It’s a great time to be looking for a job; not so much to be looking to fill one. Employers must replace retiring Baby Boomers, who are leaving the workplace in droves, with Millennial and Gen Z talent that remains scarce as the unemployment rate hovers at historic lows.
Even when companies find good hires, they have difficulty holding onto them. According to Gallup, Millennials change jobs three times more often than previous generations. Eighty-three percent of Gen Z workers, who are just entering the workforce, feel that three years or less is an appropriate tenure at a first job.
There are many reasons why your company should switch to G Suite, but one that is often overlooked is that it acts as a talent magnet for Gen Z and Millennial jobseekers. Here are five ways G Suite attracts top young talent:
1. G Suite is designed for communication & collaboration
Collaboration, communication, and frequent feedback are very important to younger workers. Nearly 90% of millennials would prefer to collaborate than compete with others in the workplace. Despite being digital natives who get uncomfortable if they are separated from their smartphones for too long, Gen Z employees place a high priority on frequent check-ins from their supervisors, even more so than Millennials; 40% want their supervisors to interact with them at least daily.
Most other office productivity solutions were originally developed for single-person use on desktop machines, prior to the age of widespread internet access and mobile devices. Because of this, their collaboration and communication features were added much later. Conversely, G Suite was designed in and for the Digital Age, with every app taking full advantage of the collaborative functions made possible by the internet, cloud computing, and mobile devices from the start. Collaboration and communication tools are a cornerstone of G Suite, not afterthoughts that were shoehorned into products that weren’t originally designed to support them.
2. G Suite is designed for mobility
Millennial and Gen Z professionals are more likely to prioritize work-life balance than older workers, prizing flexible schedules and remote work opportunities even more than healthcare benefits.
All G Suite tools are easily accessed from any browser or mobile device, the latter being a huge selling point for mobile-first Gen Z employees. G Suite also has offline capabilities, so users can access and work on files even when they travel on an airplane, for instance. From real-time chat to team calendars and Google Voice virtual phone numbers, G Suite enables employees to edit, store, share, and touch base with co-workers and supervisors from anywhere, anytime, on any device.
3. Many younger jobseekers are already proficient with G Suite
One of the biggest benefits of switching to G Suite is existing employee familiarity. Most, if not all, employees already use Google products, especially Gmail, so learning how to use other G Suite apps comes easily to them. This is especially the case for Millennial and Gen Z workers. It turns out that the most popular “chat app” among Gen Z teens is Google Docs. When these students reach college, they stop using Docs to pass notes to their friends and start using it to write term papers and theses; about 90 million students and teachers worldwide use G Suite for Education.
The State of Arizona saw this unfold firsthand when they migrated to G Suite. “We found that most people already use Gmail and other G Suite apps in their personal lives,” reported Heather Sheston, Google Statewide Program Manager, State of Arizona. “Especially with younger people coming in, they say, ‘Oh, cool, you’re a G Suite shop.’ They can get started working right away.”
In addition to reducing training time and expense, the comfort level that many jobseekers have with G Suite makes it more likely that Gen Z applicants will apply for open positions. About ¼ of this generation is concerned about being “good enough” at their first job.
4. G Suite makes it easier to connect with younger jobseekers
Millennials and Gen Z are both part of “Generation Mute.” Both love their smartphones, but not for making calls; they prefer communicating electronically. Google Hire, a recruitment tool for G Suite, lets your company reach out to young applicants and communicate with them the way they want to be communicated with: through email and chat. It also optimizes your organization’s careers page for Google Search and makes it easy for you to post new job listings to employment sites like Indeed, Glassdoor, and specialty recruiting sites, which are the first stops for digital native jobseekers.
5. G Suite makes “boring” industries “cool” and “cool” industries even “cooler”
Throughout the U.S., insurance companies, parts manufacturers, banks, and other “traditional” employers are fretting over how to compete for the best and brightest young talent with Big Tech firms, hot new startups with disruptive products, and other companies that Millennials and Gen Z perceive as being more “exciting” and “glamorous.”
The unconventional recruiting tactics that some of these firms are employing may be attention-grabbing, but any excitement generated from zany recruiting antics is bound to be short-lived. Migrating to G Suite has a permanent impact on company image and addresses the heart of the issue: Younger workers crave the opportunity to innovate, create, grow, and make meaningful contributions to organizational goals.
Along with enabling young employees to do all of these things, G Suite has an innate “cool factor” because it’s part of one of America’s favorite brands among working-age professionals. Gen Zers (along with mid-career Gen Xers) name Google as their most loved brand, and Millennials rank it second, behind only Netflix.
When the over two-centuries-old Colgate-Palmolive Company decided to migrate 28,000 employees to G Suite, they were striving for ease of use, innovation, and, in the words of Mitch Cohen, Senior Manager of Collaboration Services, “a solution that people would be excited about using.” All of their expectations were met, and more. In just one month, Colgate-Palmolive employees logged 57,000 hours of Google Hangouts Meet sessions, and 94% of users were actively collaborating on Google Drive. “One of the great benefits about moving to G Suite in the Google Cloud is the pace of innovation,” said Colgate-Palmolive CIO Mike Crowe.
Employees weren’t just excited about the switch; they were thrilled. “When we announced the switch to Google to our entire employee base, I was quite taken aback by the responses I got from some of those employees,” Crowe noted. “Messages like, ‘You’re my new best friend at Colgate.’ I even had one person tell me that it brought tears to their eyes.”
