Re-imagining the choice architecture
Many of their suggestions are truly innovative; others simply common sense, yet no less valuable. The learnings from the initiative are already shaping our thinking as a business.
The job rotation concept is both brilliant and obvious. Talented young workers early in their careers will derive real value from experiencing the perspective of working for main contractor, developer, and consultant.
The findings from the research are similarly insightful – if largely for the wrong reasons.
They must shape our collective thinking as a sector. It would be easy to be despondent, but there are some quick and simple wins here.
The more overtly negative perceptions have taken many of us by surprise.
Day-to-day, we witness our teams leading or participating in noteworthy initiatives to effect change; from Returnship programmes to encourage women to re-join the industry following time out to care for family; through virtual work experience during the last 12 months to teach schoolchildren about new green jobs within the industry; to following through on commitments to transparent, ambitious net zero pledges.
Great work is undoubtedly being done. But this research suggests we need much more of it.
Increased cross-industry collaboration and a smarter approach to the channels and content we use will convey to Gen Z both the progressive evolution construction is embracing, and the breadth of diverse rewarding career paths the industry can offer.
We now have clearly defined initiatives that we can move forward with within our respective businesses.
What the initiative has reinforced with me personally is that boards cannot make assumptions about the mindset and priorities of our future generations.
In February, Gleeds Gen Z representatives presented their ideas to our Global Executive Management board and are now working with our People Team, Head of ESG and Digital Director to implement a number of these.
In order to attract Gen Z talent we will be working on the development of a digital application process whereby we would see the application process potentially moving toward having a video from the line manager detailing the job requirements to replace the old, sometimes long-winded job description and the applicant sending in a video rather than submitting a written application form.
For retention, we will be working on enhancing the functionality of our current appraisals platform to use it as a tool to help drive career development and progression within Gleeds.
And finally, sustainable welcome packs. Part of joining a new company is sometimes hard and a welcome pack helps build a sense of belonging early on in the onboarding process. We are looking at some innovative ideas to replace the old traditional style of mug and mouse mat with some ESG friendly ideas.
This initiative will have a real, long-term impact on our business and I look forward to seeing the proposals become commonplace within our business, together with future proposals that the team recommend.
As an industry we need to be ready in order to attract and retain the brightest of the generation and that requires a completely updated mindset.
We didn’t want to be too prescriptive and it was a case of seeing what the participants came up with.
I had some misconceptions about the typical representative of Gen Z. I thought their comfort zone was to hide behind technology but that’s not the way Gen Z operate.
While they may be smarter than my generation in terms of instantly seeing how different technologies can help them at work, they do recognise the importance of sitting down and having a cup of coffee with someone.
Some ideas from the workshops really jumped out at me – particularly the suggestion of creating an app, which would co-ordinate an individual’s journey through their career.
It could result in managers being able to monitor training and progress against objectives with their staff. Evolution of employee-employer relationships can only be a good thing.
From an employer’s point of view, this could be straightforward to initiate and I see it as a win-win for all.
Expanding this project to canvass opinion from much a wider sample of Gen Z has been enlightening and troubling in equal measure. The findings indicate that some of these innovative ideas have real merit. But they also highlight the work which lies ahead to broaden the appeal of the built environment. Those of us who aren’t in Gen Z must move outside our comfort zones and take steps to ensure the recruitment and development of future generations.
