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Beyond Millennials – Recruiting Generation Z

At a recent recruitment event for students, the guest speaker (a manager from a local company) publicly berated one of the students for texting on her mobile phone whilst he was presenting. “You will need to learn to pay attention if you want a good job’ the speaker said. She responded “What you were saying was so interesting that I was taking notes on my phone”. Just one more mismatch between the norms and expectations of different generations.

Recently we wrote a blog about the expectations of millennials and how employers might need to rethink their approach to recruiting the brightest talent. If there is confusion about what millennials expect, then be prepared for more potential confusion when you’re managing and recruiting Generation Z (18 – 20 years), who didn’t have to learn about new technologies and social media – they were born into it. They have grown up with a constant proliferation of information on a fully mobile internet.

With Generation Z making up an increasingly significant part of the available workforce by 2020 you have to ask yourself are you ready?


In general

We meet a lot of ‘Gen Z’  and our experience of recruiting them indicates that they are Millennials+!

In general, we find them ambitious, dedicated and ready to work. They expect that they will have to work harder than previous generations to have the career they aspire to. Contrary to popular belief that don’t expect to be job hoppers and want stability in jobs they enjoy – but they will not hesitate to move on to find the employer they enjoy working for. They are not impressed by hierarchical management styles and expect to advance on merit, not ‘time served’.

When looking for a job, Generation Z’s biggest priorities tend to be:

The good news for smaller employers who’ll be recruiting Generation Z is that they like to work in a collaborative small team environment where they can make an impact and (despite digital communication being second nature) they enjoy face to face communication. Whilst they like the perceived financial stability of larger businesses they will often trade pay for interesting and engaging work where there is a greater opportunity to shine and make a difference. Many actively seek employers who have a reputation for making a positive contribution to society.

Don’t expect 24/7 commitment

No matter how much they care, Generation Z won’t devote their lives to your business 24/7. Work-life balance is important to them. They want to know how working at your business will fit into their lives and their personal goals. Be honest about what the job is like, this is a generation that can smell a lack of authenticity a mile away.

The type of managers Generation Z report to is very important to them. They want honest bosses with integrity and who mentor them. With a lifelong access to information, they are accustomed to constant learning and want managers who can coach and teach them.

Recruiting Generation Z

Generation Z employees can bring a lot to employers and the best way we find to recruit them includes;

If you already have great Generation Z people on your team remember to keep them engaged and provide opportunities for them to advance. If you don’t, they won’t hesitate to seek new pastures!

If you’d like to know more about recruiting and leading Generation Z, contact us online or call Tricia Hay on 01453 755330

By Tricia Hay and David Tovey

 

 

Leading and Managing Millennials

While we shouldn’t try to stereotype and entire generation, one thing is certain; Millennials (born 1982-2004) have different expectations of management than Generation X (ages 35-50). Their main expectation? Millennials want managers who understand and demonstrate leadership, and fundamentally that means managers who ‘get’ people. Leading and Managing Millennials effectively requires a different skillset.

“100% of employees are people, 100% of customers are people. If you don’t get people you don’t get business”

For anyone confused about the difference between management and leadership, top leaders when interviewed about management, tend to talk about skills and efficient business outcomes and when asked about leadership they talk about the people focused character and behaviours of a manager. Management and leadership of course go together and particularly when it comes to Millennials.

It tended to be a top down management style that created high performing Generation X teams and Millennials don’t take too well to top down hierarchical management styles. When researching potential new employers, Millennials quickly dismiss companies with a reputation for ‘old style’ management and they actively search for those with a reputation for looking after their people. This means they look for personal development, respect, coaching, collaboration and mentoring.

 

Personal development and training

Millennials are keen to invest in their careers and tend not to be interested in the ‘time served’ notion of career advancement. For Millennials career progression isn’t just about promotion, it’s about learning new things, doing interesting work and feeling that they are making a genuine contribution to something more than their day job.

Gone are the days of annual reviews for Millennials, they perform much better with regular feedback and guidance from their managers. They have inhabited a world where just in time information is available through multiple digital channels and excel when their managers are good at providing bite-sized coaching. This not only help improve their performance but increases their loyalty to the organisation. According to a 2017 survey by Delloitte, young staff who are mentored stay with an employer twice as long as staff who don’t have a manger who provides coaching. Millennials thrive on on-line training to supplement formal training sessions.

 

Millennials take control of their careers

Some employers might think of Millennials as fickle and less loyal than the previous generation. Remember that they grew up watching Generation X being made redundant from specialist jobs they had committed their whole lives to without having many or any transferable skills.

Millennials take control of their careers and will seek other roles with other companies if they feel stifled in their current position. They are not afraid to make a move that provides the stimulus and modern management culture they want.   That’s why it is so important to do more than manage them in their current role. Help them to develop their skills in a way that will support their career ambitions and you also build a reservoir of enthused and talented people who will help to drive the organisation forward.

 

A bigger purpose

Millennials want to know that their work makes a difference. They want to know how they fit into the bigger picture and how they are connected to the overall mission and values of the company. Poor managers who fail to inspire will often resort to the ‘because I say so” reason to carry out a task. Leaders who get the best out of Millennials get them fired up by being open and explaining why the task matters.

 

Collaboration and teamwork

Millennials prefer to collaborate with colleagues and teams and are not in awe of their managers. They tend to think of ‘bosses’ as team captains rather than their owners, as peers not superiors. There to facilitate the performance of the team not to brow beat efficiency and productivity out of them.

Understanding how to get the best out of Millennials is good business. They have grown up in a different time, have different expectations of the world of work and want to be treated with respect. They can teach all of us a thing or two about how best to treat all people, from whichever generation.

By Tricia Hay and David Tovey

Developing Future Leaders

In 2018 we sat down to explore what more our team could do to support the young people of Gloucestershire and the local community. We have been involved in many of the more traditional initiatives to help young people into work over the years. This year we wanted to find a way that we could best help the next generation to make their mark within in their organisations, build their own careers and at the same time make a positive contribution to their community.

David reminded us that he had given his son a watch for his 21st birthday engraved with the words “It is leadership, not time, that changes things”. It was then that we knew our initiative would focus on developing leadership skills.

                                                                        “You manage things; you lead people”-  Grace Hopper

The best organisations we work with in the UK and Internationally, tend to be those that can attract the best talent. Our experience is that the best people are attracted to those employers with a reputation for looking after their people and that is why leadership is so very important.

Well led businesses attract great people who develop great products and deliver a great customer experience. In turn that provides a great return to shareholders and other stakeholders whilst making a great contribution to society. What’s not to like?

Developing future leaders

Most global brands and large corporate organisations recognised the need to develop future leaders a long time ago and they have leadership development programmes in place. Indeed, David has designed and run several across a number of sectors.

We decided that we would bring to smaller organisations, most likely with no formal leadership development programme in place, some of the key element of a future leaders programme usually only available to larger businesses.

The programme will develop future leaders by providing six free places to young people (18-24) with an intensive and high impact series of monthly masterclasses. The focus will be on developing personal leaderships skills, building confidence, inspiring teams and will include an introduction to developing business strategy. We’ll be sure to report back on progress during the programme.

Leadership is about people and it is about change. The next generation of leaders will need to focus on change that is sustainable whilst devising new ways to live and work that fit with the needs and interest of not only themselves but of their employers, their families, their communities and an ever more intricately interconnected world.

We look forward to playing our part in helping them.

If you would like to know more or register an interest on behalf of yourself or a member of your team, email tricia.hay@first-base.co.uk or contact us. 

By Tricia Hay and David Tovey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Customer Experience – Putting Employees First

The topic of customer service and customer experience has been coming up in lots of client conversations as well as at networking meetings lately.

As my colleague and First Base Director David Tovey is writing a book on the subject we put our heads together to agree some thoughts and tips. Customer experience has been described as “the next competitive battleground for businesses that want to differentiate themselves” – so it’s a pretty important subject.

Firstly, there is a difference between ‘Customer Service’ and ‘Customer Experience’.

Customer service tends to be more about the interaction involving customer facing staff. Customer experience on the other hand takes into account all the interactions that a customer has with a company. There can be many different ways a customer ‘experiences’ what it is really like to buy a particular product or service. It is the sum of all those interactions that form the opinions of a customer about a supplier, whether they become loyal customers and what they tell other people.

Employees first

Both of us are clear that the companies delivering an excellent customer experience are not those who put the customer first. It is those companies that first make sure that their employee experience is excellent.

It should go without saying that if the person who works at a company is 100% proud of the Brand, is given the tools to do a good job and are treated well, they are going to be happy, Happy employees WANT to give customers a great experience.


It’s a leadership issue

All the research suggests that there is a significant difference between what senior managers in a business think the company delivers in terms of customer experience and what customers really think. If customer experience isn’t regular featured on the board’s agenda, it is likely that it isn’t on the agenda of anyone else in the business.

When everyone in an organisation is striving to deliver an excellent customer experience, the results are happy employees, happy and loyal customers and happy shareholders.

If you would like to know more about the connection between recruiting the right people, engaging them and building an even more successful business, let us know.

Sharon Adams and David Tovey

Employer Brand in the Social Media Age

Finding the most skilled and talented individuals with the right attitude to help grow our businesses has never been easy. At a time of high employment and high candidate expectations – whether recruiting permanent or temporary staff; it has never been more important to focus on your reputation as an employer.

Just as a company has a ‘brand’ designed to reflect what customers can expect of its products or services; a company has an employer brand that reflects what employees can expect of its employment practices. The best and most profitable customers are attracted by a brand that can be trusted to deliver on its marketing promises and the best talent is attracted by an employer that can be trusted to fulfill the promises made in a recruitment campaign or at interview.

In any economy there are people ‘desperate’ for a job who might accept any role that comes their way. But these candidates are too often not the ideal people to fill the roles that businesses have available. The best candidates at all levels have choices, they are discerning, not desperate.

Put simply, the businesses with the best employer brands attract more applications from the best candidates. Companies that appear in The Times Top 100 Best Companies for instance, enter the competition because they know that being recognized as a good employer has a direct effect on recruitment and ultimately bottom line results.

Instant reputations

It used to be that an employer’s reputation was disseminated just by word of mouth. Today, with the availability of multiple social media channels, experiences and reputation, good or bad can be shared instantly with many thousands of connections. One of those connections could be just the person you are looking for.

The first place a candidate checks out when you run a recruitment campaign will be your company web site, where your ‘brand’ is exhibited for all to see. That web site has probably been carefully crafted by marketers to tell the story of your business as well as its products and services. It may have a recruitment section that potential candidates will view to get a feel for your attitudes as an employer.

The next place candidates go to are their social media contacts (evidence shows that people trust what their social networks say more than they trust what a business says) to find out if anyone has experience of working for you or even being interviewed by you. Just like people might use Trip Advisor – they will also check out on line sites such as ‘Glass Doors’ to see if you have been mentioned by past and present employees.

There is a new breed of candidates who are part of Generation C (Generation Connected) and it is generation that has no age limits. They know how to access information and there is plenty of information out there for them to find – whether you have an employer brand strategy or not.

Of course people also still use word of mouth ‘off line’ as well. In the Students Union if they have been on a graduate placement or in the pub after a day’s work, people with experience of working for you (or just being interviewed by you) will share their experiences. And have you ever wondered what reputation as an employer you have with recruitment consultancies?

The great news is that you can decide whether the experiences shared are positive or negative. Businesses often invest heavily in branding their business in order to attract customers. Today, the most successful businesses, invest in their employee brand to ensure they attract the best candidates.

David Tovey
International Speaker, Consultant and Coach
Non Exec Director – First Base Employment

Forget initiatives, live the philosophy

Does your business suffer from initiative fatigue?

I’m really fortunate. I get to work with some great people in great organisations. I frequently get to facilitate off site strategy meetings with senior managers at fabulous locations in the UK and internationally.

Strategic planning meetings are really important. They give the senior team time away from the business to focus on the future away from the pressures and detail of day to day issues. As we consultants are fond of saying, “it gives senior managers and business owners time to work on the business instead of in the business”.

It’s usually not long before the senior team is talking about the need to be a more customer or client focused business and being a great place to work. Senior managers are right to spend time on this – Customer Experience is fast becoming recognized as THE way to differentiate a business.

After ‘away days’ it’s usually not long before members of the senior team volunteer or are allocated responsibility for an ‘Employee Engagement’ or ‘CX’ project. Anticipation about what can be achieved is often high at board level, budgets are allocated and the top down communication about the initiative begins.

Initiatives, initiatives
It sometimes seems that as soon as a great concept is given a label it is in danger of being misunderstood, misinterpreted and then executed badly. It is then too often dismissed by those it was intended to ‘engage’ as just another management fad – destined to wither on the vine.

I can testify to the high number of positive nods and groans I hear when I ask audiences if they have ever suffered from initiative fatigue anytime during their careers!

As a change initiative starts to gain momentum, many organisations underestimate the challenges and complexities. Senior managers often want to see lots of activity and rapid progress. From team bonding sessions, project teams, ‘back to the floor’ projects for CEO’s to newsletters, social media strategies, employee and customers surveys – all kinds of activities are implemented. Sadly many of these activities are more likely to result in cynicism than aligning people with the aims of the business and gaining commitment, particularity with people have ‘heard it all before’.

No silver bullets
Lots of companies want to be recognized as organisations that deliver exceptional customer experience and identified as great places to work – but too many want to find short cuts to getting there. They look for silver bullets or boxes to tick. But there are no short cuts when you need to address the fundamental employer/employee relationship and link it to delivering a great customer experience. People have to be properly aligned with the business strategy and values in a focused, congruent and mutually supportive way.

It’s not engagement or CX ‘initiatives’ that are needed – what works is the embedding of an engagement and customer experience philosophy that is lived by everyone from the bottom to the top of the organisation.

Great places to work with engaged employees who deliver excellent customer experience:

Are clear what they mean by engagement
Are clear what they mean about customer experience
Have a senior management team fully committed to it
Ensure that everything they do supports the core purpose and values of the organisation
Are clear about how they measure engagement and CX
Acknowledge that where action is required no single intervention is likely to succeed
Keep lines of communication with senior managers open
Actively encourage collaboration at all levels
Continually recognise, reward, celebrate and reinforce what is being done well
Look for and measure the impact of engagement and CX on business results
Recognise that employee engagement isn’t a destination – it’s a journey.
Many organisations are just not up to the challenge. They want rapid results based on short term investment and when things get a bit tough another initiative goes on the back burner – yet again proving the cynics right. Every one goes back to business as usual – until the next away day and the next management initiative.

You have to believe in and live the philosophy if you want to avoid initiative fatigue.

David Tovey

David Tovey is author of ‘Principled Selling’ published by Kogan Page
and Non Executive Director of First Base.

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For the modern British worker, therefore, the ability to have some flexibility in their work hours and environment tops other important concerns, such as regular pay rises, career progression and company pension contributions. These things are, of course, important, but it just goes to show just how important flexible working is in today’s economy. (more…)

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