Daniel Ross is 26 years old living in a small town in northern New York. She describes herself as artistic and creative. She paints in her free time, works as a mermaid for children’s parties, and swims in her self-made tail.
Admitting to be an LGBTQ, Ross couldn’t imagine doing a job that needed to downplay his identity and skills. So she was excited when Legoland New York Resort, a theme park in Goshen, NY, hired her. She will be her first female master builder. Ross has been given a great deal of freedom to use Lego blocks to create miniature cities throughout the park, and she takes advantage of her artistic side and her desire to promote diversity and inclusion. doing.
“I have brought up people of all races, nationalities, religions, and all kinds of people I can imagine, because I want everyone to feel represented,” she said. Her miniature figure is blind and plus size. They have prostheses and are wearing burqas. Recently she created a Hasidic Jew.
Creative freedom made Ross love her work — and that’s the point. Last year, Legoland New York joined many companies working to create an environment that is attractive and inspiring to young employees and embraces who they are and where they want to go. Employers harness energy and creativity by hiring generation Z workers born in the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with about 11 million unemployed seriously in May. We aim to make up for the labor shortage.
Last fall, Legoland began allowing employees like Ross to have piercings, tattoos and colored hair. Hospitality companies across the country have started labor experiments four days a week. Healthcare company GoodRx allows employees to work from anywhere in the country, not just at home, and asks outside companies to provide temporary offices on demand. Other companies carefully lay out their employee career paths and offer a wide range of mental health benefits and financial advice.
The goal is not only to pull young employees out of the door, but also to keep them at work, which is not an easy task. Investigation It shows that young workers are willing to change jobs more often than other generations. However, these efforts have helped many companies avoid the labor shortages that have plagued their competitors.
Jessica Woodson, director of human resources at Legoland, said: “Currently, we have more than 1,500 employees. We can confidently say that at least half are Gen Z.”
The Sage Hospitality Group, which operates more than 100 hotels, restaurants and bars nationwide, has 20% of its employees as Gen Z members.
Daniel del Olmo, President and Chief Operating Officer of the company’s Hotel Administration, said: “Generation Z recognizes that it’s looking for something different from the others, and is trying to adjust accordingly.”
After the pandemic began, the company realized that many young employees wanted a healthy work-life balance.In fact, studies like those recently done ADP Institute It indicates that many employees will quit if the employer requests a full-time return to the office.
Sage Hospitality is currently piloting four days a week at certain facilities, including cooks, housekeepers, and front desk receptionists. These jobs are the most difficult to fill during a pandemic, and the company has about 960 job openings.
According to Del Ormo, working four days a week helped. “I have to go to work because I have to make a living, not this negative feeling,” he said. “
Employees of the company’s home office in Denver are allowed to work remotely at least one day a week, and all employees are allowed to work with a dog one day a week. I am.
“If the Associate needs to clean the room or show something to the guests, the team members will take care of the dog,” Del Ormo said.
Mason Mills, 26, marketing manager for the company’s hotel in Denver, said the pandemic changed the perspective of her generation.
“We have begun to realize that while career is very important, it is also very important for you to live a given life,” she said. “By allowing dogs to be kept in the office and scheduling telecommuting to meet some of those needs, she shows that the company is evolving.”
According to Roberta Katz, an anthropologist at Stanford University who studies Generation Z, younger and older generations have fundamentally different views of the workplace.
“Generation Z in the United States most often knew only the world connected to the Internet,” Dr. Katz wrote in an email. Growing up using collaboration platforms such as Wikipedia and GoFundMe, young employees now see work as “no longer a duty from 9 to 5 in the office or classroom.”
Andrew Barrett-Weiss, director of work experience at GoodRx, which offers prescription discounts, said giving employees such autonomy and flexibility to help the company close multiple transactions. .. GoodRx provides employees with the opportunity to not only stay completely away, but also place their desk wherever they want to travel in the United States.
GoodRx also provides financial advisors for employees. “GenZer may not have enough money to have an investment account, but they can have this,” Barrett-Weiss said. Career coaching and fertility benefits are also provided.
“We are trying to solve a major healthcare problem, so we need the freshest and youngest perspective we can get,” added Barrett Weiss.
Sydney Brodie, 27, account supervisor at Le Collective M, a New York telecommunications agency, said the company’s owners will provide employees with a home in the Hamptons in July, where they will deepen their ties with each other. I was happy when I said I could do it. client.
“I was already very loyal to the company,” Brody said.
She was also given membership in the Soho House, an exclusive private club, in part as a means of networking. “My company sees what I need as a person,” she said. “They provide me with great tools, both personally and professionally.”
Kenko, a subscription food service focused on fruits and vegetables, focuses on mental health. Given that the hourly rate for such services has risen to $ 400 in some parts of the country, all employees and their families receive six sessions with the therapist.
Yet other companies are trying to take advantage of the desire to grow in the careers of young workers. On LinkedIn Investigation This year, 40% of young workers said they were willing to accept a 5% wage cut to work in a position to provide opportunities for career growth.
That’s why Blank Street Coffee, a chain of 40 coffee shops in the United States and the United Kingdom, has made career growth part of its hiring pitch, said Issam Freiha, CEO. Employees who want to be promoted in the company show a clear path they can follow.
After Alex Cwiok, a barista at Blank Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, who is passionate about coding, told his manager he wanted to be behind the computer, he said, “He told it to senior management and eventually took him to headquarters. He went, “she said. “For a million years, I didn’t expect to be pulled out of the field someday and get a desk and a salary.”
27-year-old Cwiok now handles customer emails and reviews as a Customer Success Associate. She is also working on updating the brand’s app.
For baristas who see work on Blank Street as a side hustle, the company is helping them take the next step. “We use a network of graduates and investors to take people where they want to go,” Freiha said. “We got one barista on a TV show.”
Blank Street is always asking young baristas what they want. “We must continue to innovate,” Freiha said. “This generation doesn’t want to work for the old.”
