If you read business magazines or newsletters, you probably can’t go a week without seeing an article on how to attract and retain Millennials and Generation Z. Most of these articles have a list something along the lines of the following:
- Offer flexibility for how and when people work (telecommuting, increased paid time off)
- Relaxed dress codes
- Fun in the office (ping pong tables, catered lunches, happy hours)
- Giving back to the community (one day a year where all employees get a day off for community service)
- Strong mentorships and training
If this were five years ago and you implemented all the above, you were differentiated from your competitors. Your company could go to a recruiting event or give an interviewee a tour of your office and be at a competitive advantage. While there are still plenty of traditional workplaces that have not changed with the times, many companies have quickly adapted to new workplace preferences, to the point where companies are no longer differentiated through these changes. In today’s environment, a company has to do more, and here’s the real dilemma. Take as an example a young accountant working at a forward-thinking CPA firm, which has put in place the changes in the list above. This accountant gets to show up to their office at 10:30am and leave at 3:30pm, and finish their work at home at their convenience. When they are in the office, they get to wear jeans and can take a break whenever they want to play shuffleboard and eat free snacks from the granola bar in the company’s kitchen. They get four weeks of paid-time off, and two days a year where they can take off to serve their community alongside their friendly coworkers.
Sounds great, right? The problem is that despite these perks, this accountant still spends the majority of their day sitting at a desk doing work. What happens when this accountant does not enjoy or have a passion for the work they are doing? They go on Facebook or LinkedIn and see peers that are developing new technology, traveling the country making sales to C-Suite executives, teaching children, designing a social media campaign, planning a conference, or working on a social program to provide access to clean water to people in third-world countries. Some young accountants may absolutely love what they are doing, but there are plenty of workers that will not get enough joy out of what they are doing on a daily basis, and they may not feel that their work has enough purpose or meaning. And the accountant is just an example; this dilemma can apply to any professional occupation.
So, what is this unsatisfied accountant to do? They just spent four of five years getting an education in accounting, and a year studying for their CPA exam. They have a specialized skill and are working in an in-demand field. Leaving their current field would be a very difficult, and potentially costly, choice. Addressing this exact situation is where employers are failing, and it presents a huge opportunity for those that can solve this problem. Earlier in my career, I was working with a prestigious graduate business school and was listening to their struggles in attracting and retaining qualified, skilled accountants below the Controller and CFO. The school was located in a small town where there was very little outside of the campus life. There was also somewhat limited upward mobility; while it was a large, prestigious school, it simply doesn’t compare to the opportunities within a Fortune 500 company or a national CPA firm. There was no strong appeal for younger accountants. In my mind, the organization had an opportunity to differentiate themselves to attract top talent. They were in a perfect opportunity to address the dilemma of the unsatisfied accountant we just discussed. They needed to realize that they can’t attract talent from the new generation through jeans days, free lunches, increased PTO, and telecommuting options. Those could help put them on par with some other employers, but it wouldn’t differentiate them and make up for the limited upward mobility and lack of appeal in the location. They needed to offer something unique, something that would excite candidates about coming to work for them.
This business school had a very large, world-class executive education program. They attracted top business executives from all over the country to attend their seminars and programs every year. This could have been their secret weapon. The school had to hire employees to design, organize, and execute these executive education programs. They hired employees to design social media campaigns to attract people to the programs. And they hired employees to generate sales for the programs. When they were trying to hire accountants, they could have designed the position so that it resembled more of a rotation, or a position where they would cross over to different departments within the organization. Then they could say to accountants, “don’t go to CPA Firm A where they will put you at a desk working on accounting 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Come work with us, and you will spend half your time on accounting and the other half on marketing, business development, sales, and event planning”. This gives the candidate a unique opportunity, a chance to work in some more “exciting” areas of the business world instead of being in a position with a lot of daily and weekly repetition. If you want to attract the new generation of workers, innovative workplace ideas like these will go a lot farther than relaxed dress-codes and catered lunches. What is your company doing to attract top talent?