Culture Calibration is Vital for Attracting Young Talent

Companies can attract young talent through a culture calibration that clearly defines the purpose, values and behaviors that are expected, says S. Chris Edmonds.

Video transcript: 

How well are you attracting young talent to your organization today?

Industrial-age norms do not inspire younger workers. Deloitte’s Global 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey found that Gen Zs and Millennials want purpose-driven work. In addition, they are not afraid to turn down work that doesn’t align with their values. For Gen Zs:

• 50% have rejected an assignment or project based on their personal beliefs
• 44% have turned down an employer based on personal ethics or beliefs
• A staggering 86% say having a sense of purpose is important to their overall job satisfaction and well-being

Millennials’ preferences are very in tune with their younger Gen Z coworkers:

• 43% have rejected assignments
• 40% have turned down employers
• And 89% say a sense of purpose is vital to them

If your work culture does not accommodate these requirements and does not equally enable high respect and high results, you will struggle to attract and retain Gen Z and Millennial talent.

How can you be certain that your work culture aligns with these requirements? Through culture calibration. The word “calibration” comes with many uses and applications. For our purposes, we’ll use this Dictionary.com definition: “To standardize (something, such as a measuring instrument) by determining the deviation from a standard to ascertain the proper correction factors.”

With this terminology in mind, work culture calibration requires senior leaders to:

• Standardize their ideal work culture by defining the organization’s servant purpose, values and behaviors and communicating those standards to all staff.
• Determine the deviation from that standard by measuring how well leaders and team members demonstrate their formalized valued behaviors in daily interactions.
• Implement the proper correction factors to align all plans, decisions and actions with your ideal culture and re-direct misaligned behaviors while celebrating aligned behaviors 

And, most leaders have not been asked to proactively measure their ideal culture or to promptly quash disrespectful, unproductive behaviors. So, senior leaders need direction on determining the deviation from their ideal culture.

Our proven culture refinement process uses customized (and completely confidential) values and behaviors assessments. These surveys enable team members to rate how well leaders model your formalized behaviors.

The survey results clearly show where the company’s valued behaviors are embraced and should be celebrated — and where people and processes deviate from the defined culture standards and must be corrected. 

Having trouble hiring and keeping top young talent? Or do you feel your leaders aren’t aligned to your values standards and could benefit from culture calibration? 

Learn more and complete our sample values and behaviors survey.

Written by:  S. Chris Edmonds, a highly regarded speaker, author and executive consultant with The Purposeful Culture Group, for Smart Brief.