Five keys to keeping your employees

If you think the post-pandemic recruitment battle will be over once a good number of your younger employees are back in the office, you have a very rude awakening awaiting you. Getting bodies and butts back in seats is a good start, but only if hearts and minds follow. That's not to say I'm suggesting anything as aggressive or invasive as Teddy Roosevelt's approach to grabbing them by the family's valuables. I'm just suggesting that there's still a lot of work to do before your business really gets back to business.

It won't be so bad for your older employees, but newer employees, especially those who haven't spent much time in the office before, are going to require an entirely new approach and a lot of hand-holding. I'm not talking about begging or bribing anyone. And it will always be very important to specify exactly what your expectations and requirements are. If someone doesn't fit in or isn't willing to do the job, there's no better time than now to find out and separate before they can infect others with their attitudes or his discomfort.

If you ignore all the fanciful New York Times articles about what Gen Z wants and needs when it comes to fictitious jobs and other incentives to come to work and spend time talking to yours, you'll find that those who are serious and realistic - those worth keeping and investing in - don't really think they're holding the world on a string. Or that they have already understood everything. They really feel like the ground is moving under their feet and things are changing all around them. They are about as far from certain of their lives, aspirations, and futures as anyone with even a modest semblance of information and intelligence could be.

To reach, recruit and retain these people, you need to have a concrete plan and more than just perks, pep talks and lots of empty promises. They may be young, but they're not stupid. You need to understand where their heads are and what is really important to them at this crucial and difficult time in their lives. It turns out that while they're intellectually preoccupied with climate change, clean air, and culture, they're viscerally scared and confused about what the future holds for them personally and why they have so little money. ideas, information, or direction about what is coming down the pipe. It's not really hard to see why this is so.

You can start with their core belief that many of the promises their parents (and employers) made to them will not be kept and, even worse, they will never be able to offer the same assurances to their children. Upward social and economic mobility? Forget. A good college education? Not affordable and not happening. Stepping into dad's shoes in the family business? Not as easy as you think. An assured, healthy and secure eventual retirement? Ask the MAGA spokespersons in Congress what their plans are to kill Social Security and raise drug prices.

Add to the equation the fact that we are dealing with two generations of digital natives raised with their eyes glued to screens and the sad reality that over the past two decades, the honchos of the entertainment industry made the anti-hero their main man. Likewise, their miserable artistic mission is to show the darkest possible underside and demonize every business professional, professional politician, police officer or educator as well as almost every doctor, dentist, chemist or lawyer. Who really wants to call Saul or be Walter White?

Why would kids aspire to be next, except maybe a jock who isn't already paralyzed or a rock star who isn't on drugs? As for tech entrepreneurs, among Uber, Theranos and WeWork and lately the crypto types, there's nothing to be proud of. We taught our children that heroes and high hopes are...