Want to Hire Gen Z and Millennials? Your Corporation Better Have a Strong Purpose!

With Gen Z and Millennials being the newest generational additions to the job market, it can be challenging to decipher how to effectively attract younger employees to apply for your open positions. With every generation of workers, there are always new expectations and demands from what’s expected at work and that can be intimidating for any hiring manager that’s unfamiliar with those expectations. But fear not! Luckily, there are ways to better familiarize yourself with the needs of the Gen Z and Millennial generations to increase your chances of attracting them to your workforce. It all starts with the idea of having a meaningful purpose within your company.

For many Gen Z and Millennials in the workforce, there is a desire and need for work to feel meaningful. Without meaning and purpose in the workplace, Gen Z and Millennial employees tend to feel unmotivated at work which leads to lower rates of productivity and eventually higher rates of turnover. One of the ways to create a strong purpose within your company is by developing or improving upon its culture. 

Having a company culture that has a strong do-good purpose for the world and society as a whole is more likely to attract the attention of these younger job seekers due to their drive to change and improve the various issues present today. For example, one issue is climate change. For instance, Patagonia made a huge commitment to the preservation of nature by embedding those values into how its company operates and that is very attractive to Gen Z and Millennial workers. In 2022, Yvon Chouin the founder of Patagonia declared that all of the profits made by Patagonia would be given to the Holdfast Collective in order to combat climate change. 

Talk about one heck of a donation! Before you panic, don’t worry Gen Z and Millennials aren’t expecting for you to donate your entire company for the benefit of a cause. They just want to work somewhere they feel they are making a difference in the world and that work is more than just ‘work’. 

Other examples of a strong company purpose can be an emphasis on work-life balance or a focus on diversity in the workplace. These young job seekers highly value work-life balance and the “work to live and not live to work” mentality so it is important to reflect those values in your corporate culture if you are looking to retain these employees. On top of that, creating a space where diversity is encouraged in the workplace facilitates innovation and increased productivity. 

So if you really think about it, having a company with a strong purpose not only benefits you, but it also benefits society as a whole by creating a workforce that is committed to becoming the solution to problems we face in the present day! So, take some time to think about how you can create or build upon a meaningful purpose for your company and see where the future takes you with all the potential Gen Z and Millennials have to offer!