The digital-native generation: What motivates first-job employees and how to attract them
Generation Z’s top five benefits
It has been proven that companies can significantly increase employee motivation by giving employees what they want. This fact is especially true with younger employees. There is a correlation between satisfaction from benefits and employee motivation. When candidates search for a job, your company’s benefits offering can often be the difference between them accepting an offer with your company or taking a position somewhere else.
We recently surveyed more than 20,000 employees and HR professionals for our Employee Happiness Index 2018, and discovered that the top five benefits for Generation Z are as follows:
- Food and drinks
- Employee clubs, associations and events
- Health and wellness
- Work/life balance
- Flexible working and vacation benefits.
So, how good is the coffee at your workplace? In our research it was revealed that younger employees appreciate food and drink benefits more than any other benefit. In fact, if your competitor offers better food and drink options, this alone could be enough to tempt up to six per cent of your employees to go with the competition.
Customise your offer
To attract and retain today’s talents it’s vital that you, as an employer, customise and tailor your benefit offerings to each unique employee group, including those you want to lure from the job market. You should evaluate your offerings regularly – at the very least, once every year – to stay on top of benefit trends and market shifts.
Interestingly, our research showed that most employers still do not have a benefits strategy despite considerable investment in this area. Therefore, to gain an edge on your competitors and attract first-job employees, putting a plan together today is a very wise move.
How to communicate with younger employees
In the future, business growth will depend upon an employer´s ability to meet and satisfy the sky-high digital demands of employees. And what’s the quickest way to a digital-native’s heart? Through their smartphone, of course.
According to Statista, by 2020, up to 59 per cent of the world’s workforce will be made up of millennials and Generation Z. These generations, aged 38 or younger – are true digital-natives having grown up in an era where all services – be it entertainment, food delivery or social and communication tools – are just a tap or click away. Generation Z demands communication which is instant, relevant and actionable. All in a swipe.
Create a full digital experience
To survive and thrive in this new digital era, it’s a no-brainer that employers must provide a consumer-grade digital experience. Indeed, data from our employee mobile app is proof of this. We see that more than 85 per cent of today’s young employees regularly log in to employee engagement-based apps on their smartphone as a way to access information from their employer compared with just 47 per cent of older employees.
Employee engagement platforms make it easier for employees to connect to their benefits, rewards and other services offered by their employer. This makes a world of information instantly available, anywhere in the world, any time of day.
Download Benify’s Employee Happiness Index 2018 to read the report’s full findings.
This article was provided by Benify.
In partnership with Benify
Benify offers the market's leading global benefits and total reward platform.
