The hottest benefits to attract Gen Z employees
Benefits are an essential part of recruitment. They’ll help you attract the best candidates and a brilliant benefits package could be the difference between your favourite candidate choosing you over your competitor!
Employee benefits are also key to employee retention, and loyalty to the company. But the same benefits won’t work for everyone. What entices a senior employee in their fifties will be wildly different to what attracts a fresh graduate.
Luckily, I’m here! A 2021 graduate born just before the new millennium, ready to tell you exactly what will draw in us “Zoomers”, from Gen Z.
Who are Gen Z?
Gen Z encompasses pretty much everyone born between 1995 and 2015.
Though we have a reputation for eating laundry pods and spending our days dancing away on TikTok, I can assure you that we are full of energy and ready to take the workplace by storm.
Think Greta Thunberg, Billie Eilish, Emma Chamberlain. And if you don’t know who those people are – don’t worry!
We’re intelligent, tech-savvy and grounded in our beliefs. And I know you won’t want to miss out on what we can offer at work. So I’ll give you the lowdown on how to attract the best talent from the Gen Z pool with exciting benefits!
What attracts Gen Z?
What entices Gen Z is a bit different to what entices other generations. But we’re still all about benefits! About a third of zoomers said that workplace benefits are one of the most important deciding factors when choosing a career.
But we don’t care so much about big do’s like Christmas parties. We prefer a trickling stream of benefits throughout the year – things we can make use of on an almost day-to-day basis.
Scrapping the 9 to 5
We often get a lot of slack from older generations who say we’re lazy. But really, we just want to work smarter, not harder!
As the youngest group of working-age people, we are really passionate about creating the world of work we love. And we’re willing to cause a stir in order to make this happen!
Whether it’s a four-day working week, flexible hours or a 5-hour day, zoomers love shaking up tradition and maximising our productivity while leaving us with time to relax and fully enjoy our leisure time outside of work!
You don’t have to fully rework the schedule, but offering some flexibility with working hours is bound to attract some Gen Z talent.
Remote working
Most of us Gen Z haven’t spent much time in an office. While we might have gained a bit of experience here and there, the past year and a half of lockdowns and social distancing mean that many of us haven’t stepped into an actual office before.
I’ve only worked in one office before, about three years ago, so I’m not very well acquainted with office etiquette. And after working from home, I can’t imagine the office being too much fun either!
While some more extroverted Zoomers might prefer a trip into the office, most of us are really happy working remotely with an occasional day to meet the rest of the team. We’ve grown up on the internet, so we’re adaptable to different software and apps needed for work.
We also love being comfortable and being ourselves. We’re the generation who has established the YouTube celebrity, famed for filming their everyday lives. For most of us, a life of living in pyjamas and drinking excessive amounts of iced coffee from our bedrooms is the dream!
Offering an option to remote work at least some of the time is bound to impress your Gen Z hires – even if it’s not a fully remote role.
Carbon neutral pensions
As some of the youngest members of your team, you might think it’s funny that I’ve included a pension-related benefit on this list.
But from the school strike to a generation of vegans, we’re known for being extremely passionate about climate change. And a carbon-neutral pension is one of the most effective ways an individual can tackle their contribution!
It can be quite easy to switch to a carbon-neutral pension. This will show your junior candidates that you care about the planet they will inherit as much as they do!
Put our wellbeing first
We’ve had our coming of age years alongside widespread advocacy movements for mental health issues, so we’re well aware of the fact that our mental health is important! If we can see that our employer values this, we’ll be more trusting of them and more inclined to work there.
You could consider offering a subsidised subscription to a well-being app or pay for weekly yoga classes to encourage mindfulness among your juniors. This will show you care about their wellbeing outside of the working hours and want to make an investment in your employees’ welfare.
Be truthful
While shiny benefits packages might draw us in, what will lock us in is honesty. We don’t want to hear our employers shy away from discussing our expected working hours and salaries.
We – along with everyone else who has job hunted – hate listening to employers tell us about their ‘competitive salary’!
If you tell us what we can expect, and what we’ll get in return, we’ll be happy. It’s really as simple as that!
Though we might seem like a minefield of teenagers and twenty-somethings addicted to our phones, we’re not much different to everyone else. We expect to be appreciated for our hard work and treated well by our employers. And as the youngest members of your team, we appreciate being given independence and trust by our managers.
By creating a shiny, welfare focussed package of employee benefits, you’ll have your pick of the brightest candidates of the Gen Z talent pool. And I’m sure that the benefits you choose to impress Gen Z will also impress the rest of your team.
For help hiring juniors, check out our hiring platform to find all the best Gen Z talent looking for work!