How do I Talk to Gen Z? What are They Looking for From my job? HELP!
Gen Z are your workforce of today and the future. As an employer it’s vital you know how to talk to Gen Z and fully understand what they are looking in a job. At Careermap Media Group, we have a few Gen Zers in the team ourselves, so we can speak from a personal perspective and through supporting thousands of hundreds of Gen Z into the workplace every year.
So how do Gen Z differ from other generations? We surveyed over 30,000 Gen Zers to find out what they are looking for from a job:
71% say they are concerned by prejudice towards LGBTQ+ people, gender equality and racism
62% want employers to share their values on sustainability and climate change
88% valued work-life balance over salary
59% prefer working individually and want responsibility
91% want employers to prioritise mental health
74% crave career progression opportunities
So, based on the factors explored above, how can you effectively talk to Gen Z and retain them as employees?
Connect early and often: Gen Z's attention spans are getting shorter which explains why they are most likely to engage with video and images rather than text. Look at the latest social media channels for instance, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, these are all built to capture attention quickly and not surprisingly use short video content and images to make an impression. Even YouTube has recently released YouTube Shorts and Facebook with their reels. It’s important to connect early and often with Gen Z as with shorter attention spans, they’ll need to be retargeted on social media to really cut through the noise and stop the scroll.
Don’t just tell, show: Don’t just tell Gen Z that you’re committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce, show them through engaging video content, imagery and messaging. Don’t just tell them you’re committed to sustainability and climate change, show them how you do it. Gen Z won’t accept just talking the talk without being able to walk the walk.
Share your employee stories: One thing Gen Z particularly love is when they can hear first hand from employees who have been successful on their career journey either as an apprentice or graduate. With 74% craving career progression, share your employee stories and run a Q&A session to talk about how they’ve done it.
Be flexible: Gen Z doesn’t just want flexibility they demand it. Workplace flexibility is one of the number 1 benefits that Gen Z are looking for from an organisation. In fact, 88% said they would choose a job that offered working from home and flexible working hours over a higher salary!
Flexibility to Gen Z also means being able to rotate around different areas of the business. Gen Z are one of the first generations not to be afraid of job hopping. They see it as a way to unlock new career opportunities, progression, and a pay rise so if you want to retain Gen Z you’ll need to offer them all of that to keep them from looking elsewhere.
Don’t forget parents, guardians and educators: Parents of Gen Z are often described as helicopter parents. So what does this mean? This means they pay close attention to their child’s life and can sometimes be described as being overprotective, overseeing every aspect of their child's life constantly. If you’ve read our article on pages 29-30 then you’ll know how important reaching this influential audience really is.
Respond to mental health and wellbeing needs: Gen Z are breaking the stigma surrounding mental health. In fact, looking at the data from our Careermap job board shows that job listings discussing mental health and wellbeing actually see just over twice as many applications as similar job posts.
As an employer, you need to respond to these needs and highlight what you are doing to support mental health. From having healthcare plans in place for your employees like Simplyhealth, offer Employee wellbeing days so employees can take the day off to focus on their mental health, have regular 121 meetings with employees to talk about their work life and if they are facing issues in their personal lives and always be understanding.
Investors in People also offer a 3 Year Wellbeing Accreditation where they will assess how the health and wellbeing of your organisation is performing against their employee wellbeing frameworks and will be there to advise and support you so your organisation can improve.
How can Careermap Media Group Help?
National Week Live Events
Our National Week Live Events is a place for you not just to tell but really show your company’s story. Get your current apprentices, interns, students, and graduates online so young people can hear firsthand about their experiences, interleave engaging video content within your slide deck, and bring the work you do to life.
https://www.nationalapprenticeshipweek.co.uk/
https://nationalworkexperienceweek.co.uk/
https://nationaluniversityweek.co.uk/
https://nationalinternweek.co.uk/
https://nationalgraduateweek.co.uk/
Careermag for School Leavers & Careermag for Graduates
Share your employee stories and really shine a light on the amazing work you do. Embedded within schools, colleges and universities, our Careermag’s offers a trusted space to get your message out to the right people at the right time.
Careermag for Graduates average views: 150,000
Careermag for School Leavers average views: 250,000
CareermapTV
We want to empower you to inform, inspire and engage so you can build a sustainable workforce for the future. Our CareermapTV provides the perfect platform for you to do just that. We’ll visit your workplace and create high-quality, short, engaging and relatable content to help you to meet your campaign goals.
Careermag for Primary Schools
Although we’ve spoken a lot about Gen Z, Gen Alpha are the new kids on the block. Our Careermag for Primary Schools will allow you to get in front of this target audience before your competitors. The hopes and aspirations of primary school-aged children need to be nurtured in every area of their lives - and their future careers are no exception. They need to be inspired, given confidence in their skills and worth, and shown that their potential can be released.
The earlier young people’s aspirations are raised and broadened, the better. Good careers education, advice and guidance should create ‘lightbulb moments’ for young people, making the connection between their studies and the opportunities that await them beyond the school gates."
Paul Whiteman, general secretary, NAHT (2021)
Parent targeted campaigns
Careermap Media Group can also create a bespoke parents-targeted campaign to support you in reaching GenZ’s biggest influencers. We’ll work with you to ensure we get the right message out for your business. Whether that’s busting myths and misconceptions about your industry, or explaining the benefits of choosing an apprenticeship over university our products Careermag for Parents, targeted emails and live events will support your Early Careers recruitment strategy.
If you have any questions or would like any support with your Early Careers campaign, please contact a friendly member of the Careermap Media Group Team.
