for the seed to grow, to grow into a plant, into a flower, because if you show that you are listening to their creativity, you are maybe even implementing that creativity, those ideas. Then they understand that what they bring to the table matters, what they let the organization see as a whole matters. When you are able to do that as an organization, you have created a culture, an environment that is embracing the knowledge that Gen Z and Millennial is providing. They may not have a lot of experience in the workforce, but they have great ideas. They are on social media, they are all on the website. They are all continuous learners. They are absorbing the information. They were touching iPad when they were two years old. They have learned at a faster rate than we could ever imagine.

Speaker 1: 19:47

We don't want to continue to be in the mind frame that it is okay to continue to lose Gen Z and Millennial employees. If we continue to keep in that mind frame, then we will continue to lose money, lose knowledge within our recruiting costs. What can we do? We will go back to the five surefire ways to demonstrate that we can recruit and motivate Millennials and Gen Zs. That is number one talk to your job, talk about communication, digitize. Number two talk about technology. Number three ways to work. Embrace hybrid, remote and flex time type of work environments. Number four employee engagement. Continue to push employee satisfaction and driving that internal motivation to want to stay and work at the organization. Number five let the creativity fly. Embrace the ideas, implement the ideas and ensure that you recognize those employees before those ideas.

Speaker 1: 21:04

Remember not one word I said today. Not one, has anything to do with increasing our compensation. Increasing compensation is because we didn't do these things right. We didn't provide a great working environment that suffices their needs. As always, I am here to help any way I can. My name is Dr Jason Wiggins, I'm your Gen Z, a Millennial expert, and I am your host, and I look forward to talking to you again soon. So thank you, take care and we'll see you next time. Bye-bye, be happy.