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Shifting demographics: How employers can attract young talent

The number of Gen Zers working full-time is likely to surpass the number of baby boomers holding full-time positions for the first time in 2024, according to a new Glassdoor report. This demographic shift is expected to influence how employers attract young talent, given that Gen Zers have different priorities compared to their older colleagues.

One of the most significant differences, as highlighted in the Glassdoor report, is Gen Z’s strong interest in transparency and diversity, equity, and inclusion at the companies where they work. In addition, as digital natives, they want to be heard by their employers.

The report offers several recommendations on how to appeal to Gen Z employees:

  • Prioritise skills and competencies over college majors or fields of study.
  • Make them feel heard, and emphasise opportunities for involvement in building projects, processes, programmes, and systems rather than offering something fixed.

Expectations from employers by Gen Z will likely change as they age, similar to how millennials’ preferences for in-office and downtown city centre work evolved as they moved into the family formation stages of their lives. Gen Z is still very young and in the middle of their identity-forming years (10 – 25 yrs); social stimulation and flexibility are therefore very important to them.

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Author

Kim Pillen

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Kim Pillen

Consultant

Before Kim Pillen started as a trend consultant at TrendsActive, she worked for four years as a creative strategist at Dept. For brands such as Philips, bol.com, Beiersdorf, JBL, and the Consumers’ Association, she built (online) campaign, brand, and social media strategies. After four years, she decided that she wanted to better understand people and society in order to advise brands more effectively. That’s how she ended up at TrendsActive. Here, she can do what she loves most: digging into people’s needs and then working with brands to see how and where they can be relevant and meaningful.

Douwe Knijff

Researcher

Douwe is fascinated by how people work. With a background in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (Bachelor) and Psychology (Master) and an analytical mind he tries figure out how societal shifts manifest themselves through social culture and human behaviour.

Aljan De Boer

Keynote speaker

Aljan has been widely recognized as an inspiring professional speaker on the critical trends that will shape society in the decades to come. He works as the Head of Inspiration at TrendsActive, a trend consultancy from the Netherlands using social science to human-proof business decision for brands like

  • Disney
  • Vodafone
  • Hugo Boss
  • ASR
  • Rabobank

Next to his role at TrendsActive he is the Community Director at the Institute for Real Growth where he inspires and connects a global community of +400 CMOs.  

He has been on the board of the Dutch Platform of Innovative Marketing for almost a decade. Regular speaker and moderator for the Dutch Marketing Awards and 3 times winner of the best of MIE. 

Kees Elands

Founder & Strategist

Kees his purpose is to help ambitious leaders and brands to human-proof their business. In 2003 he founded TrendsActive, a trend consultancy enabling brands to become more human centric.

Kees consults global brands like

  • Disney
  • The Coca-Cola Company
  • Asics
  • Discovery Channel
  • Swiss Life
  • Vodafone

and many more.

Next to being the founder of TrendsActive, he is also initiator of the first academic trend master for executives at the University of Utrecht and is initiator of various trend studies and white papers on subjects like trust, meaning, visual culture & generations.

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Kees Elands

Founder & Strategist

Kees Elands

Founder & Strategist