Feature
Generation Z: The Future of Care for
You and Your Residents
By, Joseph Cuticelli, CEO, Seniors, Sodexo North America
M
eet our future of care: Generation Z. Generation Z is the newest generation
in our workforce - they are the future of senior living communities and they
are the primary generation that will care for us. They have the potential to solve our
sector’s workforce challenges, yet somehow no one seems to be talking about them.
Allow me to introduce them:
Generation Z is born between 1998-2014. They are tech natives, having been born
next to home computers and iPhones. They spend their time consuming digital
information on apps like Snapchat and Instagram. They
have an innate proficiency for technological advancements,
When it comes to work, Generation Z seeks
while also prizing stability. Generation Z has grown up in
a unique time in history, where they have witnessed the
purpose. They must have a higher purpose to
Great Recession and a surge in mass gun violence. When
their work.
it comes to work, Generation Z seeks purpose. They must
have a higher purpose to their work.
Stability and purpose: These workplace benefits should sound familiar to us
in senior living because we offer both things in droves. Sodexo Seniors and Great
Place to Work has found that Generation Z is already even more engaged with our
work in senior living than Generation X and Baby Boomers. Unfortunately, our data
also show that Generation Z are often still transients in our industry, e.g. they are
going to school, they work part-time, they have places to go. That being said, they
could be the key to furthering our industry. So how do we get them to love us? We
recommend the following steps:
1. Offer career pathing: Generation Z is at a point in their professional lives
where they may not have a clear path. We can fix this by offering them a great,
rewarding, stable career.
2. Make it fun and purpose-filled: Let’s build on the greater purpose of our
industry by making it fun. Our residents can help, and with more peers in the
workplace, Generation Z will stick with us.
3. Build leaders: Let’s coach Generation Z to be leaders, to help us attract and
retain their talent.
We are excited about this new generation hitting our communities. We have every
reason to believe that they will take care of us, both literally and figuratively – but
first, those of us in the senior sector need to try and take care of them.
The full article “This Is the Generation that Will Take Care of You and Your Residents”
was originally published in Senior Housing Forum and can be found here.
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Adviser a publication of LeadingAge New York | Summer 2018